I takt med den ökade globaliseringen har konkurrensen tilltagit på marknaden och påverkat förutsättningarna för de traditionella tillverkningsföretagen. Att utöver produkter sälja tjänster har blivit ett vanligt sätt att differentiera sig från andra aktörer och höja det värde som erbjuds mot kunderna. Denna lösning kallas tjänstefiering och är en växande trend inom tillverkningsindustrin.  Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera vad som är av vikt att fokusera på för företag som tillverkar konsumtionsvaror vid utformning av tjänstefierade erbjudanden till restauranger. Genom att samla in material har vi utformat praktiska rekommendationer till företag som tillverkar konsumtionsvaror kring vad som är av vikt att tänka på vid tjänstefiering. Tidigare forskning inom tjänstefiering har utförts främst i en kapitalvarukontext, detta trots att det visat sig både i praktik och teori att tjänstefiering är lönsamt även för andra typer av tillverkningsföretag. Forskningen har även främst utförts ur ett företagsperspektiv, trots att kundens viktiga roll i tjänstefiering är vida känt. Litteraturområdet som belyser tjänstefiering kopplat till konsumtionsvaror ur ett kundperspektiv anses därav vara begränsat. Studien har därför utförts i en restaurangkontext då restauranger köper in olika typer av konsumtionsvaror vilket ansågs bidra till en bredd i studien. För att undersöka detta område har studien därför haft för avsikt att besvara frågeställningen: Vad värdesätter restauranger vid utformning av tjänstefierade erbjudanden av konsumtionsvaror? För att besvara denna fråga har vi genomfört sju kvalitativa intervjuer med personer som arbetar på olika restauranger med en sådan position att de har insyn kring köp av tjänstefierade erbjudanden. Inför intervjuerna skapade vi en teoretisk referensram med relevant forskning för vår studie gällande tjänstefiering och kundvärde. Referensramen har sedan använts som stöd vid utformning av intervjuguiden som använts vid genomförandet av intervjuerna samt använts vid analys av den insamlade datan.  Resultatet från studien visar att restauranger värdesätter flera faktorer vid utformning av tjänstefierade erbjudanden av konsumtionsvaror från alla dimensioner av kundvärdet. Relationer och den personliga kontakten, möjlighet till att påverka erbjudandet och delta i utvecklingen samt ekonomi visade sig vara värdeskapande aspekter där den personliga kontakten var något som visade sig vara en avgörande faktor för restaurangerna.

The amount of people in Sweden who were made redundant during the corona pandemic exceeds both the Swedish financial crisis in 1990 and the global financial crisis in 2008.  The negative economic development led to more pressure on people to work harder and perform better in order for their firm to survive. The purpose of this thesis was to explore if and how the value creation process between service providers and their customers, from a business perspective, had been influenced by the corona pandemic.  A conceptual model based on service-logic was created to shed light on potential disruptions affecting the value creation. Empirical data was collected through qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews with sales-associates employed by a mobile-operator firm in Sweden. Findings resulted in five main insights of disruptions that impact the provider and its value-creation with its customers. These include managerial decisions, unreasonable goal-setting, social distancing, new provider-customer frictions and foot-traffic, which all stemmed from decisions taken by the firm and government restrictions.   This dissertation has contributed to additional insights in how the service-logic and its various concepts regarding value creation, from a firm’s perspective, is affected during a major crisis. The difficulties experienced by sales-associates during the corona pandemic is two-fold. The sales-associates have to adhere to decisions made by the firm which often leads to more pressure to perform, and the restrictions implemented by governments leads to poor conditions for creating customer-relationships in turn. These conditions impact the firm’s ability to facilitate and co-create value with its customers.

Digitization has made major changes in how companies work internally and externally. Both markets and customers’ demands are completely different nowadays. The salesperson acts in the middle of markets, customers and companies and tries to adapt and achieve good results. The purpose of this study is to analyse important competencies and characteristics required of a salesperson to sell digital solutions. Additionally, the purpose is to identify the conditions that will support the salespersons to sell digital solutions. The objective of the study is to improve the sales process of digital solutions. The process from the first customer contact to the quotation will only be studied in this survey due to delimitations. A qualitative method is applied with an iterative approach where the data collection consists of a literature study, participant observation, unstructured and semi-structured interviews. The data collection were processed with thematic analysis. The literature study includes a deeper study of Digital Solution Sales, Value Co-Creation and Team selling. Most of the interviews were executed with employees at ABB, a world leader company in power and automation technology. Three of ABB:s costumers participated in the data collection as well.

Compared to traditional in-store shopping, online shopping has several benefits which implies that an increasingly number of consumers are shopping over the internet. Despite the popularity of online shopping, there are also several problems and negative aspects with this consumption approach. Previous service research has to a small extent studied value formation in relation to online shopping. In addition, research on value formation has mostly investigated positive aspects in the terms of value co-creation. On the other hand, the negative aspects of value formation, which are termed value co- destruction, have not been investigated to the same extent. This study is based on the service-dominant logic perspective on value formation where a qualitative research of consumers' experiences of online shopping was conducted. This in purpose to increase the understanding of how consumers co-create and co-destroy value in online shopping, and thus contribute to knowledge development in research on value formation. In order to collect empirical data, semi-structured interviews have been used to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between online shopping and value formation. The results of the study were subsequently analyzed in relation to the theoretical framework. The most important findings of the study are that consumer expectations are central in value formation. When these expectations are fulfilled consumers experience online shopping as value co-creation, but when expectations are not fulfilled it becomes value co-destruction. The findings of this study are in line with previous research on the fact that a congruence regarding which engagements, procedures and understandings that are relevant in a specific interaction implicates value co-creation and that incongruence instead results in value co-destruction. One contradiction to previous research, however, is that incongruent perceptions of praxis in a given interaction are not always negative since the findings from this study shows that consumer expectations have sometimes been exceeded. Hence, value co-creation has occurred despite incongruent perceptions. The study also shows that value-in-exchange is at least as important as value-in-use since many consumers choose online shopping because of cheaper prices. / Jämfört med traditionell handel i butik är onlineshopping förknippat med ett flertal fördelar vilket inneburit att allt fler konsumenter handlar över internet. Trots onlineshoppingens popularitet finns det också åtskilliga problem och negativa aspekter med detta konsumtionssätt. Tidigare tjänsteforskning har i liten utsträckning studerat värdeformering i samband med onlineshopping. Forskning kring värdeformering har dessutom mestadels undersökt positiva aspekter i form av värdesamskapande. De negativa aspekterna av värdeformering, som benämns värdesamförstörande, har däremot inte undersökts i samma utsträckning. Denna studie utgår från det tjänstedominanta perspektivet på värdeformering där en kvalitativ undersökning av konsumenters upplevelser av onlineshopping genomförts. Detta i syfte att bidra till att öka förståelse för hur konsumenter samskapar respektive samförstör värde vid onlineshopping och därmed bidra till kunskapsutveckling inom forskningen om värdeformering. För insamlandet av empiriska data har semistrukturerade intervjuer använts för att få en djupare förståelse kring relationen mellan onlineshopping och värdeformering. Studiens resultat har därefter analyserats i förhållande till det teoretiska ramverket. De viktigaste resultaten från studien är att konsumenternas förväntningar är centrala vid värdeformering. När dessa förväntningar uppfylls upplever konsumenterna onlineshoppingen som värdesamskapande, men när förväntningarna istället inte uppfylls blir det värdesamförstörande. Studiens resultat går i linje med tidigare forskning kring att en kongruens gällande vilka mål, regler och kunskaper som är relevanta vid en specifik interaktion medför värdesamskapande och att en inkongruens istället resulterar i värdesamförstörande. En motsägelse mot tidigare forskning är dock att inkongruenta uppfattningar kring praxis vid en viss interaktion inte alltid är negativa i och med att studiens resultat visar på att konsumenternas förväntningar ibland har överträffats. Därav har värdesamskapande skett trots inkongruenta uppfattningar. Studien visar även på att värde i utbytet är minst lika viktigt som värde i användandet på grund av att många konsumenter väljer onlineshopping till följd av billigare priser.

Presented dissertation is involved in the issue of marketing communication within the framework of relations among supplier/producer of materials – producer of clothing – retailer and customer in the outdoor clothing segment in the Czech Republic. A specific role of the customer is considered in the context of the value co-creation concept with the emphasis on the development and increase of perceived value. A primary objective of the dissertation is the identification of new approaches to the marketing communication with customers within the framework of mentioned relations with the stress on the determination of the synergistic effect of mentioned relations in the influence of various forms of communication to the customers. Partial objectives are defined in link with this objective. The dissertation objectives and individual hypotheses, in which submitted dissertation is interested in, are defined on the basis of the analysis of theoretical starting points and secondary data. Conducted primary research then combines qualitative and quantitative approaches aiming at the analysis and description of the individual parts. Results of research are presented both in the form of partial conclusions characterizing the individual spheres and in the form of summary conclusion. In the formulation of conclusions a strong emphasis is put on the visualization in the form of schematic illustrations of identified principles. The dissertation contains conclusions and recommendations offered to the individual involved parties. The dissertation conclusion summarizes contributions to science and research, practical as well as educational applications. A complex philosophy of the exploration of the theme is completed with an introduction of restrictions of carried-out research and incentives for further research studies in this particular field.

The megatrend of digitalisation is transforming society, individuals, companies, and industries through the widespread adoption of new digital technologies. Among the emerging technologies, digital twin technology is regarded as a key enabler of digital transformation in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Facility Management (AEC/FM) industry, where the transition from BIM to digital twins is primarily driven by the emergence of big data. One of the aspects of digitalisation is the ability to customise and create customer-tailored solutions using data, which highlights the importance of adopting human-centric approaches for companies. Service-Dominant (S-D) logic, a theoretical perspective originating from marketing and service science, is based on a customer-centric approach to value creation and emphasises the importance of co-creating value with customers. Currently, the research on digital twins in the AEC/FM industry remains limited, focusing mainly on the technical aspects of digital twins. Although previous research has attempted to bridge the gap regarding managerial implications of digital twins by placing them in the context of S-D logic, such research is still scarce and introductory. This master thesis aims to contribute to the expansion of the managerial perspective by exploring digital twins in the context of S-D logic, by viewing digital twins as a service and focusing on their value co-creation potential. This is achieved by employing a qualitative research method and conducting nine semi-structured interviews with the Swedish industry practitioners working with digital twin technology. Thematic analysis was employed to identify, analyse, and interpret patterns in the qualitative data. The findings indicate that the primary value of digital twins is found in the transformation of data into customisable digital services tailored to customers' goals and purposes, which allows for value co-creation between suppliers and customers. Furthermore, the study concludes that digital twins in the Swedish AEC/FM industry are perceived as digital service platforms. This perception of digital twins as digital service platforms can be referred to in terms of collaborative digital platforms, which allows to view digital twins in the context of platform economy and opens new perspectives for future research. / Digitaliseringen är en megatrend som påverkar samhället, individer, företag och branscher genom användningen av nya digitala teknologier. Digitala tvillingar anses vara viktiga för att genomföra digital transformation inom samhällsbyggnadsektorn. Övergången från BIM till digitala tvillingar drivs främst av framstegen inom big data. En annan aspekt av digitaliseringen är möjligheten att skapa anpassade lösningar baserade på kunddata. Det blir allt viktigare att anamma ett individbaserat synssätt i utvecklingen av nya tjänster och produkter inom samhällsbyggnadssektorn. Därför utgår denna studie ifrån det teoretiska perspektivet service-dominant logic (SDL) som har sina rötter inom marknadsföring och är baserat på ett gemensamt värdeskapande mellan kund och leverantör. Det finns begränsad forskning om digitala tvillingar och den fokuserar främst på tekniska aspekter. Det finns ett fåtal studier som belyser användningen av digitala tvillingar ur ett ledningsperspektiv, vilket indikerar ett behov av vidare forskning för att bättre förstå värdepotentialen av digitala tvillingar inom samhällsbyggnadssektorn.Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka användning och värdepotentialen av digitala tvillingar ur ett SDL-perspektiv och därigenom betrakta tekniken som en tjänst som samskapar värde mellan de som levererar den och de som använder den. Studien är baserad på en kvalitativ forskningsansats och inbegriper nio semi-strukturerade intervjuer med svenska branschaktörer som arbetar med digitala tvillingar. Genom tematisk analys identifierades, analyserades och tolkades mönster i det kvalitativa materialet, såsom värde, resurser och kontext i vilket digitala tvillingar skapas.  Resultaten indikerar att det främsta värdet av digitala tvillingar ligger i möjligheten att omvandla data till anpassningsbara digitala tjänster som är skräddarsydda för att uppfylla kundens specifika mål och syften. Detta skapar möjligheter för värdeskapande mellan leverantörer och kunder. Studien konkluderar att digitala tvillingar kan betraktas som digitala tjänsteplattformar. Denna uppfattning om digitala tvillingar som digitala tjänsteplattformar kan relateras till samarbetsinriktade digitala plattformar, vilket öppnar upp nya perspektiv för framtida forskning på området.

Background: Today most companies strive to offer logistics services in a highly competitive market. In the ecommerce sector a WMS is a crucial element since these systems can handle different amounts of volumes. Implementing such a system can contribute positively to the value creation. By focusing more on value co-creation rather than the value exchanged, companies can create more effective supply chains that benefit all actors involved. Purpose: The study’s purpose is conducted in partnership with Extenda Retail. The aim is to explore the implementation of a warehouse management system (WMS) from a value co-creation perspective. Based on the purpose two research questions have been formulated: What are the challenges associated with implementing a WMS? Which resources enrich value co-creation in the process of a WMS implementation according to a company's perspective? Method: The study is of a case study with Extenda Retail, and the method of data collection was semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Results and Analysis: Value co-creation has always been a theory of discussion, with many actors and resources involved. The results emphasized knowledge, skills, customer involvement, user training and testing are factors that both contribute and challenge the value co-creation process. Conclusion: The findings show that applying a value co-creation lens has a significant role in effective warehouse management. Where resources from both company and customers are vital for the success of value co-creation. For example customer involvement, as in feedback, and request. Along with knowledge, and skills to manage a WMS, in the form of user training will ensure that the value of the product may be realized. The challenges identified for the study are as follows, balancing cost and quality, unmotivated customers, misinformation, changes and additions made to the scope. Future research: As our study is mainly focused from a company perspective, we suggest investigating the customer’s perspective and their experiences regarding resources integration, value co-creation and their interactions with their supplier.

Denna studie undersöker och analyserar sponsringssamarbeten på lokal nivå med avgränsning mot lokala fotbollsföreningar i Göteborg. Avgränsning beror till stor del på den ökade populariteten bland sponsorer att engagera sig i lokala fotbollsföreningar. Sponsringssamarbeten är generellt sett ett populärt sätt för företag och organisationer att exponera sig på, dels i varumärkesstärkande syfte men också i försäljningssyfte. Det är också ett fenomen som är välstuderat och det finns mycket detaljerad litteratur om dess förekomst och genomförande. Däremot upplever vi ett gap i litteraturens hänsyn till lokala sponsringssamarbeten och samarbeten som inte drivs av organisationers ambition att exponera sig på de allra största scenerna, trots dess ökade popularitet. Det är också därför vi anser att det krävs ny information och litteratur om detta avgränsade fenomen.I denna kvalitativa, explorativa, studie tar vi ett abduktivt angreppssätt med syfte att skapa ökad förståelse för vad som driver sponsringssamarbete mellan sponsor och förening inom lokalfotbollen. Målet är att undersöka vilka etiska överväganden som tas av både den som sponsrar samt föreningen och vad det upplevda värdesamskapandet är. Vi valde att formulera följande forskningsfrågor för att underbygga syftet: -    Vad är det upplevda värdet för sponsor respektive förening vid värdesamskapandet mellan aktörerna genom sponsringssamarbete? -    Vilka etiska överväganden tar sponsorer och föreningar då de ingår i ett sponsorsamarbete med hänsyn till involvering av barn och ungdomar? Vi kom fram till att det huvudsakliga värdet som respektive aktör upplevde var finansiering genom monetära medel för föreningarna samtidigt som sponsorerna i huvudsak fick innehåll för sitt arbete inom Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Vidare upplevde sponsorerna ytterligare värde genom ökad intern och extern legitimitet genom sitt engagemang på lokala nivåer. Samtidigt visade båda aktörer i samarbetet en angelägenhet att upprätthålla och utveckla sina värderingar och etiska koder. Däremot saknades tydliga processer för hur dessa skulle upprätthållas och stor del av det etiska hänsynstagandet genomfördes innan samarbetet initierades samt vid tillfällen då det tydligt uppdagades brister i värderingsarbetet. / This paper examines and analyzes sponsorship collaborations on a local level with a limitation to local football clubs in Gothenburg. The limitation is largely due to the growing popularity among sponsors to get involved in local football clubs. Sponsorship collaborations are generally a popular way for companies and organizations to gain exposure, partly for brand-strengthening purposes but also for sales purposes. Sponsorship-marketing is a well-studied phenomenon with very detailed literature on its occurrence and implementation. However, despite its increased popularity, we have identified a gap in the literature's consideration of local sponsorship collaborations and collaborations that are not driven by organizations' ambition to gain acknowledgments on a macro-level. This is also why we believe that new information and literature is needed about this very specific subject.In this exploratory qualitative study, we take an abductive approach with the goal to increase the understanding of what drives sponsorship collaborations between sponsors and local football clubs. The goal is to examine what ethical considerations are taken by both the sponsor and the club. More so, we are interested to ascertain what value each actor extract from the value co-creation process due to the sponsorship. We chose to formulate the following research questions to accommodate the purpose: -    What is the perceived value that each actor extracts from the value co-creation process due to sponsorship collaborations? -    What ethical considerations do sponsors and local football clubs take when they are a part of a sponsorship collaboration with regard to the involvement of children and youngsters? We came to the conclusion that the main perceived value was funding through monetary funds for the football clubs, while the sponsors mainly received value through content for their work within Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Furthermore, the sponsors experienced additional value through increased internal and external legitimacy through their local involvement and willingness to engage with the community. Ethically, both actors in the collaboration showed an interest in maintaining and developing their values  and ethical codes. However, there were no clear processes for how these were to be maintained and a large part of the ethical assurance ws managed before the sponsorships were initiated and when shortcomings of their respective partner were discovered by the public.This paper is written in swedish.

The number of companies who base their business model on digital platforms has increased in the recent years. Successful examples of digital platforms are e.g., Airbnb, Klarna or Uber. Compared to traditional linear value chains the value creation process in digital platforms is characterized by co-creation between multiple actors who exchange resources through interactions to mutually create value. Because of this fundamental difference in the value creation process it is necessary to research value creation in digital platform. Screening the literature has however shown that there is research gap in understandthe value creation process in digital platforms. Therefore, this thesis aims to understand this context by conducting a case study-based research. For this purpose, the start-up company Eljun is chosen that creates a digital wallet for customers to proceed payments for sustainable transportations. By conducting semi-structured interviews with the central actors of the platform we received insights that allow us to answer the three research questions. The value proposition canvas for the first research question has shown that the technical integration, costs, and lack of uncertainty are negative perceived values by the actors and positive values result from synergy effects in the platform like enhancing reach and customer experience by offering complementary services. For the second question we appliedthe view of service-dominant logic to analyse what facilitates value cocreation in the platform which led to the following themes: Adopting customer centric approach, stimulating purposeful communication, fostering collaborative development, cultivating transparent and fair interaction. For the third questions we derived barriers and motivators for value co-creation that are connected to a shared mission, competition, organizational & industrial readiness, number of actors and end-users, and the design of boundary resources.

Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D-printing, allows for rapid prototyping and complex design and gives an insight into how customers may use recent technology to co-create value. Metal additive manufacturing reaching market maturity broadens the playing field for the ability to create personalized products. The idea of value co-creation places customers in the center. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how customers engage in collaborative processes where aesthetics and embodied experiences manifest with the development of new products. By empirically researching the phenomenon in the field of technology and understanding the roles of aesthetics, customer-centered approaches to innovation may become more fruitful. This research applies technology entrepreneurship studies with aesthetics, more specifically the embodied processes that occur during the value co-creation of complex technology. A 4-month micro-ethnography of an AM firm was conducted to explore the aesthetics of value co-creation. Expanding on the work of Elias et al. (2018) and Aarikka-Stenroos and Jaakkola (2012), value co-creation in a complex technology field was explored. The key insight in this thesis is that customers may come with valuable contributions during the commercialization of technology, not only when trying to make sense of the technology, but also insights into where the technology may be applied.