Investigating intellectual capital role in value co-creation firms' activities. An exploratory analysis

The aim of this study is to investigate the intellectual capital (IC) drivers that may influence Italian consumers’ decision to participate in value co-creation (VCC) activities with firms. Given the exploratory nature of the research, after an in-depth literature review, we conducted an online survey among Italian consumers to see if there is a significant correlation between IC principal sub-dimensions (i.e. Relational Capital, Human Capital and Structural Capital) and the VCC components founded in our analysis. Using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we have analyzed 270 usable questionnaires finding that, in order to decide to co-create value with firms, the IC sub-dimensions play a critical role. This macro-result is coherent with literature that acknowledge to IC a crucial role in order to enhance the relationship and the closeness between firms and consumers. In addition, the findings show that the motivations (i.e., IC drivers/components) that influence Italian consumers decision to participate in value co-creation activities with firms are quite homogeneous and similar both for those who have already participated to these activities as well for those who have never participated to them. The study has several managerial implications as well as limitations. In fact, the survey has been conducted only among Italian consumers and therefore the research should be extended by a geographically standpoint. In addition, the research has analyzed only the demand-side, while it would be certainly useful to know the views of companies on these issues also with qualitative methods (e.g., with in-depth interviews to top-management). This study provides to practitioners important suggestions and warnings about the importance of the development and the enforcement of IC sub-dimensions in order to (co-)create value with external actors and consequently suggests the importance of using a “open” approach towards consumers to create an effective and interactive relationship with them and for the appropriation of the co-created value. The study fills a gap in the literature, since there are not so many references in literature for a deep understanding of the concrete relationship between IC and VCC (and no one with regard to Italian consumers). In addition, this paper offers an example of large-scale investigation that, compared to previous studies, is distinguished by the technique used to answer to our research questions.