Turning ideas into products: subjective well-being in co-creation

New services, like fabrication spaces, 3D printer rentals and virtual marketplaces, have made it easier for empowered consumers to co-create innovative products without almost any involvement of traditional companies. Adopting a consumer-grounded view, this work takes a step forward from the existing service literature by investigating the link between psychological motives and happiness in co-creation. Specifically, the study measures how community affiliation, personal growth and utilitarian motives are predictors of subjective well-being (SWB). The results illustrate that community affiliation and personal growth motives predict high scores of SWB, while utilitarian motives do not. In addition, empowered consumers who cocreate with others are happier than consumers who create alone. This indicates that direct interactions are not only a powerful platform for service co-creation, but are also predictors of SWB. We discuss the implications for traditional companies and for decision makers regarding the benefits offered by digital fabrication services.