The online purchase as a context for co-creating experiences. Drivers of and consequences for customer behavior

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the concept of engagement platforms and the theories of co-creation of value to analyze the purchase as a context for customers to co-create their own experiences. Specifically, the paper proposes that including online cues related to Customer to customer (C2C) interactions and coproduction in the engagement platform determines customer co-creation experiences. Moreover, the paper tests for the relationship between the co-creation experience and customer's purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach – An online platform was designed and a purchase situation was simulated, in which the participants were asked to buy a pair of sneakers. To make the experience more realistic, participants could navigate and undertake activities related to the available cues, thus obtaining a direct experience of the possibilities of the platform. Structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings – The results confirm th...

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