ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I explore the role of value co-creation in the contemporary economy, with an emphasis on its processes and relevance for web environments. Value co-creation posits that a product constitutes no more than a resource for consumers “to work with” and create further value beyond that allowed by the firm, as goods offered on the market are mere “value propositions” that the consumer adapts to fulfill relevant needs (Vargo and Lusch 2004). Thus, the consumer is an “operant resource,” to use Vargo and Lusch’s term – a necessary part of the machinations of production of value in the market. The firm’s primary role in this process is to provide a platform for the consumer to create mutually beneficial value for the firm and the consumer. The value resulting from this joint effort exceeds that which is derived from each party’s independent output. Consumers appear to participate willingly in this process whereby they expend their own resources to convert the platform into usable formats. The usable versions of the product are under the direct influence of the consumer. The consumer is thus deemed to have assumed a controlling role in contemporary production processes, suggesting a stronger relevance of the marketing mantra “consumer-is-king” that has guided business practice for decades (Sheth et al. 2000). Some have observed that the active recruitment of consumer inputs into production – which
was heretofore the unique province of the firm – indicates consumer freedom from the grips of Fordist capitalism that offered rigid products that consumers accepted as is (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2000; Tapscott and Williams 2006; Vargo and Lusch 2004). Others, however, have observed that co-creation and its principles support collaborative production only to the extent that it defines a specific enclosure for containing the unmanageable postmodern consumer toward firm profitability (Andrejevic 2008; Arvidsson 2007, 2008; Bonsu and Darmody 2008). This supposed consumer freedom attributable to the market and technology advances is not without question (Terranova 2000). I contribute to this debate by exploring the ideological implications of value co-creation for contemporary marketing participants, focusing on the concept and processes of value co-creation as they relate to virtual environments. Virtual
environments as used here include all web applications that support networked interactions among users, e.g., Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Second Life and World of Warcraft. I begin the discussion with a brief overview of exploitation and its form in the contemporary economy.
