There are consumers who engage in innovation and who cocreate value together with other consumers, and with producers, in relation to products. This thesis has the purpose of exploring the nature of this ‘active consumer’ from a firm perspective, and thereby providing an answer to the thesis-level research question: ‘What are the implications of the active consumer on innovation and marketing practices?’ Four papers, drawing on research in the fields of consumer innovation and value cocreation, are presented that contain findings about the knowledge of the active consumer (Paper I), support (Paper II) and management (Paper III) of the active consumer, and challenges with the active consumer (Paper IV). The papers rest on two research efforts: a study of the video game industry that includes an investigation of a game developer and a netnography of its consumer community and a study of the entire development of a customer loyalty card by a leading grocery retailer. The insights into the active consumer gained from the four papers are analyzed against the thesis-level research question using an explanatory lens that is developed through the notion of practice, rendering a discussion about the implications of the active consumer on the scripts of innovation and marketing practices. The thesis is concluded with a discussion of its contributions and implications for innovation and marketing scholars and managers.

Services and service-based business are a major part of any economy. However, service-based supply chains require a greater level of interaction between provider and consumer than the traditional manufacturing or product-based supply chain. Therefore, they require optimization and resiliency models that acknowledge the constraints and goals unique to service-based industries. Value co-creation and service-dominant logistics (SDL) are relatively new to operations research. Existing literature in management science provides a framework for value co-creation but does not provide a model for optimizing value cocreation and resiliency in a complex or dynamic systems such as education supply chains (ESC). This dissertation addresses these knowledge gaps through 3 essays. The first essay establishes a method for optimizing investment in resiliency measures when utilizing parallel supply chains. The essay examines the intersection of value co-creation theory between higher education and service-dominant logistics (SDL) to understand the role of supply chain elements in value cocreation. The second essay provides a theoretical approach to incorporating resilience planning into the customer relationship management model. The final essay establishes a method for optimizing investment in resiliency measures when utilizing parallel service supply chains.

An emerging literature stream posits that drawing on users rather than internal designers in new product creation may benefit firms because the resulting products effectively satisfy consumer needs. Four studies conducted in the context of the luxury fashion industry uncover an important conceptual boundary condition of this positive user-design effect. Contrary to extant research, the results show that being "close" to users does not help but rather harms luxury fashion brands. Specifically, the authors find that user design backfires because consumer demand for a given luxury fashion brand collection is reduced if the collection is labeled as user (vs. company) designed. The results further reveal the underlying rationale for this reversal: user-designed luxury products are perceived to be lower in quality and fail to signal high status, which results in a loss of agentic feelings for the consumer. The authors explore several strategies luxury brands can pursue to overcome this negative user-design effect. Finally, they find that negative outcomes of user design are attenuated for luxury fashion products that are not used for status signaling - that is, product categories of a luxury brand that are characterized by lower status relevance for the consumer. (authors' abstract)

While knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) play an important role in industrialized economies, little research has focused on how best to support their design. The emerging understanding of service as a process of value cocreation – or collaborative value creation – can provide the foundations for this purpose; however, this body of literature lacks empirically grounded explanations of how value is actually cocreated and does not provide adequate design support for the specific context of KIBS. This research thus first identifies generative mechanisms of value cocreation in KIBS engagements; it then develops a design framework from this understanding; finally, it elaborates a modeling technique fulfilling the requirements derived from this design framework. A multiple-case study of two academic research and development service engagements, as a particular type of KIBS engagement, was first undertaken to identify generative mechanisms of value cocreation. Data was gathered through interviews, observation, and documentation, and was analyzed both inductively and deductively according to key concepts of value cocreation proposed in literature. Data from a third case study was then used to evaluate the ability of the modeling technique to support the analysis of value cocreation processes in KIBS engagements. Empirical findings identify two contextual factors; one core mechanism; six direct mechanisms; four supporting mechanisms; and two overall processes of value cocreation, aligning and integrating. These findings emphasize the strategic nature of value cocreation in KIBS engagements. Results include an empirically grounded design framework that identifies points of intervention to foster value cocreation in KIBS engagements, and from which modeling requirements are derived. To fulfill these requirements, a modeling technique Value Cocreation Modeling 2 (VCM2) was created by adapting and combining concepts from several existing modeling approaches developed for strategic actors modeling, value network modeling, and business intelligence modeling.

This thesis departs from the understanding of citizens concern for our Nature, and their feeling of powerlessness due to the climate crisis. Additionally, it has investigated the relationship between humans and nature, with the outcome that we need to start cooperating with our nature. As citizens need to become empowered to understand the issue of climate change before they can do any changes in their lives, education is key. To empower citizens in the issue of climate change I propose classrooms for environmentaland climatic knowledge development. The proposal is platforms with the goal of mutual learnings and meaningful interaction between academia and the community. Its organization is a collaboration that includes the necessary functions for both bottom-up and bottom-down initiated Citizen Science projects. Secondly, I propose the move of/ or initiation of new Research in Climate impact in Umeå, in an urban forest. This to create a closer relationship with the research and enabling participatory- and educational activities with the community. This thesis investigates the possibilities with knowledge cocreation as a response to societal change. Additionally, room for knowledge cocreation between the public and academia in Umeå in created. The aim is to empower citizens and strengthen the local community, and my hypothesis is that that the intervention acts as a catalyst for sustainable future development.

Between the years 2013 and 2016, e-commerce sales grew as a percent of total retail sales in the United States from 5.8% to 8.5%, an increase of $129 billion. Some brick-and-mortar (B & M) retailers struggle with maintaining the historic levels of revenue in their stores. A multiple case study design with retail store managers was used to understand what factors engage customers to shop at B & M store locations. The consumer-dominant value creation logic was the conceptual framework. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 5 retail store managers in Texas who demonstrated successful strategies for engaging customers in their B & M stores, and notes from observations. Data from semistructured interviews were analyzed with a traditional method to identify themes. The found themes included fun at work, customer connection, relationship, pride, and genuine care. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to enhance the economic vitality and development in the surrounding community by creating additional jobs and generating additional income for members of the community that could be spent in local economies.

Submitted by CAMILA VALIENGO null (milavaliengo@hotmail.com) on 2017-12-14T18:19:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese camila final.pdf: 3796778 bytes, checksum: 541b542f4589640e859ba96350944eef (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by FABIANA COLARES null (fabiana@ia.unesp.br) on 2017-12-15T13:58:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 valiengo_c_dr_ia.pdf: 3796778 bytes, checksum: 541b542f4589640e859ba96350944eef (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-15T13:58:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 valiengo_c_dr_ia.pdf: 3796778 bytes, checksum: 541b542f4589640e859ba96350944eef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta tese tem como temática central a discussão a respeito da aprendizagem na Educação Musical pelas crianças, de maneira que possam mostrar-se como protagonistas, criativas e dialógicas. Para estabelecer esse sentido, partiu-se da metáfora de uma “viagem”, utilizando como Metodologia o conceito de Cartografia, baseado no pensamento rizomático de Deleuze e Guattari. Essa viagem, portanto, tem como objetivo principal compreender a cocriação no processo de aprendizagem musical entre crianças e professores, e deu-se na EMIA – Escola Municipal de Iniciação Artística, em São Paulo. São “coordenadas” deste caminho as premissas teóricas de várias áreas do conhecimento: Educação (Freire e Rinaldi); Educação Musical (Koellreutter, Gainza, Schaffer, Fonterrada, Kater, Brito), Psicologia (teoria histórico-cultural de Vigotsky); Sociologia da Infância (Sarmento) e Filosofia (Larrosa, Gallo, Deleuze e Guatarri). As análises de dados gerados pelas observações foram estabelecidas como “atalhos” para chegar a reflexões acerca da cocriação, e as “estalagens” são derivadas das rodas de conversa. Esses encontros culminam em um “rio fértil” que cruza o caminho (a discussão sobre as experiências e a cocriação), e permite reconhecer processos inventivos e de produção de subjetividades que levam a compreender a importância da cocriação entre crianças e professores no processo de aprendizagem musical, ao compor uma comunidade participativa. Os procedimentos metodológicos utilizados foram: observação, entrevistas, registro em diário de bordo, fotos, filmagens e rodas de conversas com as turmas observadas. Como considerações finais destacam-se: a concepção de criança como um sujeito capaz, criativo e cocriador do seu processo de aprendizagem; a influência do professor e das famílias na educação; as experiências vivenciadas no parque e nas brincadeiras, como propulsoras de novos aprendizados; a possibilidade de troca de instrumentos e de linguagens, de escolhas, de participação, de diálogo e de protagonismo como elementos fundamentais no processo de cocriação das crianças, apontando para a necessidade de, na atualidade, caminhar por caminhos em que a criança seja valorizada em suas potencialidades, e considerada sujeito de seu próprio aprendizado. / This thesis has as main theme the discussion about learning in musical education by children, in a way they can be considered protagonists, creative and dialogical. In order to establish this direction, the metaphor of a voyage was adopted, using as methodology the concept of cartography, based on rizomatic thinking of Deleuze and Guattari. This journey, therefore, has as its central goal to comprehend cocreation in the learning process enclosing children and teachers and too place at EMIA (Municipal School of Artistic Initiation). “Coordinates” of this drive are theoretical premises of various knowledge areas: education (Freire and Rinaldi); musical education (Koellreutter, Gainza, Schaffer, Fonterrada, Kater, Brito) psychology (Vigotsky’s historic-cultural theory); childhood sociology (Sarmento) and philosophy (Larrosa, Gallo, Deleuze e Guattari). Analysis of data generated by observations were operated as “bypaths” to come closer to reflections on cocreation, and “auberges” are derived from conversation circles. This encounters culminate in a “fertile river” which crosses the drive (discussion on experiences and cocreation), and allows to recognize inventive and subjectivity processes which lead to a comprehension of the cocreation constructed by children and teachers in the process of musical education, composing a collaborative community. The methodological procedures adopted was: observation, interview with principal and pedagogical advisor, records on logbook, pictures, filmmaking and conversation circles with the two observed classes. As final considerations are emphasized: the conception of child as capable subject, creative and cocreator of its own learning process; the influence of the teacher and of the family on the education; experiences lived in park and during the children’s play as new learnings propellers; the possibility of changing musical instruments and languages, of choosing, of participation, of dialogue and of protagonism as fundamental elements in children cocreation process.

abstract: In the delivery of a public service, meeting the needs of its users through cocreation has generated considerable research. Service users are encouraged to engage with public services through dialogue, sustained interaction, and equal partnership, wherein the role of the user changes from passive to active. As the relationship between service provider and service user evolves, researchers have sought to explain how resources, time, accessibility, and bandwidth may affect such relationships, specifically concerning the economically disadvantaged. While many researchers have focused on the logistical barriers that inhibit cocreation among the economically disadvantaged presented by such factors as cost and transportation, limited research has examined the relationship between the service provider and economically disadvantaged service user. Combining previous research, this study examines what economically disadvantaged service users actually do when they cocreate value with a public service by conducting 12 in-depth interviews with participants of SNAP-Ed, nutrition education for persons eligible for government assistance. The study's findings suggest that cocreation exists through relational characteristics of collaboration, isolation, acceptance, connection, and guidance that help in the development and maintenance of relationships, and that a relationship between service provider and user could be further typified by equality. This finding suggests that equality is an independent construct not necessary in the process of cocreation--a departure from previous research--but rather a way to approach the service provider/user relationship. This study is intended as a step toward examining cocreation through the development of organization-public relationships. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Journalism and Mass Communication 2014

The primary objective of this dissertation is to examine the theoretical and practical implications of the collaborative consumption phenomenon for individuals, businesses and society. To accomplish this goal, a research approach at three levels of analysis is used to explore how market institutions and consumer practices negotiate a social order that combines the social domain of peers with the economic domain of market exchange. The first essay of the dissertation approaches this objective from a macro level to examine how social order is produced and sustained through the systemic interactions of service firms and peers. This essay provides a framework to understand the emergent business models by developing a typological theory that explains how platforms can be configured for higher value creation. The second essay approaches our understanding of the phenomenon from a meso level analysis to examine how peers interact with the social order of collaborative consumption markets to negotiate key existential tensions between consumer resistance and market appropriation. This essay explores the metaphors that peers use to construe the field of collaborative consumption. Through the interpretive analysis of participant-generated images, this research uncovers the prevailing use of a liberation metaphor that reveals a new way of thinking about resource circulation. Lastly, the third essay employs a micro level of analysis to examine how participation in collaborative consumption practices provokes intrapersonal dynamics leading to moral decay. By relying on a social cognitive framework that considers how behaviors impact personal and environmental factors in a recursive fashion, this essay scrutinizes when and how prolonged participation can erode moral identity and negatively impact prosocial behaviors. Together, this holistic approach advances our theoretical understanding of the collaborative consumption phenomenon and provides practical implications for managerial practice and public policy.

In the project "moving between futures" I explored through an interactive design exhibition and a performative event on the streets how design can be used to encourage and to reflect on ones own wishes and fears regarding the future in relation to the climate crisis which we are living and facing. Part of the exploration process were a story gathering workshop and engagement with activists. This is a project about you, me, us. About the total sum of being alive, feeling alive and breathing in reality. It is about a deep unconscious knowledge that we never learned to process and act upon. It is about listening first and taking action later, together. About understanding that we are alive at the same time, at the edge of no return. It is about the stories we tell each other when we dream and the ones we tell each other when we wake up screaming from a nightmare - the inbetween and the million, trillion directions we can decide to take from here. This project is about the climate disaster we are facing and how we need to find agency within ourselves together. We can still move between these futures.