Can online co-creation influence lead users’ and opinion leaders’ behaviors?

Abstract

This article aims to study the effects of online co-creation on consumer behavior in terms of customer loyalty and purchase intention. In contrast to the existing literature that focuses on the results of co-creation or on participants’ perceptions of companies using co-creation, we focus on lead userness and opinion leadership of consumers during new product and service development. The empirical study is based on 303 consumers from the fast-moving consumer goods industry. Our findings suggest that online co-creation has significant effects on lead userness, opinion leadership, and consumer behavior. Our findings further indicate that lead userness is a full mediator between online co-creation and opinion leadership. Our study contributes to the research gap about the effect of co-creation on consumer behavior of lead users—the most innovative of consumers—and opinion leaders, who have the capacity to influence other consumers.