In the last decade, customers’ active involvement during product development, commonly referred to as co-creation, has emerged as an effective tool to overcome barriers that keep firms from understanding customer needs. Still in its infancy, many co-creation aspects are under-researched; this may present difficulties in aligning firm goals with their co-creators, often leading to project failure. To make the co-creation process more systematic, a framework is presented in this paper that will allow firms to analyse product attributes before engaging in co-creation, concerning firm capabilities and interests and the capabilities and interests of their co-creators. The results of this analysis will help firms to align their goals with the goals of co-creators. Two exploratory case studies were conducted for illustration.

Keywords: product innovation, innovation management, product development, co-creation, open innovation

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