Co's in innovating: co-creation within a practice based view

Purpose Despite many studies about co-creation in innovation, a comprehensive understanding of all the elements that shape the process of co-creating innovation is still lacking. We aim to begin filling this gap. This paper is designed to frame innovation as a process of co-creation according to a practice-based view. Methodology/approach First, we draw from the work of Frow Payne and Storbacka (2010) and Frow, Brodie, Little, Payne (2010) and conceptualise co-creation as a series of “co.” Second, we adopt a practice-based perspective and conceptualise innovation as a collection of practices. We outline two research propositions which guide the empirical research carried out on ten companies. We focus our analysis on the encounter process as it involves practices of interaction. Moreover, we analysed a specific encounter contest, “the web sites”. Findings Companies developed specific web sites to foster innovation by a network of actors. This practice is a new way to innovate and extends through the Internet. We present the findings according to two dimensions:1 ) the “co‟s” for innovation and 2) the elements of practices. The “co‟s” for innovation can be seen as different phases of innovation processes in which actors interact, collaborate and integrate resources. We identified the following “co‟s”: co-generation of ideas, co-evaluation of ideas, co-design and co-launch. Within each “co,” we identified practices and elements of practices, namely actors, actions, tools, and images. Practical Implications This work addressed the need to frame innovation in terms of a group of interactions within a constellation of practices. From this perspective, co-creation in innovation shifts its focus from customer collaboration to the creation of new value proposals by several actors with the focal firm‟s engagement in the creation of practices supporting other actors‟ value-creating processes. Originality/value In finding a fresh conceptualization of innovation, the authors move from the outcome to the process, that is, from innovation (as a new artefact) to innovating (as a set of co-creation practices). This works can stimulate the debate about innovation and co-creation.