The aim of this thesis is to explore and illustrate empirically how brand values are co-created in communication by users on a corporate Facebook page. The text from two months of conversa-tion on IKEA Sweden’s Facebook page has been analyzed using qualitative and quantitative meth-ods. The concept of value co-creation has been excessively discussed in marketing literature during the last decades. In co-creation the customers, or stakeholders, create value together with the brands, but how this happens in communication on the social media remains to be further exam-ined. This thesis takes a close perspective of the phenomenon and the result shows how a few brand values of the IKEA brand are recurrently reinforced in the text communication as IKEA and other users of their Facebook page share practical advices, emotions, and thoughts. The communication is surprisingly friendly and supportive, the atmosphere reminds of a big family, an IKEA family, even though users don’t know each other. The social values appear to be of fun-damental importance as one of the world’s largest furnisher retailers uses the world’s largest social media, and these values are co-created between the users in the IKEA Facebook community. Fur-thermore, there is a brand value of IKEA explaining that IKEA understands their customers living situations and needs. This value is continuously co-created as employees of IKEA talks with cus-tomers and learn from what is said, commented and suggested on their corporate Facebook page.

Over the past decade, the networked information environment has increased consumers’ autonomy and brought radical change to the advertising industry. Now individual consumers can reach millions of others around the world and advise them on well-known brands through home-produced video-ads, which was not as accessible in a previous era dominated by one-way marketing. The overall objective of this thesis was to examine the attitudinal, behavioural and recall effects of consumer-generated advertising (CGA) on viewing audiences. This was achieved by implementing an exploratory sequential mixed method design. During an initial qualitative phase with focus groups, seven determinants of CGA effectiveness were identified: recognition of consumer-generated advertising; advertising quality; product involvement; perceived expertise of ad creators; motivations of ad creators; scepticism towards CGA; and consumer’s creativity. The Salience-Involvement model of CGA effects was then developed and tested in two subsequent empirical studies. Study One used a 2 x 2, between-subjects experimental design in which levels of advertising Source Salience (consumer-generated vs. company-generated) and Product Involvement (low vs. high involvement) were manipulated. Results reveal a largely negative impact of salient CGA when the consumer source was not disclosed. However, under high involvement conditions, amateur CGA was more entertaining and more likely to be electronically shared with others. Meanwhile, under low involvement, brands from consumer-generated ads showed higher levels of recall. Study Two investigated how the outcomes of professional and amateur CGA change after source disclosure using a 3 x 2 x 2, between-subjects design. In this experiment, levels of Source Awareness (consumer-generated ads vs. company ads vs. no source indicated) were manipulated in addition to Source Salience and Product Involvement. Findings show that Source Awareness produces an interactive effect with Source Salience and Product Involvement, which is significant only on the Cognitive component of Attitude towards the ad and the Attractiveness component of Credibility. Thus, disclosure of consumer source is likely to enhance ad evaluations when the CGA is professionally produced and involvement is low. Meanwhile, attribution of amateur CGA to consumer source is likely to have a negative impact. Conversely, attribution of an amateur ad to company source has a favourable attitudinal effect under high involvement. In summary, this research demonstrates that in the context of CGA, the communicator-receiver similarity does not necessarily guarantee a positive response. Most importantly, the CGA’s outcome is moderated by Source Salience. Since Source Salience specifically characterises the consumer source in this context, it could potentially add another dimension to the traditional conceptualisation of the information source.

Today, many museums both around the world and in Britain are in the process of renewing, rejuvenating, refurbishing and/or rebranding themselves. These museums are actually doing this in order to be able to respond better to the evolving needs and wants of consumers, which change continuously as a result of the transformations that take place in the consumer culture. The central aim of this thesis is to investigate the paradigm shifts happening in contemporary British museums, which evolve parallel to the evolving British consumer culture. These paradigm shifts actually seem to be a reflection of the paradigm shifts that are happening in 21st century museums all around the world, in general. Museums of today are highly interested in branding and they invest in it to a great extent. This is in part due to the effects of postmodernism on museums. This fondness for branding seems to turn museums into objects of consumption, makes them like other products in the market. Another aim of this thesis is to investigate how contemporary museums are defined as objects of consumption and managed as brands. For this purpose, Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), a British museum situated in Exeter, which has been going through an inclusive refurbishment process for the last four years, has been selected for carrying out an extended case study on. Diverse data collection tools have been used such as participant and non-participant observations were made; in-depth interviews with especially staff members and also some other stakeholders like volunteers and visitors were carried out, photographs were taken; website of the museum was analysed; a lot of field notes were taken and then these data have been analysed. The RAMM example and also the literature review made on world museums in general have shown that the museums of the last century have got into the direction of uniting and co-creating value with their visitors, in their museums. This is a thorough democratization process in the museum. In order for this to take place, museums have taken the interaction and participation levels with their visitors much higher. Detailed accounts on these and other phenomena about new museums can be found in the thesis.

Mass customization (MC) constitutes a promising strategy for companies which aim to provide products which are better adapted to individual customers' aesthetic and functional preferences. Drawing on commodity theory, we argue that the perceived uniqueness of a self-designed product is a second driver of utility in MC. We find that in addition to the significant effect of aesthetic and functional fit, the perceived uniqueness of a self-designed product (1) contributes independently to the utility a customer experiences, and (2) that this effect is moderated by the consumer's need for uniqueness. In product categories which can serve this counterconformity motive for onsumers, this suggests that MC toolkits should be constructed with the objective of facilitating the creation of unique products as well as providing affirmative feedback that this uniqueness has been achieved. (authors' abstract)

No description available.

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.