This chapter is dedicated to some general conclusions, the managerial and academic implications, the limitations and suggestions for future research.
5.1 General Conclusions
The traditional system of company-centric value creation (that has served us so well over the past 100 years) is becoming outdated. Leaders now need a new frame of reference for value creation. In the growing economy, competition will center on personalized co-creation experiences, resulting in value that is truly unique to each individual.
Nowadays, where the internet has become a worthy tool of communication and where consumers are more active than before, the business is stimulated to predicate upon a new business strategy, the online mass customization. Mass customization and more definitely online product co-design is a recently adopted marketing strategy that has not been thoroughly inspected. After reviewing an extensive part of the literature about online product co-design, the research model described in chapter 3 was formulated. Translating the effect of co-creation in an online environment for the business, in order to obtain a better understanding from a customer’s perspective, the current study’s main focus was on examining how specific website and toolkit attributes affect the online designing process and WTP. Also the influence of process and product satisfaction on WTP was tested as well. There were some research questions formulated in the beginning, which can be answered in this chapter. The first question that rose was what impact will have the website attributes and toolkit attributes on customer’s satisfaction with the process.
In summary, the results showed that the toolkit attributes are significantly influences the online process satisfaction. Nevertheless, when assessed separately, the website attributes has also a positive influence on the online process satisfaction. The findings indicated that the relationship among website attributes and satisfaction was not completely as expected. This might also accountable due the fact of the mediation effect of toolkit attributes. However, as mentioned previously this does not mean that website navigability and design aspect in general is totally irrelevant. These results simply show that current research could not find statistical evidence in order to claim that the website navigability and design has a significant influence on Process Satisfaction. Consequently on the consumer’s perspective, when co-creating, the attributes of the website like navigability and design disappears when consumers are in the solution space that the toolkit offers to make your own product. While the utilitarian aspect of online environments is of great importance, the hedonic pleasures are of equal relevance in order to motivate consumers’ participation and in the end the satisfaction. In this study, it cannot be confirmed that hedonic aspect is stronger than the utilitarian aspect. Hence, the analysis shows that the both hedonic as well as utilitarian value of the attributes is important for consumers’ process satisfaction. In essence, during the process of co-creating, consumers spent more time with the toolkit and therefore their solution space then being surfing on the given website.
Furthermore, the results showed that the toolkit attributes most influences the Process Satisfaction, while only Toolkit Enjoyment is significantly influences the WTP. Also it was statistically proven in the present study that the respondents’ satisfaction with the online co-creation process significantly influences their satisfaction with the design and has a mediation effect on the WTP. On the other hand, the mediation effect that was expected from the Transaction Capability was not statistically approved. Consequently, it can be concluded that consumers who are satisfied with the online co-creation process will most likely be satisfied with the product they designed online and therefore pay a higher price.
Hence, by mass customization, the online experience is a critical factor for completing the process and the ability of a merchant is reflected in its ability to handle sales transactions and the expertise to generally conduct business online. When consumers experience superior states of satisfaction, they perceive a high outcome of a trade and therefore are willing to pay more than less satisfied consumers, because this results in an reasonable relation of outcome to input. Although the superior satisfaction, this do not necessary mean that consumers are actually buy the product. When co-creating online, it was supposed that the chosen website attributes will be a deciding factor for the online process and therefore a critical aspect for the WTP. Hence the website is the platform for customer engagement in product co-creation, whereby the chosen attributes are the most important ones to have influence on the WTP.
5.2 Managerial implications
This research has also been conducted with the aim of obtaining insights into the capabilities a firm needs to realize co-creation and the associated managerial implications. The traditional view of the firm as an autonomous creator and extractor of value is increasingly redundant. Consumers want to be involved, connected, empowered and active. The effectiveness of co-creation depends on how much value is created for both consumers and producers. Companies will have to select opportunities with the highest potential payoff, as well as the structure relationships to manage risks while reducing effort required to fully realizing this connection with customers.
In essence, when it comes to implementing customer-oriented strategies, it is crucial to understand of what consumer’s value and is satisfied with. Therefore an understanding of the most essential capabilities a firm must deploy in order to co-create successfully and the ways in which managers can shape these conditions specific to their companies would answer a large number of questions co-creation raises for managers.
When it comes to the consumers’ satisfaction with online co-creation, note that in this study a distinction is being made between the website attributes and the toolkit attributes. The first results that were found showed that consumers’ satisfaction with the online co-creation process in particular, is for the most part being influenced by the toolkit attributes. To be more specific, the enjoyment, control and complexity are found to have an effect on the process satisfaction of online co-creation. Although, when examine the attributes separately, the attributes who is contributing to the perceived hedonic value are stronger that de attributes who are contributing to the utilitarian value. Therefore, companies whose goals are to specifically increase the consumers’ satisfaction with the online co-creation process will have to focus for the most part on attributes of hedonic value. The result of the study concerning the enjoyment that people perceive during the co-design experience is interesting and valuable for the managerial word. It seems that the more fun users have during the customization process, the more satisfied they are with the process as well as the product and the more positive they are to pay. An example of a possible strategy would be to add music during the co-design process. It seems that the more fun users have during the customization process, the more satisfied they are with the process as well as the product and the more positive they are willing to pay. Therefore, marketers’ endeavor can be to increase perceived enjoyment. Users would be able to choose songs from a predefined playlist to accompany them and inspire them to create their own unique product. Enjoyment could also be increased if customers could participate in a community. To be more specific, satisfaction with the design depends on consumers’ perceptions and views on whether engaging in the process of online co-creation can be done in a convenient and efficient manner and ultimately whether co-creating your own product is worth the time and therefore worthwhile. Hence, companies that want to increase consumers’ satisfaction with the ultimate design, will have to focus on communicating to the consumers the more functional benefits of engaging in such a process, such as co-creating a product tailored to their specific desires and needs and that engaging in the process can be done in a convenient and efficient manner.
Finally, the results also showed that the respondents’ satisfaction with the co-creation process contributes in a great manner to their satisfaction with the design. Therefore, in order to enhance the WTP, companies will have to focus their attention on attributes that tend the consumers to actually buy the co-created product. In other words, these results imply that if consumers are satisfied with the co-creation process and they perceived the process as being entertaining and enjoyable, this will ultimately also influence their satisfaction with the customized product and their willingness to pay a premium price. Thus, in fact is the product that is chosen to involve customers in the co-creation process and the toolkit provided to use is very important. On the other side, the website where this opportunity to create your own product is provided needs to be more contributing to the hedonic value. When it comes to the WTP for the product that is created, utilitarian aspect of the website attributes remaining more in the background. From a managerial perspective, the study of the relationship between hedonic value and co-creation is important. Enjoyment and WTP have been shown to possess similar desirable outcomes for businesses (e.g., satisfaction and commitment). Marketing managers usually tailor their efforts in order to influence such outcomes. Understanding the relationship and boundaries between the two variables may guide managers to make better decisions in the marketing mix and the interaction opportunities that they provide to their customers. In addition, the result of this study concerning the enjoyment that people perceive during the co-design experience is interesting and valuable for the managerial word.
Dostları ilə paylaş: |
