Abstract

Value co-creation as a collaborative effort in creating value provides an innovative model of collaboration for organizations. While online communities are considered a valuable source of value co-creation, factors such as the absence of trust and lack of transparency may lead to the emergence of value co-destruction. Social enterprises (SEs) are growing business models in social entrepreneurship, and widely use information and communication technologies like online communities to spread the word about their social impact. The main aim of this research in progress paper is to understand the role of online communities in value co-creation and co-destruction in social enterprise context. In particular, this paper will: (1) investigate the factors that influence online value co-creation and co-destruction in the ecosystem of SEs (2) understand the outcomes resulting from value co-creation and co-destruction for SEs, and (3) explore the challenges SEs are facing that can be addressed through online value co-creation. We propose an initial conceptual framework identifying online value co-creation and co-destruction in the ecosystem of SEs and show how they relate to the specific challenges of SEs. This work advances current theoretical knowledge in SEs research and will guide practitioners to build more efficient communities and scale their work.

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