Date of Award
Spring 2017
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Advisor(s)
Robert Chiang
Abstract
Creativity is defined as making something new and useful (Somech & Drach-Zahavy, 2013). We are able to develop new products by building upon and improving existing ideas. New product development (NPD) is a cognitive task and requires generating ideas. In a collaborative environment, the outcome of NPD exceeds the sum of individual participant’s capabilities and expertise (Jassawalla & Sashittal, 1998). A newly coined term ‘co-creation’ with the very old concept of sharing creativity to accomplish a task, is starting to become widely used (Sanders & Stappers, 2008). Firms have started to not only ask their users for insights, but they also integrate them in the early and later stages of the design phases. Through the co-creation process, consumers and users have become designers (Chathoth et al., 2012). Results of co-creation in a for-profit environment include an increase in customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, innovation, lowering of service expenditures (costs, knowledge) as well as an increase in competitive advantage (Chathoth et al., 2012; Barrutia & Echebarria, 2012[1]). Most co-creation studies focus on the for-profit environments where firms interact with consumers. However, co-creation in the non-profit sector has shown great promise with notable co-created projects including the $2 birth[-]kit provider that has been sold over 500,000 times and, in the process, saved countless lives. Other projects include an information communication technology that delivers mobile information on pregnancy and birth delivery; it won the 100,000$ UNICEF Innovation Fund. This study identifies co-creation variables that contribute most to innovativeness. Furthermore, it creates a model that predicts the continuity of projects co-created with and for low-income communities in the developing world. The commonly accepted dimensions for project success are 1. Project efficiency, 2. Organizational benefits, 3. Project impact, 4. Stakeholder satisfaction, and 5. Future potential (Khan et al, 2013). I propose that in the co-creation context there exists another influential dimension: community involvement. Community refers to users with similar problems and opportunities.
Recommended Citation
Barth, Lukas, "Predicting Low-Cost Innovation Project Continuity" (2017). Gabelli School of Business Honors Thesis Collection. 134.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/gabelli_thesis/134
