Value co-creation in a digital ecosystem: Exploring autonomous co-creation in a digital influencer ecosystem

Value co-creation underpins the symbiotic relationships of digital ecosystems. Many IS studies have focused on sponsored co-creation facilitated by a focal firm. There is a limited understanding of how co-creation can happen in an ecosystem without a focal firm. Building on an in-depth case study, we elaborate on the theoretical notion of autonomous digital co-creation. We propose two contributions: (1) In comparison to the centralized, collaborative, and facilitated nature of sponsored co-creation, our findings reveal the nature of autonomous digital co-creation characterized as distributed, cooperative, and emergent; (2) through an ecosystem-based analysis, this study extends the predominantly dyadic focus of existing value co-creation literature.