Generalized Bass Diffusion Model (GBDM) for Co-creation Networks - A Teaching Material Sharing Network Application

Co-creation is an active, creative and social process to generate value for customers based on collaboration between suppliers and consumers. Teaching material sharing networks (TMSNs) are a class of co-creation networks. There is a positive feedback loop between individual teachers' creation of teaching materials (TMs) and richness of TM content shared, and TMSN members thus co-create TMs. In this paper, we focus on modeling co-creation in a TMSN and analyzing its effect on individual behaviors and network evolution. Our novel approach consists of three parts: (i) investigation of how TM creation increases with respect to the richness of content shared, where the new creation rate is marginally decreasing, (ii) generalization of Bass Diffusion Model (BDM) by replacing its constant innovation factor coefficient with a content richness-dependent log function to capture the positive feedback loop of innovation and the marginally decreasing feedback gain, and (iii) comparison between GBDM and BDM by using simulation to analyze how the inclusion of co-creation in modeling makes differences in individual behavior and network dynamics of a TMSN. Comparisons show that by capturing co-creation, the GBDM results in slower growth in membership and TM richness at the start-up stage, and then an earlier rise time of growth at a much faster growth rate than those by BDM. Numerical experimentation of GBDM demonstrates its potential for application to TMSN management.