Reputation has been the subject of marketing research throughout recent years, and it was found to be an important measure of how organizations are perceived. The theory of co-creation, where organizations interact and deliver value through the involvement of customers, has also shown positive effects on performance. The main purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how reputation and co-creation are managed internally. Furthermore, this study aims to investigate the impact of brand image, satisfaction, perceived quality, and brand experience on co-creation and reputation by evaluating the external perceptions of members of a nonprofit membership organization, the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce of Washington, D.C., Inc. (SACC-DC). For a nonprofit membership organization, both reputation and co-creation can be of importance, as they do not compete by financial means, but instead by how the members perceive the networking service that they provide. We could identify a research gap, since there is no study that examines co-creation in relation to reputation. Furthermore, there is a need to conduct more research on co-creation in the nonprofit context. We could also see that more in-depth studies need to be done on reputation in order to understand the underlying factors of the internal management of the reputation. In order to fulfill the purpose of the thesis, a mixed-method study has been conducted. In the qualitative study, we have conducted eight semi-structured interviews with board members and employees of SACC-DC. Through the interviews, we gained a deeper understanding of how the reputation is managed by exploring how the organization works with co-creation, identity, desired identity and perceived quality. From the interviews, four themes were derived to explain how the organization co-creates their reputation together with their members. The themes were brand identity, brand delivery, value, and mutual responsibility. Our qualitative findings resulted in a table, showing that the reputation could benefit from being co-created in nonprofit membership organizations. In order to advance an understanding of how members of SACC-DC perceive the reputation and co-creation, a quantitative study was conducted. We assessed the effects of brand image, brand experience, satisfaction and perceived quality on co-creation and reputation. Our regression analyses showed that brand image and brand experience had positive significant effects on both co-creation and reputation, and that perceived quality had a positive significant effect on reputation. We could also conclude that co-creation had a positive significant effect on reputation. From our qualitative interviews together with the results of our quantitative study, we could conclude that there are perceptional differences regarding the reputation between board members and members of SACC-DC. We can also conclude that the reputation of SACC-DC is indeed co-created by board members together with other members, which implies that both management and customers take part in the process of creating the best possible reputation. In addition to our theoretical contributions, we also made practical recommendations for both managers of nonprofit organizations in general and for SACC-DC in particular, on how to enhance the co-creation process of the reputation.

The contribution of the present thesis is describing and explaining how value is co-created by addressing customer-employee role constellations during service encounters. There is a specific focus on customers’ and employees’ resource integration when co-creating value. The thesis consists of five separate papers, one of which is a literature review and four are empirical papers. The empirical papers are based on data from the public employment service and the customs service inSweden. The thesis offers two main contributions; the first of which is to service research by expanding knowledge of resource integration and value co-creation using e-government as the empirical context for outlining customers’ and employees’ value co-creation. The second contribution concerns which roles customers and employees enact during resource integration when value is being co-created. It was found that the roles of the employees were; interactor; customer oriented party, co-creator, and empowered party, while a customer can have the role of information integrator, accessibility needer, dialogue keeper, and/or knowledge transferee. Based on these two contributions, the thesis outlines understandings regarding role constellations in value co-creation. The role constellations suggest that customers and employees enact roles that impact how their resources are integrated.  Finally, the thesis contributes towards building a theory of value co-creation by proposing that the ten foundational premises of S-D logic, together with the four theoretical propositions and the role constellations presented in this thesis, should be seen as an approach to building a theory of value co-creation. Together, these three building blocks offer the following explanation as to what occurs when a customer and an employee co-create value: (1) The ten foundational premises focus on resource integration and value co-creation. (2) The four theoretical propositions offer the explanation that resource integration occurs in the context of roles since a role decides how to use the knowledge and skills. (3) The role constellations give concrete examples of how customers and employees integrate their resources to co-create value.

As a means of enhancing our everyday lives, ICT industry has caused and experienced significant transformations during past two decades. This transformation relates to technological advances within ICT, and beyond the ICT ecosystem. Wireless ICT is also not an exception in this regard. Accordingly, if we consider Internet of Things (IoT) as the main enabler for transformation, M2M is then the technological enabler of IoT that represent the Wireless ICT in the process of transformation. In this thesis we benefit from the concept of Smart City as a place where Wireless ICT participates for digitalizing other industries. We investigate how smartification is taking place, where our findings show that wireless ICT mainly empowers other industries to provide M2M-enabled services. Consequently, this participation imposes major changes on the wireless ICT ecosystem itself. Therefore, we study the changes that are forming the “future wireless ICT”. We have studied cases from smart cities, and expanded our data collection by performing semi-structured interviews with experts and decision makers, as well as participating in multiple projects and workshops. Accordingly, we have benefited from two major theories for analyzing the collected data; namely ARA model and Five Forces framework. Finally, we argue that traditional actors (i.e. MNOs &amp; Vendors), first have to adopt value co-creation in new businesses. This means cooperation among these actors, which changes the Seller-Buyer relationship to Supplier-Customer, in which they co-create the value. Accordingly, we argue that the linear processes of creating value are inefficient in these new markets and value networks must be adopted instead. As a result, we introduce “vertical coopetition” as a dominant business relationship among traditional actors, and new entrants in future wireless ICT. As the main contribution of this thesis, we discuss the logic behind vertical coopetition while comparing it with horizontal coopetition. / <p>QC 20160815</p>

abstract: The marketing and development of solutions has become an increasingly important concept in both marketing practice and theory. Recent conceptual work has defined solutions as sets of products and services that allow customers to achieve customized outcomes. Although the definition of a solution is becoming clearer, the process through which solution value is generated is still opaque. The purpose of this study was to add clarity to both marketing theory and practice by examining the solution value co-creation process in depth. Service-dominant logic, the relational view, service value co-creation, and theories of organizational learning and knowledge were the basis for this examination. Social capital was also examined to determine how these important relational concepts are involved in solution development. The study was conducted in four separate phases using a multi-method approach of quantitative surveys, qualitative surveys, and depth interviews. A large, multinational educational firm provided the context for the study which included access to their solution sales force and customer base. Quantitative data was collected from 97 key informants across 182 different customer opportunities for both new and existing solution engagements. Qualitative data was also collected from 71 respondents to provide a mixed-method triangulation of how solution value is created. Overall, the study provided strong support to the idea that knowledge sharing between solution providers and their customers plays a pivotal role in the co-creation of solution value. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2011

Tentando gerar inovações e maior aceitação no mercado, as vinícolas brasileiras têm investido em estrutura física que proporcione uma experiência mais satisfatória do tradicionalmente oferecido pelas redes de varejo. Com o apoio do enoturismo, essas empresas realizam degustações acompanhadas por visitas guiadas em sua propriedade. Contudo, o vinho brasileiro tem sofrido forte concorrência com países como Argentina e Chile. Expostos à concorrência, torna-se necessário que as vinícolas busquem novas alternativas para se diferenciarem. Para isso, as vinícolas buscam maior qualidade e proximidade com os consumidores. Como solução para esse problema, a cocriação possibilita a geração de inovação a partir do envolvimento do cliente. Considerando que a cocriação de valor ocorre a partir das interações das empresas com os consumidores, não é suficiente entender apenas a visão de um dos lados. Para essa investigação, considerou-se os seguintes agentes da cadeia do vinho: a vinícola, os seus intermediários e o consumidor final. Dessa forma, esse estudo teve como objetivo entender quais são os canais adequados para um processo de cocriação de valor na cadeia do vinho. Para tal, fez-se necessária a compreensão de alguns conceitos como relacionamento com o cliente, partindo da Lógica do Serviço Dominante até a cocriação de valor. Abordando, assim, aspectos importantes de quatro modelos conceituais de cocriação de valor. A primeira etapa desse estudo foi qualitativa de finalidade exploratória, para levantamento de informações a respeito de como a vinícola e seus intermediários interagem. A segunda etapa foi quantitativa com finalidade exploratória e foi realizada com os clientes da vinícola Miolo. A vinícola não é o único canal por onde o consumidor consegue obter informações e produtos, sendo assim, foram considerados: uma loja especializada (Vinum) e um e-commerce (Vinhos e Vinhos). A escolha se deu porque esses foram considerados os canais onde as possibilidades de cocriação são maiores. Na primeira etapa desse estudo a técnica de coleta de dados utilizada foi a entrevista em profundidade com um dos responsáveis pela gestão, considerando dois setores da empresa relevantes à essa pesquisa. Na segunda etapa realizou-se um levantamento com 74 consumidores da vinícola. Realizou-se análise de conteúdo na primeira etapa, utilizando-se do software Nvivo. Na segunda etapa realizou-se uma análise descritiva da amostra e testes par verificação de correlações entre as variáveis, a partir do software SPSS. Observou-se que ainda há falhas na comunicação entre as empresas estudadas e seus consumidores, principalmente ao que se relaciona ao diálogo e ao acesso. Ademais, verificou-se que as empresas têm se preocupado menos com questões relacionadas ao planejamento, aprendizagem e métricas. Contudo, observa-se que as três empresas têm feito esforços para se relacionarem com seus clientes, mas as oportunidades de cocriação de valor estão sendo pouco exploradas. / Searching for interaction with customers, trying to generate innovation and greater market acceptance, Brazilian wineries have been investing in an infrastructure able to provide a more satisfactory experience than the one based on purchases at shops and supermarkets. With the support of wine tourism, these wineries hold tastings of some of their products combined with guided tours around the property, showing the customer the wine production method and explaining some important techniques for a better appreciation of the commercialized products. Due to competition with wineries from Argentina e Chile, it is necessary that Brazilian wineries seek new alternatives that will lead to an increased consumer demand of products. For this purpose, the wineries seek greater proximity to customers as well as higher quality. As a solution to this problem, co-creation generates innovation from the engagement of consumers (). Considering that value co-creation happens from interaction between companies and customers, understanding only the consumer vision or the company’s is not enough; an analysis of both must be done. For this investigation, it was considered for the wine productive chain the winery, the intermediary and the final consumer. Two types of intermediaries were considered: shops and e-commerce, since these are the channels with better possibilities for co-creation. Thus, the objective of this study was to understand which channels are appropriate for value co-creation process in the wine productive chain. For this purpose, it’s necessary to comprehend some concepts like relationship with client, from the Service Dominant Logic to co-creation of value. An approach of important aspects of value co-creation conceptual models was made: DART model, from Phahalad and Ramaswamy (2004), Payne, Storbacka and Frow model (2008), Arnould, Price and Malshe model (2006) and Brasil, Santos and Dietrich model (2010). The first stage of this study was qualitative with an exploratory purpose (GIL, 2008) for information survey about the winery and its intermediaries. The second stage was quantitative with an exploratory purpose and was carried out with Miolo winery’s customers. The customer can acquire information and products not only from the winery, so two intermediaries were considered in this study: the e-commerce Vinhos & Vinhos and the wine store Vinum. On the first stage of this study, the data collection technique used was an in-depth interview with the person responsible for the management, considering two important company departments to this research. On the second stage, it was made a survey with 74 winery’s consumers. On the first stage, a content analysis was made using the Nvivo software. On the second stage, a descriptive analysis of the sample and correlation verification test based on the SPSS software were made. It was noted that failures exist in the communication between the surveyed companies and the consumers, mainly related to dialog and access. In addition, it was found that companies are less concerned about issues related to planning, learning and metrics. However, it was noted that the three companies have been making efforts to build a relationship with customers, but the opportunities for value co-creation are not explored enough.

This thesis is concerned with the complexity of communicating sustainability in a co-creative context. Sustainability is seen as three dimension, namely economic sustainability, social sustainability and environmental sustainability. This thesis includes all three dimensions in the sustainability communication. The purpose is to investigate how sustainability can be understood and explained in a co-creative incubator. Since the research of sustainability communication within the co-creative literature is relatively undiscovered this thesis makes an attempt to conceptualise the sustainability communication. The context of the study is a single case study of an incubator with a co-creative approach. The research took an abductive approach with the method of a qualitative empirical collection. The empirical data collection consists of semistructured interviews with actors in the co-creative incubator, namely top management, business designers and startups. Findings reveal that the sustainability communication can be understood and explained through a challenge based view. Every startup face different challenges and sustainability is communicated accordingly. However, the communication of economic sustainability is more direct than the other two dimensions. Additionally, the complex communication in the co-creative incubator shed new lights on the concept of trust within co-creation. The intensity of sustainability communication implies to be dependent on trust between incubator and startups. This thesis adds original insights to the field of combining co-creation and incubators, specifically factors that influence the sustainability communication in the co-creative incubator.

This thesis aims to examine if and how Value Co-Creation works online, and what interactions the customers believe to be of importance to continue a relationship with a company. The problem of the thesis is how to create value in order to establish long-term relationships with customers in an online environment where the element of face to face interactions is absent, and switching costs facing the customers are non-existent. There is little research made about Value Co-Creation in an online setting, further how Co-Creation of Value affects the ability to establish and maintain Customer Relationships. This paper utilized a qualitative research approach and was executed through a case study built up by a thorough analysis of a marketing plan and the value creating activities of Company X, and semi-structured interviews with twelve customers of Company X to investigate how these activities are perceived. The conclusion of the research in this paper is that Company X performs activities that allows Co-Creation of Value. Further, it was concluded that the services provided by Company X contributes with important factors when trying to establish and maintain relationships with their customers.

Tentando gerar inovações e maior aceitação no mercado, as vinícolas brasileiras têm investido em estrutura física que proporcione uma experiência mais satisfatória do tradicionalmente oferecido pelas redes de varejo. Com o apoio do enoturismo, essas empresas realizam degustações acompanhadas por visitas guiadas em sua propriedade. Contudo, o vinho brasileiro tem sofrido forte concorrência com países como Argentina e Chile. Expostos à concorrência, torna-se necessário que as vinícolas busquem novas alternativas para se diferenciarem. Para isso, as vinícolas buscam maior qualidade e proximidade com os consumidores. Como solução para esse problema, a cocriação possibilita a geração de inovação a partir do envolvimento do cliente. Considerando que a cocriação de valor ocorre a partir das interações das empresas com os consumidores, não é suficiente entender apenas a visão de um dos lados. Para essa investigação, considerou-se os seguintes agentes da cadeia do vinho: a vinícola, os seus intermediários e o consumidor final. Dessa forma, esse estudo teve como objetivo entender quais são os canais adequados para um processo de cocriação de valor na cadeia do vinho. Para tal, fez-se necessária a compreensão de alguns conceitos como relacionamento com o cliente, partindo da Lógica do Serviço Dominante até a cocriação de valor. Abordando, assim, aspectos importantes de quatro modelos conceituais de cocriação de valor. A primeira etapa desse estudo foi qualitativa de finalidade exploratória, para levantamento de informações a respeito de como a vinícola e seus intermediários interagem. A segunda etapa foi quantitativa com finalidade exploratória e foi realizada com os clientes da vinícola Miolo. A vinícola não é o único canal por onde o consumidor consegue obter informações e produtos, sendo assim, foram considerados: uma loja especializada (Vinum) e um e-commerce (Vinhos e Vinhos). A escolha se deu porque esses foram considerados os canais onde as possibilidades de cocriação são maiores. Na primeira etapa desse estudo a técnica de coleta de dados utilizada foi a entrevista em profundidade com um dos responsáveis pela gestão, considerando dois setores da empresa relevantes à essa pesquisa. Na segunda etapa realizou-se um levantamento com 74 consumidores da vinícola. Realizou-se análise de conteúdo na primeira etapa, utilizando-se do software Nvivo. Na segunda etapa realizou-se uma análise descritiva da amostra e testes par verificação de correlações entre as variáveis, a partir do software SPSS. Observou-se que ainda há falhas na comunicação entre as empresas estudadas e seus consumidores, principalmente ao que se relaciona ao diálogo e ao acesso. Ademais, verificou-se que as empresas têm se preocupado menos com questões relacionadas ao planejamento, aprendizagem e métricas. Contudo, observa-se que as três empresas têm feito esforços para se relacionarem com seus clientes, mas as oportunidades de cocriação de valor estão sendo pouco exploradas. / Searching for interaction with customers, trying to generate innovation and greater market acceptance, Brazilian wineries have been investing in an infrastructure able to provide a more satisfactory experience than the one based on purchases at shops and supermarkets. With the support of wine tourism, these wineries hold tastings of some of their products combined with guided tours around the property, showing the customer the wine production method and explaining some important techniques for a better appreciation of the commercialized products. Due to competition with wineries from Argentina e Chile, it is necessary that Brazilian wineries seek new alternatives that will lead to an increased consumer demand of products. For this purpose, the wineries seek greater proximity to customers as well as higher quality. As a solution to this problem, co-creation generates innovation from the engagement of consumers (). Considering that value co-creation happens from interaction between companies and customers, understanding only the consumer vision or the company’s is not enough; an analysis of both must be done. For this investigation, it was considered for the wine productive chain the winery, the intermediary and the final consumer. Two types of intermediaries were considered: shops and e-commerce, since these are the channels with better possibilities for co-creation. Thus, the objective of this study was to understand which channels are appropriate for value co-creation process in the wine productive chain. For this purpose, it’s necessary to comprehend some concepts like relationship with client, from the Service Dominant Logic to co-creation of value. An approach of important aspects of value co-creation conceptual models was made: DART model, from Phahalad and Ramaswamy (2004), Payne, Storbacka and Frow model (2008), Arnould, Price and Malshe model (2006) and Brasil, Santos and Dietrich model (2010). The first stage of this study was qualitative with an exploratory purpose (GIL, 2008) for information survey about the winery and its intermediaries. The second stage was quantitative with an exploratory purpose and was carried out with Miolo winery’s customers. The customer can acquire information and products not only from the winery, so two intermediaries were considered in this study: the e-commerce Vinhos & Vinhos and the wine store Vinum. On the first stage of this study, the data collection technique used was an in-depth interview with the person responsible for the management, considering two important company departments to this research. On the second stage, it was made a survey with 74 winery’s consumers. On the first stage, a content analysis was made using the Nvivo software. On the second stage, a descriptive analysis of the sample and correlation verification test based on the SPSS software were made. It was noted that failures exist in the communication between the surveyed companies and the consumers, mainly related to dialog and access. In addition, it was found that companies are less concerned about issues related to planning, learning and metrics. However, it was noted that the three companies have been making efforts to build a relationship with customers, but the opportunities for value co-creation are not explored enough.

One of the most profound transformations of the marketing discipline in recent history has been driven by the democratization of power relations and value creation between brands and consumers. This dissertation explores the branding implications of this fundamental shift by investigating whether and how the type and degree of control shared by brands affect consumer empowerment perceptions and, in turn, consumer–brand relationships, as well as whether and how these effects might be moderated by the size and diversity of the choice set and by the image valence of the brand that shares control with consumers. The present research examines such questions in a prosocial context by studying an emerging form of co-created social responsibility, cause-related marketing (CM) with choice, in which the consumer, not the brand, chooses the charitable cause to which the brand will donate in response to the consumer’s purchase. By integrating research on power, choice, and brand relationships, this dissertation proposes a conceptual framework that predicts whether, when, and why giving consumers control over a brand’s meaningful decision (operationalized as CM with choice) strengthens consumer–brand relationships. Six experiments test this framework. The dissertation shows that letting consumers choose a brand’s donation recipient strengthens consumer–brand relationships by increasing consumer empowerment and engagement. This serial mediation through empowerment and engagement is replicated across all studies. The main effect can be bolstered by providing consumers either unrestricted choice (i.e., choose any cause from memory) rather than restricted choice (i.e., select from a list of predetermined cause options; Studies 1–4) or a combination of both choice modes (Study 4), but not by expanding the size of the set of cause options (Study 2) or increasing the similarity or dissimilarity of the options (Studies 3a and 3b). Finally, Study 5 reveals that introducing a conventional CM campaign improves brand outcomes (attachment, attitudes, and purchase intentions) regardless of brand image (negative, neutral, or positive) and that adding consumer cause choice to the campaign benefits brands as much as (or more than) introducing the campaign itself does, though only when brand image is neutral or positive. When brand image is negative, adding consumer cause choice fails to improve brand outcomes and can even backfire—a boundary condition similar to the boomerang effect that arises from psychological reactance because consumers prefer to keep their distance. A central implication of this dissertation is that when a brand allows consumers to co-create its charitable giving campaign, neither the choice set’s size or diversity nor consumers’ involvement or satisfaction with the chosen cause brings consumers closer to the brand; instead, what brings them closer to the brand is their increased sense of empowerment, which in turn enhances their engagement with the brand that shares its control. An equally important implication results from the observed boomerang effect, which should serve as a warning for any managers who risk falling into the trap of adopting a standard, one-size-fits-all view of prosocial co-creation as a tool to repair an otherwise defective brand reputation. A strategy that encourages consumers to serve as brand agents by co-creating the brand’s meaning requires caution on the brand’s part. As in interpersonal relationships, the general desire to spend time together must first be at least somewhat mutual before any shared experience—no matter how positive—can make the bond grow stronger.

The age of traditional marketing is beginning to end and the digital revolution will continueits journey. Today, most companies meet their business customers for the first time in a digitalenvironment and decision-makers stay longer more frequently in the digital world beforeinitiating contact with a company. Many argue that companies need to connect, collaborateand co-create with others to be able to succeed. Content marketing and value co-creation arejust some of the methodologies companies could adopt in order to succeed. Previous researchhas investigated value co-creation and partly content marketing, but these combined areashave not been previously researched together. Especially not from a business to businessperspective which this thesis has conducted. This study was initiated based on previousresearch, where a gap was found regarding these subjects. Therefore, the aim of this researchwas to study how value co-creation can be achieved through content marketing, from anenterprise perspective.This research was constructed by performing a multiple-case study on two Swedishcompanies, with two employees on each company. The data collection resulted in valuableinsights regarding the process of value co-creation and content marketing. The theoretical andempirical findings include similar views of the research areas, which are further presented inthe discussion chapter where the DARTT model has been used as a tool. Additionally, thisstudy proves it is possible to co-create value with a business's customers through contentmarketing and it also presents a general suggestion of how it can be achieved. Lastly, we hopeour thesis has the potential of acting as a base for further research, such as exploring the mosteffective digital platforms within content marketing from a business to business perspective,since it was not the purpose of this study to present that kind of insight. / Den digitala revolutionen kommer att fortsätta påverka dagens marknadsföring och dentraditionell marknadsföringen börjar att hamna i skymundan för de nya trenderna. Mångaföretag möter idag sina företagskunder för första gången i en digital miljö och flerbeslutsfattare än någonsin stannar kvar i den digitala världen innan de initierar kontakt medett företag. Många argumenterar även för att företag ska sammarbeta och samskapa med andraparter för att kunna nå framgång. Innehållsmarknadsföring och samskapande av värde ärnågra metodiker som företag kan anta för att kunna lyckas fortsätta attrahera kunder i endigital miljö. Tidigare forskning har undersökt samskapande av värde och även till viss delinnehållsmarknadsföring, men dessa områden har inte tidigare blivit undersökta tillsammans.Speciellt inte från ett business to business perspektiv som denna uppsats innehar. Dennastudie initierades på grund av tidigare forskningen, där ett gap hittades mellan dessa områden.Syftet med denna forskning är att studera hur samskapande av värde tillsammans med kundenkan bli utfört genom innehållsmarknadsföring, från ett företagsperspektiv.Denna studien är utförd med hjälp av en multipel fallstudie på två svenska företag, där tvåanställda har intervjuats på varje företag. Datainsamlingen resulterade i relevant insikt inomföretagens processer angående samskapande av värde och framtida kampanjer inominnehållsmarknadsföring. Både tidigare forskning och empirin inkluderar liknande perspektivinom forskningsområdena, vilket är presenterat i diskussionskapitlet där DARTT modellenhar används som ett verktyg. Denna studien bevisar att det är möjligt för ett företag attsamskapa värde med kunder genom innehållsmarknadsföring och den presenterar även ettgenerellt förslag på hur detta kan bli utfört. Slutligen hoppas vi att vår avhandling harmöjlighet att stå till grund för vidare forskning, exempelvis gällande vilka digitala plattformarsom är de mest effektiva i innehållsmarknadsföring från ett business to business perspektiv,eftersom detta inte var syftet med vår studie.