Challenges for co-creation in Zimbabwe's cultural and creative industries

Value co-creation is considered, by western researchers, an effective strategy for driving demanding of services and products created by creative and culture industries in developed economies. Examples of co-creation exist in several sectors of creative and cultural industries including fashion, music, product design, theatre, fine arts and others. However, little is presently known about the applicability of value co-creation in the global south’s developing economies. Research in developed countries has
found that the existence of pre-conditions for value co-creation is critical to its successful implementation as a marketing strategy. This developmental paper proposes an investigation into the existence of pre-conditions required to underpin successful implementation of co-creation as a
market development strategy for Entrepreneurial Artists in Zimbabwe. The paper examines existing literature on pre-conditions for co-creation to build knowledge and propose questions to support a primary study of the Zimbabwean context. The paper is conscious not to assume the applicability of western centric theories to solve creative entrepreneurship challenges in Zimbabwe. Primary data will
be gathered from lived experiences of lead author and Entrepreneurial Artists in Zimbabwe to determine the existence of pre-conditions and perceptions of co-creation amongst participants. Data will also be gathered from previous research conducted in locations similar to Zimbabwe such as South Africa where research on co-creation is present.