From confrontation to partnerships: The role of a dutch non-governmental organization in co-creating a market to address the issue of animal welfare

Firms can play an important role in addressing the issue of animal welfare by creating markets for animal friendly products. This essay analyses th e co-creation of a market for animal friendly meat products by the joint effort of a Dutch NGO and the meat industry. The different stages of the process, from opposition to alignment, are analyzed and general implications are derived. The process follows four stages: (1) adopting a strategy to cooperate in order to overcome a legitimacy crisis, (2) adopting a moderate conflict model and imposing limiting conditions into the negotiations with businesses. The limiting conditions provide a basis for a co-creation process, (3) aligning business for co-creating a new product brand, and (4) broadening the scope towards market creation for animal friendly products. The phases of the issue-life-cycle show that interventions are dependent on the nature of the interaction and the existence of a business model. In case this does not exist, collaboration between an NGO and a number of firms can help in creating a market for latent demand into a market-oriented solution to a wicked problem.