Motives and resources for value co-creation in a multi-stakeholder ecosystem: A managerial perspective

Addressing the recent appreciation of value co-creation lying with multiple stakeholders beyond the consumer, this paper explores the motives and resources for value co-creation within a multi-stakeholder ecosystem using a case study research design. The study's context is the Universal Exposition 2015, an ecosystem comprising disparate actors, analyzing their experiences of value co-creation from a managerial perspective. Findings show that key motives to participate in such multi-stakeholder value co-creation are reputation enhancement, experimentation, and relationship building. Through innovative resource integration practices and individual leadership characteristics, a polyphonic process of co-creation emerges that builds upon the diverse and conflicting identities. Moreover, fundamental enablers of multi-stakeholder value co-creation are trust, inclusiveness, and openness. The paper offers managerial implications with specific suggestions for harnessing value co-creation among stakeholders in multi-stakeholder ecosystems through shared purpose definition, gatekeeper identification and infrastructure design.