Rethinking Co-Creation: New Conceptual tools for Event Studies

Abstract

The concept of value co-creation occupies an important space in the landscape of event studies. It captures the changing dynamics in event-making, with customers and attendees increasingly seen as vital collaborators and co-producers of value. However, events phenomena are qualitatively different in comparison to the goods and services in other industries, and therefore, it is necessary to develop tailored conceptual tools to fully appreciate the co-creational limits and possibilities. By proposing a spectrum from weak to strong co-creation, it is shown that cocreation is best conceived on a continuum, and that, in its strongest form, it can lead to partnerships that no longer resemble the conventional models and vocabularies commonly used in the field. The conceptual contributions of this paper lie in capturing the various gradations of co-creation and opening up new research avenues.