Abstract

Purpose - Many global companies across industries are paying significant attention to co-creation activities, which enable consumers to participate in firms' value creation process, as a main model of new product development processes. In this study, we aim to examine different types of co-creation activities and their effects on consumer attitudes. We focus on upstream co-creation, downstream co-creation, autonomous co-creation, and sponsored co-creation. Upstream co-creation includes firms' control and management in the initial stage of new product development and prototype testing. Downstream co-creation indicates that consumers participate in firms-initiative activities at a later stage in new product development, such as public relations and marketing communications. Autonomous co-creation includes consumers' commitment activities in the absence of firms' rewards. However, under the sponsored co-creation, consumers can return monetary and social rewards from firms through their co-creation activities. The hypotheses regarding the effect of co-creation on consumer attitudes are as follows. (H1, H2, H3, H4) Upstream, downward, autonomous, and sponsored co-creation has positive effects on consumer attitude. (H5, H6) As intrinsic motivation increases, the positive effect of upstream and autonomous co-creation increases. (H7, H8) As extrinsic motivation increases, the positive effect of downward and sponsored co-creation increases. Research design, data, and methodology - To achieve our research goals, we analyzed responses from 246 samples from Korean consumers and verified the proposed hypotheses using a linear regression model. The samples include Korean consumers who experienced upstream, downstream, autonomous, and sponsored co-creation by firms. Results - First, both upstream co-creation and downstream co-creation with firms and consumers are found to have positive effects on consumer attitudes. Second, autonomous co-creation and sponsored co-creation are found to positively affect consumer attitudes. Third, consumers' intrinsic motivation has a fit-effect between upstream co-creation and autonomous co-creation, and their extrinsic motivation has a fit-effect between downstream co-creation and sponsored co-creation. Consumers who have strong intrinsic motivation are affected by upstream co-creation and autonomous co-creation. However, consumers who have strong extrinsic motivation are affected by downstream co-creation and sponsored co-creation. Conclusion - These results indicate that the fit between consumers' co-creation participation types and consumers'motivations is a significant factor in determining consumer attitudes. The results of this study imply that various types of consumer participation actually improve consumers' attitudes toward products and brands. In addition, our study also suggests that firms should consider the fit between co-creation types and consumers' motivations when they initiate co-creation activities. In this study, we survey consumers who participated in firms' co-creation activities. Future studies can compare different types of consumers. For instance, we can examine the different in different test by comparing experienced versus inexperienced consumers. Finally, we expand this research to user-generated content topics. This attending issue focuses on the mechanism that breaks down the boundaries and barriers between consumers and producers.