Aligning the co-creation project portfolio with company strategy

Purpose – An important task for all strategy leaders contemplating the use of co-creation is to determine how well the numerous co-creation project-design choices available to them align with their strategic priorities. Design/methodology/approach – In order to implement co-creation, firms need to assess how their projects or initiatives support their strategic commitments and priorities. To this end, the authors offer managers a practical, easy-to-use assessment framework. Findings – Executives should consider their approach to co-creation in terms of crafting and managing a portfolio of initiatives to be categorized and managed differently according to their strategic significance – high, medium or low. Practical implications – A six-question assessment framework was inductively derived from an extensive literature review (113 articles) focusing on practices associated with co-creation and stakeholder involvement. Though they do not represent an exhaustive list of categories for assessment, they do, however, identify strategically important choices involved in designing co-creation ventures. Originality/value – The six-question assessment framework is applied to the case of the Xerox-P&G co-innovation partnership, which illustrates how such significant co-creation initiatives might be profiled, and their main design choices analyzed.