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Introduction
The organic-products industry is still relatively new in the global marketplace, with only 1.2 percent of total agricultural land devoted to organic products and $12.1 US consumption of organic products per capita in 2016 (Willer et al., 2018). The consumption of organic products, such as organic vegetables, is still limited to the upper class and price-insensitive segment (Slamet et al., 2016). The products are struggling against premium prices (Lim et al., 2014), taste (Denver and Christensen, 2014) and availability in the market (Ellison et al., 2016).
On the other hand, these figures raise the optimistic view that there is a significant market opportunity for this industry in the future. The market for organic products has been growing more than 30 percent annually from 2000 to 2016 (Willer et al., 2018). Consumers perceive that organic foods have positive impacts on health and environment (Ellison et al., 2016) and the decision to buy organic food is driven by positive views of the product as well as associated norms and emotions (Aertsens et al., 2009). Therefore, the organic market can be developed by building the capacity of all actors in the ecosystem. Arnould and Thompson (2007) explain that the community plays an important role in forming positive perceptions through a market-mediated network. Interaction within the community drives the exchange of service (knowledge and skills) for resource integration as a value co-creation platform to perform innovation in a nested ecosystem (Vargo and Lusch, 2016, 2017).
Considering the challenges of the organic-product industry, co-creation through the community becomes powerful and relevant in building the industry in organic products. The community enables this industry that mostly consists of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with very limited capability to get collective resources from value co-creation among its members. Furthermore, value co-creation can drive innovation capability to maintain business sustainability. This research will explore, analyze and propose the research model as an alternative business development strategy in the organic-products industry.
Consumer culture theory (CCT) has made a significant contribution to marketing and other fields, but this concept focuses mostly on consumers. However, there are other actors in market networks as well as the community. Arnould and Thompson (2015) stated that to further elaborate on the...