Co-Constructing Institutions One Brick at a Time: Appropriation and Deliberation on LEGO Ideas

The LEGO Group offers thousands of model kits for sale globally, and one source of ideas for new kits is LEGO consumers. Firms that want to use consumer ideas can actively partner with consumers, they can borrow ideas from them, or they can even steal ideas from them. Consumer research has recently begun exploring how firms can effectively partner with consumers to develop products and brand experiences, a phenomenon frequently labeled as “cocreation.” In this chapter, we use the LEGO brand as a context to explore the rules and tensions of cocreation.