Co-creation with crowdfunding backers for new products and entrepreneurial development: A longitudinal study on design entrepreneurs in Taiwan

Abstract Beyond financial aid, crowdfunding platforms allow entrepreneurs to involve potential customers in co-create activities to work on the project and enable entrepreneurial development. This longitudinal study explores the phenomenon of design entrepreneurship through crowdfunding, particularly, how design entrepreneurs develop new products through crowdfunding while engaging in value co-creation aimed at developing businesses. The study over three years was conducted to obtain holistic data to address the research inquiry. The findings of this study identify the patterns of the new product development (NPD) activities associated with the crowdfunding process and the open search strategy for seeking external knowledge. Co-creation with backers for new products and entrepreneurial development involves four components: (i) co-creation form, (ii) engagement platform, (iii) approach, and (iv) major actor. A framework was proposed to help crowdfunding entrepreneurs understand the interplay between customers and firms in terms of how co-creation arises and develops.