Research of Students' Propensity for Co-creation with the Aim of Forming a Co-Creation Platform at the University

Aim of this research was to determine the innovation level and co-creation propensity among students in order to identify the readiness of the internal environment for the co-creation mechanism implementation at the university. The hypotheses of the research were verified by using statistical analysis.

Tasks. Within the framework of the research the following tasks were solved: have analyzed the respondent’s motivational reasons for the participation in co-creation process; feelings and emotions from giving feedback; the most comfortable and acceptable ways of interaction with the producers to the consumer; have identified the internal environment factors that influence on the possibility of establishing a co-creation platform at the university for development of innovative infrastructure.

Methods. The hypotheses are tested by using the field research. The research was conducting in the form of survey to determine the respondent’s level of involvement in the co-creation process, openness and readiness of them to co-create with the producer, and to determinate the student’s innovation level. The 10 questions were consisted in the questionnaire. All questions were closed-end. Some questions implied the answers of respondents in accordance with the Likert scale. The questionnaire included 4 question blocks:

1. Questions about the respondent’s general information;

2. Questions about respondent’s innovation level;

3. Questions about respondent’s motivational reasons for the participation in co-creation process;

4. Questions about the propensity to participate in co-creation process.

The results were analyzed by Gretl and MsExcel software.

Results. As a result of the research was revealed that there are strong internal prerequisites for establishing co-create platform within the universities. It was determined that respondents have a high innovation level, showing interest for novelty at the product market and buying them among the first; also, students actively interact in various thematic university communities where they can share their experience of using products with other; respondents showed themselves as active participants in the co-creation process, showing their initiative not only through the selection of companies that provide more opportunities for the client to improve the product, but also through providing feedback and assistance in developing the company's products.

Conclusions. The results of the research have confirmed the hypothesis of the necessity of establishing a unified platform for co-creation at the universities, which will lead to the development of the innovation infrastructure of the university. This platform can be implemented by a crowdsourcing, crowdfunding platform, as well through a structural unit at the university like a business incubator. This platform at the university will have a positive impact on the innovation infrastructure, and will allow the university to increase its rank.

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