Research On The Roles And Characteristics Of Lead User' Characteristics From The Perspective Of Value Co-creation

With the accelerating pace of economic globalization and the growing popularity of Internet technology,the role of consumers has undergone tremendous changes.They are no longer just satisfied with accepting of standard products provided by enterprises passively.They expect to get products which are more personalized and better meet their own needs.In order to capture the needs of users more accurately and get competitive advantages different from their competitors,more and more companies began to pay attention to the value of customers,make full use of customer resources,and encourage customers to actively participate in specific processes to create valueThe author at first makes a detailed analysis on the value co-creation behavior of customers and the role of customer value from the perspective of value co-creation.Based on the analysis of customer value chain and product management theory,this paper chooses three core value activities of enterprise-R&D,production and marketing-which most closely related with customers,for further study.For different value activities,there are some differences between the resources customers need to contribute and the characteristics customers need to possess.Accordingly,this paper puts forward the role of customer value,arguing that customers play the roles of co-innovator,co-operator and co-marketer in different value activities.Because of the heterogeneity and the uneven ability of customers,the benefits that customers bring to an enterprise are different;therefore,looking for excellent customers for cooperation is of great significance to the enterprise.As for average users,lead users can be better qualified for these roles and thus make a greater influence in the process of value creation.This paper focuses on the discussion of lead user characteristics,constructs the dimension of the lead user characteristics with the empirical research method,and obtains a complete scale composed of 6 factors and 18 measurement items through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis,which shows that lead users are more innovative,professional,profitable,participatory,interactive and influential.Different value roles have different requirements for the characteristics of the lead users When enterprises,based on different value roles,are matched with users with adaptive features,they can accomplish tasks more efficiently and gain more lasting competitive advantages.Finally,the paper studies the corresponding relationships between the customer value roles and the lead user characteristics.Results show that as co-innovators,lead users are required more innovation and professionalism;as co-operators,lead users are more participatory and profitable;as co-marketers,influence and interactivity are more important traits for lead users.