Information Technology (IT) enables organizations to involve consumers as co-creators of new products. By facilitating increased interaction between consumers and developers. IT allows consumers to influence and tailor product designs, but also allows developers to make use of distant knowledge to enhance and extend their product offerings and marketing. However, while much is said about the promises of IT-enabled co-creation, little is known of the strategic challenges associated with such IT use. To address this gap, we drew on IT literature to conduct a qualitative case study of IT-enabled co-creation in four video game development firms. In particular, we tried to understand how IT is affecting relationships between consumers and developers and when and why IT can be strategically used to enable co-creating coalitions in development processes. In so doing, it became clear that the promises of IT-enabled co-creation are associated with key strategic challenges. In particular, we identify three challenges that organizations must address in order to harness the strategic value of IT-enabled co-creation: the silent majority, quality assurance and managing expectations. We conclude this paper by discussing the future of IT and digital product development as well as implications for research and practice.

The benefits of customer co-creation of value in the service delivery process have been well established through recent literatures. However, despite the fact that there has been an increase in the awareness of the importance of customer behaviors in the service delivery process, little research has been done to investigate the role of customers and their influence in co-creating the service climate within organizations. This study captures the impact and effects of customer behaviors on the perceptions of employees towards the service climate of their respective restaurant firms.The overall objective of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the role of customers in co-creating the service climates inside restaurant firms where co-creation of services occurs. For conducting this study, I have used the semi-structured interviews for data collection from six respondents (three customers and three employees) from three different restaurants within the city. Results indicate that customers’ participative and citizenship behaviors such as giving feedbacks, employees’ job appreciation and praise during direct interactions, advocacy through word of mouth, and sharing of knowledge and seeking of information that could benefit the firm influenced employees’ perception of their work climate. The results also showed that employees transfer these positive attitudes to their fellow employees through affective group tone through which the overall working climate within restaurants is improved.I believe that this study will be helpful to future scholars and researchers who wish to conduct further research on this particular topic as the findings from this study have increased the understanding of the role of customers in the co-creation service climates within restaurant organizations. The paper also discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings from this research at the end of the paper.

The purpose of this study is to identify the challenges and opportunities for digitalization within the food industry, and give suggestions on how to co-create value through digitalization.  This qualitative study is based on data collected from scientific articles, reports and books about digitalization and value co-creation in the food industry. The primary data collection was carried out by twelve semi-structured interviews and a complementary food industry study with eleven respondents. The collected data was handled in thematic analysis and inspired by coding.  The study’s main conclusion was the discovering of a new value co- creation mechanism defined as relationship and learning.

The purpose of the study is to examine how the crowdfunding context facilitates value co-creation from a service-dominant logic perspective. Previous studies on crowdfunding have focused on crowdfunding as a way to raise capital, but there is a need to examine how value is created from a service-dominant logic perspective to understand the crowdfunding context. This has been examined through an embedded case study on the Swedish crowdfunding market, consisting of three crowdfunded companies and two branch experts. The study finds that the crowdfunding context facilitates value co-creation by engaging the involved actors in value co-creating activities, where both actors benefit. Community creation was found to be vital for the crowdfunding context while being important in the value co-creation process. The study contributes to the crowdfunding literature by adding an understanding of how the crowdfunding context facilitates value co-creation, by applying a service-dominant logic perspective, showing how the crowdfunding context includes more than financial aspects. The study also contributes to the service-dominant logic discussion by enabling future research in a new empirical setting. Finally, from a managerial point of view, the study contributes to how crowdfunding has additional benefits beyond raising capital, such as how the actors can co-create value.

Oita University in Japan has created a meeting space called the Global Village that was inspired by Marshall McLuhan's (1962) theory that globalization contributes to an increased community between people from different parts of the world. It was created to increase interaction among students on campus and is intended for both international and local students. The vision for the place is for individuals to exchange information, knowledge, ideas, and cultures which promotes knowledge exchange and shared learning. However, the University of Oita faces a challenge regarding the Global Village as there is a lack of participation and interaction in the place. Which leads to the vision of Global Village not being fulfilled. The purpose of this thesis is to study how the students experience the Global Village. This was done to gain an understanding of how the place works and to develop ideas to improve the Global Village with the support of the co-creation perspective. Co-creation is about collaboration between individuals who could create some kind of value in the form of new ideas and solutions. Based on the problems identified in the study, the improvement ideas have been inspired by the co-creation theory to include in the Global Village at the university. The study was based on a qualitative approach to answer the research questions and there were several semi-structured interviews conducted with students from Oita University. The study found that open innovation has some factors that are important for developing the concept of the Global Village. And to make it a well-functioning co-creation space that provides value for the students. Those factors that were used within open innovation are networking and value creation, which were an inspiration to create a model. The different solution in the model is based on the problems that were identified in the Global Village. The model contains several different solution proposals to improve the Global Village at Oita University. / Med inspiration av Marshall McLuhans (1962) teori om att globaliseringen bidrar till ökad gemenskap mellan människor från olika delar av världen har Oita Universitet i Japan skapat en mötesplats vid namnet Global Village. Det skapades för att öka interaktionen bland studenterna i campus och är avsedd för både internationella och lokala studenter. Visionen för platsen är att individerna ska utbyta information, kunskaper, idéer och kulturer vilket främjar kunskapsutbyte och delat lärande. Dock står uppdragsgivaren inför en utmaning gällande Global Village då det finns brist på deltagande och interaktion på platsen vilket leder till att visionen inte uppfylls. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur studenterna upplever Global Village i nuläget för att få en förståelse av hur platsen fungerar och därefter utveckla förbättringsförslag med stöd av co-creation. Co-creation handlar om samskapande och samarbete mellan individer som i sin tur kan skapa ett slags värde i form av nya idéer och lösningar. Utifrån de brister som identifierats i undersökningen har förbättringsförslagen utgått från att inkludera co-creation miljö i Global Village som befinner sig i universitetet. Studien utgick från ett kvalitativt angreppssätt för att besvara forskningsfrågorna och det genomfördes flertal semistrukturerade intervjuer med studenter från Oita universitet. Det framkom i studien att faktorer inom open innovation är viktiga byggstenar för att utveckla konceptet av mötesplatsen och skapa en välfungerande co-creation miljö som ger värde till studenterna. Dessa faktorer inom open innovation är nätverkande och värdeskapande vilket användes som inspiration för att skapa en modellutveckling utifrån de brister som identifierades i Global Village. Modellutvecklingen innehåller flera olika lösningsförslag för att förbättra Global Village vid Oita universitet.

I en konkurrenskraftig marknad som konsultbranschen är det viktigt att konsultföretagen lever i ständig utveckling och ligger i framkant gällande ny kunskap. Detta eftersom företaget som erbjuder mest kompetens och kvalité till minst kostnad är det företag som anlitas till uppdragen som erbjuds (Kaario, et al. 2003). Ett kunskapsområde som intresserar företagen är värdebaserad försäljning, vilket som forskningsområde är ett relativt outforskat ämne att sälja en lösning istället för att sälja en produkt blir en mer komplex process för företaget (Terho, H. et al. 2012). Kunden behöver nämligen förstå hur företagets lösning kommer vara användbart och värdeskapande för deras organisation (Kaario, et al. 2003). I det här uppdraget för Semcon undersöks möjligheter och utmaningar med att utveckla deras verksamhet genom att öka försäljningen av arbetspaket i sin organisation. För att kunna skapa ett sådant erbjudande till kund krävs en grundlig förförståelse för kundens nyckelverksamhet, när lösningen behöver vara helt anpassad efter kundens företag för att vara av värde (Töytäri, P. et al. 2011). Denna rapport behandlar och redogör kring Semcons arbetspaket, en kartläggning av behoven och hindren hos kund. Innovationsbidraget ligger i att koppla ihop den tekniska världen med den akademiska med ett ganska outforskat område. Rapporten ämnar bidra till Semcons innovationsprocess mot lösnings-baserad försäljning, genom att komma med kunskap utifrån kundens perspektiv. Forskningsfrågorna denna rapport kommer att besvara är: vilka utmaningar ser Semcons befintliga koncept arbetspaket? Vad är värdeskapande hos företagen som Semcon står i kontakt med? Hur kan Semcons arbetspaket utvecklas på bästa sett utifrån denna information?

The view of how value is created for customers have increasingly been changing. Especially, it is about how more and more companies have come to realize that they can generate greater value by co-create services together with the customer. The housing company Mimer in Västerås are in some cases experiencing that they do not create enough value for their tenants and the public. This has laid the foundation for this qualitative study, where the purpose is to have conversations with employees and managers to find out whether Mimer has the potential to work with co-creating actions and, if so, explain what it is that suggests that with the help from theories. The empirical data consists of interviews with leaders within Mimer, and also relevant documents that may affect the company's ability to work with co-creation processes. The results of the study show that Mimer in several ways with processes that could be a breeding ground for co-creating actions. / Synen på hur värde skapas för kunder har allt mer kommit att förändras. Framförallt handlar det om hur allt fler företag kommit till insikt med att de kan generera högre värde genom att samskapa tjänster tillsammans med kunden. Bostadsbolaget Mimer i Västerås upplever i vissa fall att de inte skapar tillräckligt värde för deras hyresgäster och allmänheten. Detta har lagt grunden till denna kvalitativa studie, där syftet är att i samtal med medarbetare och ledare ta reda på om Mimer har förutsättningar för att arbeta med samskapande aktioner samt i så fall redogöra med hjälp av teorier vad det är som tyder på detta. Empirin består dels av intervjuer med ledare inom Mimer, och dels av relevanta dokument som kan tänkas påverka eller främja bolagets möjligheter att arbeta med samskapande processer. Resultatet av studien visar att Mimer på flera sätt arbetar med processer som skulle kunna vara en grogrund för samskapande aktioner.

Denna studie är upprättat utefter en kvalitativ branschsektorstudie för att erhålla en djupare förståelse för flygplatsens servicelandskap och kartlägga sinnesmarknadsföringens möjligheter inom sektorn. Syftet är att klarlägga och diskutera värdehöjande faktorer som kan vara betydelsefulla för intressenter på en flygplats. Vidare ämnar studien klargöra vad resenärer uppfattar som specifikt viktigt på en flygplats för att slutligen tydliggöra betydelsen av olika sinnesintryck. I vår studie framkom servicelandskapet, sinnesmarknadsföring och värdeskapande som tre komponenter vars samspel har en inverkan på resenärens helhetsupplevelse i en flygplatsmiljö. Fem tendenser lyfts fram; basfaktorer, sinnesbevis, den regionala prägeln, hinder samt självstyrande passagerarflöden som väsentliga faktorer att beakta på en flygplats. Vi finner klara bevis för att flygplatsen med relativt små medel kan göra stora intryck med avseende att skapa en utökad sinnesupplevelse för resenären och en mer tilltalande servicemiljö. / This study is established on a qualitative industry sector research in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the airport's servicescape, and identify sensory marketing opportunities in the sector. The purpose of this study is to identify and discuss the value-enhancing factors that may be of importance for stakeholders in an airport. Further the study intends to clarify what travellers perceive as particularly important in the airport to finally clear the importance of sensory stimulations. In our study it was revealed that servicescape, sensory marketing and value co-creation as three components whose interaction has an impact on the traveler's overall experience in an airport environment. Five trends are highlighted; basic factors, sensory evidence, the regional character, barriers and self-governing passenger flows as key factors to consider in an airport. We find clear evidence that the airport with limited resources can make big impression with regard to creating an enhanced sensory experience for the traveler and a more attractive service environment.

In order to develop successful collaborative music systems a variety of subtle interactions need to be identified and integrated. Gesture capture, motion tracking, real-time synthesis, environmental parameters and ubiquitous technologies can each be effectively used for developing innovative approaches to instrument design, sound installations, interactive music and generative systems. Current solutions tend to prioritise one or more of these approaches, refining a particular interface technology, software design or compositional approach developed for a specific composition, performer or installation environment. Within this diverse field a group of novel controllers, described as ‘Tangible Interfaces’ have been developed. These are intended for use by novices and in many cases follow a simple model of interaction controlling synthesis parameters through simple user actions. Other approaches offer sophisticated compositional frameworks, but many of these are idiosyncratic and highly personalised. As such they are difficult to engage with and ineffective for groups of novices. The objective of this research is to develop effective design strategies for implementing collaborative sound environments using key terms and vocabulary drawn from the available literature. This is articulated by combining an empathic design process with controlled sound perception and interaction experiments. The identified design strategies have been applied to the development of a new collaborative digital instrument. A range of technical and compositional approaches was considered to define this process, which can be described as Adaptive Social Composition. Dan Livingstone

Marketing literature has propagated “customer-participation” and “co-production” in the seller-buyer framework since the 1970s (Lovelock and Young 1979), yet marketing knowledge gaps exist in this area. Recent management research emphasise the need to re-evaluate how value is created for consumers and to consider the close nature of the interactions between buyers and sellers (Payne et al 2008). Vargo and Lusch’s (2004) proposed service-dominant logic reiterates this need, arguing that the “customer is always the co-creator of value”, as they are part of the system that delivers value. Understanding value co-creation is then important to management research, as it uncovers new opportunities to create “value” for customers. This also enables firms to formulate better pricing strategies. This thesis examines value co-creation attributes and how they may impact on the customer’s willingness to pay. Three studies utilising qualitative and quantitative methods have been conducted to address the research question. The first two studies employed qualitative methods to derive insights into value co-creation attributes from a comparative case study perspective under two different service contexts; the defence and healthcare industries. The third study, conducted under the higher education context, employed quantitative methods to gauge the impact of value co-creation attributes on the customers’ willingness to pay. The qualitative studies found six generic value co-creation attributes, while the quantitative study empirically verified the importance of value co-creation attributes and the fact that they may impact on the customer’s willingness to pay for a service. This thesis validates that value co-creation is important in service provision. As customers become increasingly informed and empowered, a deeper understanding of how customers co-create value with the firm is then central to marketing activities, specifically in how firms design and price their services. Therefore, this thesis contributes to marketing knowledge by proposing value co-creation attributes that have both theoretical and managerial implications.