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Top1. Introduction
Advancement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the significant growth of cell phone users have boosted the growth of e-commerce around the world (Thompson et al., 2019; Saridakis et al., 2017). E-commerce refers to the usage of communication and electronic technologies for the internet-based trading of items (goods and services) (Jahongir and Shin, 2014). E-commerce, in its early years, was primarily confined to the developed nations; however, due to the high rate of internet penetration in recent years, it has pervaded the developing nations as well (Agarwal and Wu, 2018). According to an estimate by Forrester Research, e-commerce will contribute to about 17% of total retail sales by 2022 (Forrester report, 2018). Interestingly, between 2012 and 2017, global e-commerce players, grew their gross sales at a staggering rate of 34% a year (Mckinsey & Company, 2019). Even within the Indian context, it is estimated that e-commerce industry will achieve the mark of US$200 billion by 2026 (ibef report, 2020). These statistics indicate the ongoing ‘growth’ trajectory of the e-commerce industry around the world (Mashhadi and Behdad, 2018).
E-commerce provides an economical and efficient way for producers and retailers to sell their products and reach their target consumers (Chiu and Cho, 2019). On the other side, consumers are also provided with a myriad of options and deals to choose from (Devaraj et al., 2002). Evidently, competition in the e-commerce space has become stronger and huge investments are being made in this space by large players (Chiu and Cho, 2019). In such a scenario, it is important for retailers and manufacturers to harvest positive customer responses, such as repurchase intention, for their respective brands in the e-commerce space.
Accordingly, one effective strategy that may contribute to harvesting positive responses of e-commerce consumers is value co-creation, an interactive process of mutually co-creating value among various actors (Vargo and Lusch, 2016; Gronroos, 2008). In the process of value co-creation, customers are considered to be co-creators of value who proactively give ideas to companies (Saha et al., 2019; Witell et al., 2014; McColl-Kennedy et al., 2012). Hence, customers involved in this process stay loyal to their co-creating partner companies and share with them any inherent risks associated with the process (Saha and Goyal, 2019; Cossio-Silva et al., 2016; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). However, value co-creation is unlikely to enhance consumers’ repurchase intention unless they (consumers) are positively engaged and emotionally committed to the process. This indicates that positively-valanced e-engagement would eventually enhance consumers’ intention to repurchase from an e-commerce company.