Co-create innovative business model: A case study of social enterprise in Taiwan

Co-creation model becomes the increasing crucial and innovative source of competitive advantage for the firms discussed in recent researches. Most literatures focused on co-creation between firms and customers. Nevertheless, multi-stakeholders play more influences on the business activities, social enterprises show good examples themselves for social innovation to co-create with stakeholders providing services and solving social problems through innovative business ways. Thus, this paper analyzes one social enterprise "iHealth Express Group" (hereafter "iHealth") which developed a mobile medical care online to offline infrastructure and extended the service to long term care in Taiwan to express how it co-create new business with multi-stakeholders by qualitative study. iHealth built several innovative platforms and identified itself as decentralized service platforms, it also won the third Prizes of "DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia" in Singapore in 2015. The findings illuminate several co-creation features of iHealth and proposed six propositions for new business service co-creation of social enterprises. This paper argued social mission and positiveness of innovation playing imperative role in co-creation activities, furthermore, we build a framework relating the effects social enterprises co-creation for discussing the implications of academics and managing the relationship with stakeholders.