User co-created product’s value: The case of Mujirushi Ryōhin brand community

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand if user can be a valuable source of innovation in the firm’s product development process by participating in the online brand community taking as example the case of the Japanese retail company Mujirushi Ryōhin. The research is divided in six chapters. The first chapter, gives an explanation of the research question and the research structure. The second one, by using research made until now, focuses on the concept of “user innovation”, and gives an analysis of the relationship between maker and user, explains the role of the lead user – individual, organization or company that create the most of the product by using their experience and knowledge – and its role in the product development process. Moreover the online brand community and the value co-creation is analysed. The third chapter gives, a brief history of Mujirushi Ryōhin. The fourth chapter, gives the hypothesis that user toward online brand community participate in the firm’s product-development process sharing ideas and experience. In this way are created new products that live up to user’s expectations. This is advantageous for both, firm and user, because firm can increase their sales and profits without unneeded costs and resources, and user can have higher satisfaction by using the products they really want. The fifth chapter, it is studied the case of Mujirushi Ryōhin through two researches. The first one is an internet questionnaire to the Muji’s fans, aimed to understand if and how they cooperate with the company to create new products and how they consider the brand community; the second one is a data analysis of four researches made by Mujirushi Ryōhin. The sixth chapter, Conclusions, discusses the results from the Muji’s fan online questionnaire and the data analysis that support my above hypothesis. Moreover, limitation and future research are also discussed.