Co-Creation: Toward a Taxonomy and an Integrated Research Perspective

Enabled by the Internet-Web compound, co-creation of value by consumers has emerged as a major force in the marketplace. In sponsored co-creation, which takes place at the behest of producers, the activities of consumers drive or support the producers' business models. Autonomous co-creation is a wide range of consumer activities that amount to consumer-side production of value. Thus, individuals and communities have become a significant, and growing, productive force in e-commerce. To recognize co-creation, so broadly understood, as a fundamental area of e-commerce research, it is necessary to attain an integrated research perspective on this greatly varied, yet cohering, domain. The enabling information technology needs to be developed to suit the context. Toward these ends, the paper analyzes the intellectual space underlying co-creation research and proposes an inclusive taxonomy of Web-based co-creation, informed both by the extant multidisciplinary research and by results obtained in the natural laboratory of the Web. The essential directions of co-creation research are outlined, and some promising avenues of future work discussed. The taxonomic framework and the research perspective lay a foundation for the future development of co-creation theory and practice. The certainty of turbulent developments in e-commerce means that the taxonomic framework will require ongoing revision and expansion, as will any future framework.