To co-create or not to co-create? : the case of sustainable utilitarian and hedonic products

• Autor(a) principal: Ferreira, Inês do Vale
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/38408
• topic: Co-creation; Innovation; Green products; Trust; Quality; Hedonic products; Functional products; Purchasing intention; Co-criação; Inovação; Produtos verdes; Confiança; Qualidade; Produtos hedónicos; Produtos funcionais; Intenção de compra; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The impact of our lifestyle on planet Earth is becoming more notorious due to the exponential increase of pollution in the environment. Several organizations (UN, FAO and WWF) pointed to the need to act more consciously. Despite the great willingness of consumers to change, sustainable products still represent a small percentage in the market. Consumers are sceptical about more sustainable products due to lack of trust in the sustainable arguments in products. Co-creation is an innovation strategy that can re establish consumer trust, due its greater transparency in the new product development process. In this context, two studies tested whether claiming products as sustainable leads to higher purchasing intentions and whether co-created sustainable products are preferred by consumers over sustainable products fully designed by company’s professionals. Study one tests an utilitarian product and study two a hedonic product. Our findings show that consumers demand sustainable products over non sustainable. This is explained by consumers’ green trust and quality. Interestingly, learning that the sustainable product was co-created showed a negative effect in consumers’ purchase intention for utilitarian products while in hedonic consumption co-creation was not significant for purchase intentions. These findings provide new insights for managers and scholars.