How the Crowdsourcing Enhance the Co-Creation Into the Virtual Communities

Introduction

Nowadays, more and more companies are increasingly following the trend, by actively integrating their customers in their new processes of developing products and services (Romero et al. 2014). Co-creation is the process by which products, services and experiences are jointly developed by companies, their partners and the final consumer; leading to a new space where the created value would be shared (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2003). This form of cooperation has developed thanks to IT-based advances (IT) which promoted the development of social networks, blogs, forums and creative platforms (Peer et al. 2015). Many means that have allowed customers to interconnect with the world and to share, exchange, create and co-create knowledge (Lee et al, 2003). Through these new interconnected tools of socialization, customers can now actively contribute to the development of new products, ideas and concepts (Hoyer et al. 2010; Ogawa and Piller, 2006). Companies have soon realized its potential and seized the opportunity. Upstreaming or downstreaming the value chain, allowing for co-creation by costumers, resulted in customers as lead users (LU), simple users or emerging nature consumers (ENC). As such, customers represent a key to unlock new sources promoting competitive advantages for brands (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). By having access to brands’ platforms, costumers could share their opinions about the product and experience. They could also discuss freely and participate in the evolution of the company’s offer and develop its image and reputation. This is possible through crowdsourcing. This is an online participatory activity that involves two parties: the user and the company / brand .The user will be satisfied by a given type of need, either, social recognition, self-esteem or development of individual skills, meanwhile the crowdsourceur will have the advantage of gaining what the user will bring to the company. Thus, some brands have found the way to keep their customers loyal while reducing the risks associated with creating a new product or service (Romero and Molina, 2011). In this line of thinking, the eYeka platform allows consumers and major brands to collaborate on creative projects and give in return an amount of money to the winning project.

However, the consequences / strategic implications of value co-creation were studied rigorously and prolifically, in terms of the cognitive, emotional and intentional patterns of co-creation. The aim of this paper is to determine the contribution of crowdsourcing in facilitating co-creation in virtual communities. And, in fine, to present the consequences of IT on firm, in terms of: the strength of the relationship, productivity, and efficiency.