Role and perspective of suppliers in brand co-creation: an exploratory study

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to find supplier's role in brand co-creation. This paper also discusses the perspective of suppliers on the role and benefits of other stakeholders like consumers and the sponsoring organization in brand co-creation and to come up with some concepts and constructs related to these.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach has been used to identify supplier roles. Depth interviews were conducted on 15 selected suppliers from India already participated in brand co-creation. Grounded theory method was used to code and analyze the data and come up with important themes.FindingsThe grounded theory findings showed that suppliers need to have certain features like professionalism, willingness to invest in research and development (R&D) and flexible attitude in order to participate in brand co-creation. In turn, suppliers are benefited from participating in such an event as it improves their performance, growth and offerings. The depth interview findings also showed the reasons for successful and failed brand co-creation and the informant suppliers' view on the roles consumers and organization play in band co-creation and the benefits they receive.Originality/valueThis is one of the first academic studies of identifying supplier's role in brand co-creation looking beyond consumers and organization. There is no qualitative and quantitative study that was conducted to find out supplier's role. The paper conceptualizes important concepts related to supplier's features, roles and benefits in brand co-creation.