Customers in a service setting sometimes seek support from other customers; recent research has demonstrated this phenomenon. This research also found that intercustomer social support has a positive impact on consumer health, as well as the financial returns for the company. Given these positive effects for firms and customers, organizations can benefit from fostering social connections among their customers. While past research has investigated the positive consequences of intercustomer social support, little research to date has investigated the firm’s strategic role in fostering intercustomer social support. The current research seeks to understand key tactics a firm can use to promote intercustomer social support. Using network theory, the present research investigates the impact of network drivers on different dimensions of intercustomer social support. Results demonstrate that identification with the company, employees and customers is significantly associated with levels of instrumental intercustomer social support. Further, the number of customer ties, along with the amount of information flow and the strength of these ties, all impact instrumental and social/emotional social support. Last, this research presents the positive effects that intercustomer social support has on various customer, firm and co-creation outcomes. Contributions to marketing theory and managerial implications are also presented.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe how value propositions can be seen as an operant resource in a wireless environment, for service providers’ opportunity to co-create value with their customers. To see how a service provider offer service in a wireless environment interviews have been conducted at Westra Wermlands Sparbank with the focus on service offered through a smartphone application. The findings in the empirical study was that the service provider does not have the opportunity to actively instruct its customers in a wireless environment since the majority of the customers get the smartphone application on their own without processing from the service provider. What the service provider therefore can do is to integrate its instructions into the smartphone application so it is easy to understand and to show the customers what possibilities they have when using it. Thereby the offered value proposition can be seen as an operant resource in a wireless environment. Moreover, the service provider gets the opportunity to co-create value with its customers.

Studien tog avstamp i det senaste decenniets utveckling inom marknadsteori med avseende på samvärdeskapande, tjänstelogik och konsumenters resursintegrering. Efter att ha läst forskningsartiklar och inlägg i media om ett skifte i synen på konsumenters allt viktigare roll ville vi närmare studera hur den tar sig uttryck inom marknadskommunikation. Studiens syfte blev att bidra till den relativt outvecklade forskningen på området och studera hur en förändrad konsumentroll tar sig uttryck i praktiken. Undersökningen genomfördes med empiriska fallstudier på sju kommunikationskampanjer där konsumenterna i olika grad deltagit och interagerat med företaget. Genom ostrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med nyckelpersoner bakom kommunikationskampanjerna, samt insamling av sekundärdata från konsumenter i sociala media sökte vi besvara hur konsumenter kan bidra till värdeskapande inom deltagande marknadskommunikation? Studien visade att konsumenter kan bidra genom att använda och integrera sina fysiska, sociala och kulturella operanta resurser som familjerelationer, nätverk, energi och särskilda färdigheter. De integrerar dels egna typer av operanta resurser i kampanjdeltagandet, men de integrerar också resurser med andra konsumenter och företag. Hur, och i vilken omfattning detta skedde berodde på hur företaget genom att integrera sina resurser konstruerat en interaktiv plattform genom kommunikationskampanjen. I konsumenters frivilliga deltagande, interaktion och relation med företaget kan värde skönjas som det diskuterats i litteratur om tjänstelogik och konsumenters resursintegrering. Brister i dubbelriktad kommunikation, tillgänglighet och möjlighet att påverka gör dock att kommunikationen sällan kan tolkas som samvärdeskapande.

Purpose        The overall purpose is to describe how manufacturing companies involve customers in order to develop new innovations that meet customers’ needs, and furthermore illustrate how the customer involvement process can be managed. By investigating companies in similar industries where the degree of technology and pace of innovation is high, we clarify how, when and with who companies can engage activities for customer involvement.  Method In this qualitative study, we use a deductive approach, where individual interviews were conducted in two case companies.  Theoretical framework In the theoretical framework we introduce the DART-model, in which building blocks of the interaction between companies and customers are treated. Connected to this, we discuss problems regarding transferring customer needs and receiving customer input. Furthermore we highlight conflicting methods of customer involvement, different types of customers to involve and different stages in which the interaction should take place.  Empirical study Empirical data were collected through personal interviews with six business managers at the headquarters of Electrolux and Volvo Cars.  Conclusion  In contrary to the overwhelming literary hype of open innovation where companies are suggested to actively co-create value together with the customers, our findings indicate that companies learn proactively from passive customers in the early stages of the NPD-process to acquire unarticulated needs in order to create customer value. These are conscious decisions to avoid opening up the companies to the customers in terms of transparency and access. This subsequently accompanies the further process for how, when and who to involve, as the process goes from proactive towards stepwise more traditional reactive methods of customer involvement for product innovation

Globalisation and competition from low-cost countries has pushed manufacturing firms towards offering services to remain competitive. However, increasing the service orientation of a manufacturing firm to find new ways of value (co-)creation has presented several challenges, such as the fact that services do not provide the expected revenues, and resistance from both the sales force and from customers towards services. The aim of this thesis is to understand challenges linked to increasing service orientation in manufacturing firms, by means of goods and service business logics. The thesis emphasises the three dimensions of business logics – value perspective, service business strategy, and service offering – and studies them empirically in service divisions in the pulp and paper industry and in the automotive industry. The findings show that firms with inconsistency between the three dimensions face certain challenges. Most often, the firms have a value perspective of goods business logic, but a service business strategy and a service offering of service business logic. Therefore, the most important and most difficult challenge to overcome in order to increase a manufacturing firm’s service orientation is the employees’ value perspective. Three service manoeuvres were key to overcoming this challenge: changing employees’ mind-sets, starting to value services, and separating products and services. Although separating products and services could be assessed as a service manoeuvre consistent with goods business logic, it facilitated an increased service orientation. The fact that goods business logic manoeuvres led to a higher degree of service orientation, whereas service business logic manoeuvres did not always do so, is discussed as a service orientation paradox.

Studien ”Att skapa innovation” är en kvalitativ studie med syfte att undersöka organisatoriska faktorers påverkan för främjandet av innovativa processer samt att besvara frågeställningen ”Hur skapas framgångsrika innovativa processer?”. Med organisatoriska faktorer avses främst ledarskap och organisationskultur i kreativa miljöer. Med ett tvåstegsurval genererades sammanlagt tolv respondenter till studien. Genom ett strategiskt samt ett snöbollsurval identifierades fem framgångsrika reklam- och kommunikationsbyråer genom Regi och Dagens Industris rankning ”Årets byrå”. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes på respektive byrås huvudkontor. Frågorna behandlade teoretiska teman ur teori och tidigare forskning såsom kreativitet, innovationsprocess, organisationskultur, ledarskap samt kontextuella faktorer (Tidd & Bessant, 2013; Nahavandi, 2014; Aasen & Amundsen 2010; Salerno et al., 2014; Alvesson, 2004). Företagen som medverkat i studien är Spoon, Silver, Dear Friends, Abakus samt Åkestam. Holst. Resultatet visar att majoriteten av de undersökta företagen har utvecklat en anpassad innovationsmodell likt föreslagen av Salernos et al. (2014) för säljanpassade, innovativa samt kundberoende småföretag. Betydelsen av ledarskap i kreativa miljöer samt en öppen och tillåtande organisationskultur poängterades av respondenterna. Vidare behandlas öppen innovation och co-creation i resultat, analys och diskussion som betydande faktorer. Diskussionsavsnittet inkluderar även en föreslagen modell för innovationsprocessen kombinerad av vald teori, tidigare forskning sammansatt med respondenterna svar – utifrån identifierade brister och förtjänster. Slutligen ses sammansättningen av mångfaldiga team som särskilt betydande tillsammans med ledarskap, öppen innovation och co-creation samt organisationskultur i skapandet av framgångsrika innovativa processer.

Digital platforms have established new ways within marketing for consumers and brands to interact. This has called for a paradigm shift denoting a phenomenon of shifting consumer and company roles, creating opportunities for interaction and value creation. Nike – the worlds biggest sports apparel company – has succeeded in embracing these new conditions with their digital service application Nike+ and the related brand community. This case study of Nike+ sets out to investigate how these new structural conditions of digital platforms have affected the interactions between consumer and firm at the level of the brand. Ten semi- structured interviews with users of the Nike+ application were conducted together with a netnography of the Nike Running forum on Facebook. The data revealed how firms with the use of digital platforms, independent of locational boundaries, can form a synergy that allows for interaction and value creation for both brand and consumer. Consumers are given flexibility in the creation of brand experience, through the resources facilitated by the brand, hence having the opportunity to create and co-create useful value. From the process of this synergy brands are given a “second life” in the digitized sphere. A “second life” where consumer and brand process cooperate in order to influence each other’s processes as well as being a way to claim a central place in the everyday life of the consumer.

Influencer marketing has become a buzz word within the industry over the last few years. However, marketers claim that the industry needs to focus on a more quality-driven approach for brand collaborations instead of just looking after follower numbers and the potential brand awareness guaranteed by them. Therefore, the aspects and interests behind the collaborations of companies and influencers become of more importance. This research project aims for gathering more insights on the current and future collaboration practices in order to answer the question of how potential conflicts of interest between companies and influencers can be better managed. The choice of this research topic was driven by the fact that existing literature approaching influencer marketing and the collaboration practices between companies and influencers so far mainly focuses on the company’s perspective and thereby leaves out the interests of the influencers engaging in brand collaborations. Thereby, a research gap was identified that clearly emphasises the influencers’ perspective on currentcollaboration practices and expectations for future collaborations. Thus, the influencers’ perspective on potential conflicts of interest and critical aspects within collaborations were analysed in order to develop suggestions for better managing conflicts of interests between those two parties in the future. In order to gather the necessary insights qualitative interviews among seven Instagram influencers and two representatives from influencer marketing agencies were conducted. The findings of this thesis revealed three main critical aspects for successful future collaborations between companies and influencers to manage potential conflicts of interest; a stronger focus on a qualitative fit, a more transparent communication and a knowledge improvement about the influencer marketing business. In connection to the existing literature the findings suggested that the co-creation of brands and the building of brand partnerships can support the management of potential conflicts of interest and furthermore help to prevent them from the beginning on. From a theoretical perspective this thesis bridged the identified research gap by analysing the collaboration between companies and influencers from an influencer perspective and thereby suggested the use of co-creation as a theoretical framework for managing conflicts of interest within brand collaborations. Moreover, the findings revealed practical implications for the influencer marketing industry in regards to the need of more interactive dialogues, a more qualitative selection of collaboration partners and the necessity for a deeper examination and knowledge improvement of the influencer marketing industry in the future.

This PhD by publication draws on a range of publications from the last five years. These books, papers and chapters explore tourist motivation and experiences in a range of contemporary contexts. The body of work moves from mainstream discussion around sustainability and slow tourism in the tourist decision making process to the use of visual media to explore, understand and co-create tourist spaces, investigating related tourist subcultures and counter-cultural destinations. In particular the work focuses on Urban Exploration and, later, on cold war sites. My papers consider both tourist decision making in relation to planned visits, and the subsequent publication of images of places which have been visited. The work considers authenticity and visuality as components of the dissatisfaction with modern tourism, and the experiences it offers, I argue that this dissatisfaction is driving tourists to understand, engage with and experience tourist sites in new ways, seeking liminality and embodiment within the tourist experience. The study will develop this analysis through four key areas:  A clarification of the role of tourism within advanced societies and as a multidisciplinary field of research.  An evaluation of authenticity, visuality and urban exploration  A critical review of tourist consumption, prosumption and co-creation  A review of the methodologies adopted through the papers submitted for this PhD by publication to explore the mixed-method approaches to data collection and the centrality of visual methodologies and discourses in understanding tourism and tourism geography. An exploration of the role of real and virtual experiences in deconstructing and reconstructing urban tourist experiences to evaluate the factors which influence and inform tourist decision making.

The purpose of this thesis was exploring stakeholder influence on brand identity co-creation in startups, by answering the research question: "How do stakeholders influence brand identity co-creation in startups?". To answer this question, a multiple case study was conducted, consisting of interviews with six B2C (business-to-customer) startups. Furthermore, the startups studied are all tenants of incubators. This context is of interest, since incubators have been suggested to provide extensive resources and knowledge for startups struggling with their businesses' establishment. To analyze the data from the case studies, mainly the Corporate Brand Identity Matrix (Urde, 2013) was used, which helps to provide an overview of how different elements of brand identity are co-created with stakeholders in startups. In addition, to study this subject requires an overview and discussion of brand management research, stakeholder theory and co-creation litertature.  The findings show that several of the brand identity elements are co-created with stakeholders in startups. The stakeholders identified in co-creation are several, mainly cusomers, financiers, producers, designers and programmers. Furthermore, an interesting correlation between startups' orientations and co-creation, was discovered. The startups with a mainly market-oriented approach to branding are co-creating the brand identity elements to a much further extent, than brand-oriented startups. Finally, incubators are revealed as co-creators of several of the brand identity elements in startups, but the study also provides further insightsd into their important role in supporting the startups and facilitating networking opportunities.