The race to implement co-creation of value with stakeholders: five approaches to competitive advantage

Purpose – After leading more than thirty co-creation projects, and observing more than 200 others, the author can offer a view on why co-creation with stakeholders is becoming a cornerstone of the creative economy and suggest how the most popular approaches contribute to helping firms gain a competitive advantage through connections that enable continuous innovation. Design/methodology/approach – To tackle large, complex problems, co-creation, in its most generic form, requires adopting five processes that each represent a potential source of competitive advantage; an approach can utilize each process from very little to a lot. A co-creation strategy will be most powerful when all five processes are used in combination. Findings – Leading theorists are predicting that in the foreseeable future the co-creation model will become a primary source of the firm's competitive advantage. Practical implications – Opening up the traditional value chain to stakeholders could precipitate a race to co-creation, as every firm tries to connect each function and process to the relevant ecosystem and attract the best external players as partners. Originality/value – Leading theorists anticipate that in the foreseeable future the co-creation model will become a primary source of the firm's competitive advantage. The article lays out five approaches.