EXPLORANDO A COCRIAÇÃO DE VALOR: Um estudo sobre o relacionamento entre uma empresa de Tecnologia da Informação e seus clientes

Abstract

A significant presence in marketing research since the 2000s, Value Co-creation has been considered, both in the context of product development and service development, as a major competitive differential for organizations. By forming partners for co-creation, supplier companies start to work together with their customers, removing them from a user posture and raising them to the level of active partners, who participate in the process of developing products or services. This research analyzed the relationship between a client management software provider company and the companies that consume its products, identifying the motivations of the value co-creation process among them, as well as the impacts caused by co-creation on its competitive differential and its potential of innovation. Through a qualitative approach, using an explanatory case study involving the supplier company and five client companies, it was possible to investigate the phenomenon in its essence and explore its characteristics in depth. Data for analysis were collected through semi-structured interviews, the analysis and interpretation of the results were performed through content analysis. The results pointed out that some of the main factors driving the formation of partnerships for cocreation are participation and mutual contribution, longevity and quality of relationships, social and financial impacts, and the quality of products and services provided by the supplier. In addition, customer insight into aspects such as transparency in actions, supplier knowledge, intelligence and credibility contribute to their interest in forming new partnerships with the supplier. Other impacts caused by the co-creation among the companies involved in the study were the increase of the competitive differential and the innovation potential. This research stands out for being one of the only approaches to co-creation between companies, and its results bring contributions to both theory and practice. From a theoretical perspective, the results aggregate information about value co-creation between companies, a theme that is little explored within management and marketing research. Regarding the practice, the results indicate the main factors perceived by clients and the impacts caused by co-creation on their financial, social and operational results. These results serve as input for building suppliercustomer relationship strategies and enable Information Technology (IT) vendor companies to revisit their product and service development practices to be closer to their customers. These actions can be guided by the factors most relevant to customers when choosing a supplier. This proximity, in turn, can be intensified through face-to-face visits, creating platforms for sharing ideas and encouraging interaction between customers themselves. This allows the supplier to produce solutions that are more in line with market needs, while customers have access to higher technology solutions that meet all the specifics of their business.