Title: Value co-creation in emerging economies: planting and harvesting innovation perspectives

Authors: Seung Hoon Jang; Christian Grandzol

Addresses: College of Business, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, SH337, East Second Street, Bloomsburg, PA, USA ' College of Business, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, SH337, East Second Street, Bloomsburg, PA, USA

Abstract: This paper examines how firms in emerging economies implement value co-creation from the perspectives of harvesting innovation and planting innovation. Due to these firms' relative financial and managerial disadvantages, they must focus on the balance between innovation efforts and cash flows to ensure survival and growth. Employing the harvesting and planting categorisations enables examination of value co-creation practices for both the short and long term. Harvesting innovation seeks commercial products using recent discoveries (i.e., reaping the bounty of previous efforts); planting innovation pursues technological leap with the objective to produce the sources of future products (i.e., sowing the seeds of tomorrow's innovations). A theoretical framework of value co-creation for the two types of innovation for firms in emerging economies is proposed with a focus on the reasons and mechanisms for these firms to actively co-create value with various participants, including end consumers, customers, and government.

Keywords: value co-creation; planting innovation; harvesting innovation; virtual space; emerging economies; cash flow.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCI.2015.074217

International Journal of Services Sciences, 2015 Vol.5 No.3/4, pp.171 - 181

Received: 29 Apr 2014
Accepted: 03 Aug 2014

Published online: 19 Jan 2016 *

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