Study on Consumers Transition and Value Co-Creation Models in the Time of Internet

Working together to create value consists of two parts, the first part is the “value creation”, which adds value through the production process over product and service, and realizes the exchange relations through the form of price. The second part means “co-production”: the consumers in the network of value cooperate with the businesses or the other consumers to design or produce the products and services. Through the literature study, the writer found that value co-creation including the production sector (such as value co-creation demonstrated by the supply chain and the value chain theory) and the consumer sector (consumer participation in value co-creation). Value co-creation in the consumer sector is worth to focus on today, since when consumers spending the product or service, the customer value can appear. Under the background of the Internet economy, the traditional business-consumer relations have changed, and consumers become active participants and value co-creators from passive recipients of the exchange relationships. Through literature research and case observation, this paper presents that the needs of individual motivation are the key driver to clarify the co-creating value mechanism about the targets of consumer behavior and degrees of participation. For now, there are three types in the consumer sector of the value co-creation: consumers without participation, consumer participation in the design and production of the offerings, and value co-creation among consumers. The condition of consumers without participation is as same as what is off the line. Consumer participation in the design and production process can upgrade the traditional industries, and have a competitive advantage. Value co-creation among consumers can lead to innovative business models and new services, which mostly deserves the future discussion under the context of Internet. With the varying participating degrees of consumer behavior, businesses and consumers convert their relations from exchange relationships with respectively clear boundaries to intercourse relationships with respectively fuzzy boundaries.