فرصت طلبی در تولید مشارکتی: مفاهیمی برای ایجاد مشترک ارزش

This paper examines opportunistic consumer behavior in the context of co-production. Specifically, we identify different types of opportunistic behaviors consumers engage in co-production, interrogate the conditions under which such behaviors may manifest themselves, and examine how they may affect co-creation of value. Theoretically, this paper contributes to the dialog on value co-creation in the context of service-dominant (S-D) logic, extends our understanding of the link between the concepts of co-production and co-creation, and provides a novel perspective on firm–consumer interactions by drawing a parallel to interfirm relationships. From a managerial perspective, our framework suggests relationship management strategies to foster cooperative relations with consumers and guard against opportunistic consumer behavior.

Value creation is central to marketing. The traditional formulation of the value creation process rests on two fundamental premises: (1) value is created by the firm; and (2) value is embedded in the products and services of the firm (Lusch and Vargo, 2006b and Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004b). These premises, however, have been challenged with the emergence of service-dominant (S-D) logic, a new dominant logic for marketing thought, that marks a shift away from the traditional formulation of value creation towards one of value co-creation (Vargo and Lusch, 2004a). Value co-creation encompasses two nested concepts, namely co-production and co-creation (Vargo and Lusch, 2006a and Vargo and Lusch, 2008a). Co-production refers to “participation in the creation of the core offering itself,” while co-creation of value represents a higher order concept and captures the idea that “value can only be created with and determined by the user in the consumption process or through use” (p. 284). Value co-creation occurs with or without co-production. Yet, both of these concepts illustrate that the consumer is endogenous to the value creation process (Vargo and Lusch, 2008b). Hence, the notion of value co-creation erodes the distinction and separation between the roles of the producer and the consumer. It implies that the consumer determines value and that the firm can only make value propositions to potential customers (Lusch and Vargo, 2006b, Vargo and Lusch, 2004a, Vargo and Lusch, 2006a and Vargo and Lusch, 2006b). Since its introduction, S-D logic perspective has elicited considerable interest and discussion, and has been further refined and developed (Lusch and Vargo, 2006a, Vargo and Lusch, 2008a and Vargo and Lusch, 2008b). Our intention in this article is to continue the evolution of this framework and to contribute to the dialog on value co-creation by expanding on two foundational premises of the S-D logic: FP6 (i.e., the customer is always a co-creator) and FP8 (i.e., A service-centered view is inherently customer oriented and relational). Together these premises suggest that value creation is relational, and that the firm and the consumer have an interdependent relationship, working towards a common mission in the collaborative process of value creation ( Vargo, 2007 and Vargo and Lusch, 2008b). In this paper, we argue that this interdependency between the firm and consumer makes value co-creation also susceptible to opportunistic behaviors on part of the consumers. Specifically, we draw on the distinction between the concepts of co-production and co-creation of value that comprise the value co-creation construct and examine the impact of consumers’ opportunistic behaviors in co-production on co-creation of value. Although opportunistic behaviors have been identified as situational factors that may impact the quality of firm–consumer interactions in co-production (e.g., Etgar, 2008), the focus has largely been on firms’ opportunistic orientations. Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004a, p. 11) allude to the idea that consumers may also engage in opportunistic type of behaviors by suggesting, “the firm and the consumer are both collaborators and competitors – collaborators in co-creating value and competitors for the extraction of economic value.” However, to our knowledge, no research in marketing has examined consumer opportunism in co-production. We conceptualize opportunism in co-production as acts that defy the conventionally accepted behavior in the process of co-production and breach the set of mutual expectations between the firm and the consumer. Even though both parties may potentially bring to bear opportunistic orientations to co-production activities, we limit our focus to consumers’ opportunistic behaviors. In light of the relational and collaborative orientation of the S-D logic, consumers’ opportunistic behaviors have implications for value realized from co-production as determined by beneficiaries in value networks. For example, a direct consequence of opportunism may be a negative impact on the value derived by the firm (e.g., lower revenues, fewer future co-production opportunities). Moreover, given that value–creating relationships are part of a broader context, embedded in larger networks (Gummesson, 2006), opportunism in co-production may negatively affect the experience of the network participants (e.g., brand community members) as well. We begin with an overview of research on consumer opportunism. Then we review literatures in services marketing and Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) to provide a basis for understanding the link between co-production and co-creation. Services scholarship2 has played an important role in stimulating the proposal of the S-D logic for marketing (Lusch and Vargo, 2006a) and research in this area provides grounding specifically for the concept of co-production (Bendapudi and Leone, 2003). Research in the CCT tradition, on the other hand, has also pioneered some of the ideas expressed through S-D logic, especially in relation to how value is uniquely and contextually determined (Arnould, 2006 and Vargo and Lusch, 2008a). Subsequently, we introduce our conceptual framework and develop our arguments on the notion of consumer opportunism by drawing a parallel to interfirm relationships and utilizing knowledge gained from relationship governance literature. Next, we identify different types of opportunistic behaviors consumers engage in co-production, interrogate the conditions under which such behaviors may manifest themselves, and examine the ways in which they may affect co-creation of value. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and managerial implications of opportunistic behaviors in co-production and by suggesting directions for further research.

While the conceptual framework developed in this paper sheds light on some of the problems that characterize the firm–consumer interaction in the value creation process, it is not without limitations. For example, a key assumption that contributes to the arguments presented herein is the idea that consumers act in their own self-interest. However, the behavior of some consumers in co-production activities is guided by altruistic intentions as exemplified by the recent open source movement (OS). The OS movement can be conceptualized as an extreme case of co-production through which thousands of people collaborate to develop and distribute offerings. The computer software Linux and the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia are only some examples of the wide range of OS applications. The intellectual contributions of consumers to OS offerings are nonproprietary in nature. Moreover, they offer their skills and input without receiving any payment (Pitt et al., 2006). Hence, the ways in which alternative orientations of consumers may contribute to value co-creation emerges as an interesting area for future research. Future research is also needed to empirically assess the degree to which consumer opportunism exists in co-production activities and the ways in which it may be managed. Further research that considers the different types of contracts that may be used to define the terms of co-production would also help to develop our focus on governance of firm–consumer relationship in value co-creation. Lusch and Brown (1996) explain that contract format and exchange format are related although not identical constructs. Thus, relational exchanges that constitute the focus of our article are not necessarily governed by relational (i.e., normative) contracts. Indeed, several instances of consumer opportunism in co-production have caught the attention of lawyers, calling for a need to understand the different types of contracts that may be devised to govern firm–consumer collaborations (Marek, 2007). The goal of this article was to continue the evolution of the S-D logic by expanding upon its foundational premises regarding the collaborative and relational nature of value creation. Towards this end, we focused on susceptibility of co-production to consumers’ opportunistic behaviors and examined how they may affect value co-creation. From a theoretical standpoint, this paper provides a novel perspective on firm–consumer interaction by drawing a parallel to interfirm relationships, articulating how and why opportunistic behaviors may occur in co-production, and by assessing the implications of such behaviors for co-creation of value. In doing so, this paper also illustrates one of the ways in which co-production and co-creation of value are linked. From a managerial perspective, our framework suggests relationship management strategies to foster cooperative relations with co-producers and to guard against opportunistic co-producers behavior.