Consumer’s prosumption behavior. Implications for family businesses

Abstract

Prosumption, defined as an activity of consumers, manifests itself, among others, in the need of cooperation and influencing the offer of entrepreneurs, to adapt it to their needs. Active consumers create networks, communities, share their their experiences, ideas and opinions about products/ services. Companies should see this activity and respond to it by including customers in creating products. They need to engage in dialogue with consumers and consumer networks to be more competitive. And the features of family businesses, such as flat organizational structures, family organizational culture, lesser formalization of activities, shorter communication channels, simplified decision making process, greater flexibility and better response to the needs of clients all favor establishing relationships with clients, and thus undertaking prosumer activities. The paper presents the importance of prosumption for companies based on the analysis of literature.