Bakgrund: Den ökade globaliseringen har ökat konkurrensen på B2B marknaden markant. Detta har bidragit till att det blir allt mer aktuellt att se till interaktionen som sker mellan olika företag och till det värde som uppstår i samspelet mellan olika aktörer för att kunna differentiera sitt värdeerbjudande från konkurrenterna. Den expanderande marknaden lämnade även utrymme för mjuka värden som går att spåra tillbaka till marknadsföraren - som länge ansetts vara av liten vikt inom B2B, såsom relationer och intellektuellt kapital. Syfte: Studien syftar till att addera ett perspektiv på värdesamskapande processer inom B2B genom att se till den externa marknadsföraren i interaktion och i olika faser av varumärkesbyggande. Eftersom varje aktör gör stort avtryck inom B2B bidrar studien till befintlig forskning genom att observera marknadsföraren som extern aktör i en kontext där deras roll hittills är bristfälligt granskad. Metod: Studiens metod består av semistrukturerade intervjuer som hade utgångspunkt i en intervjuguide, en fallstudie som innehöll flertalet deltagande observationer och som pågick under 4 månader samt dokumentstudier. Metoden och kodning av materialet utgick från studiens valda referensram; tjänstelogiken och Servbrand Framework. Den valda metoden identifierades som mest lämplig för att komma åt respondenternas och de studerade objektets egna erfarenheter och perspektiv inom den valda domänen. Resultat: Resultatet visar att marknadsförarens roll är av essentiell karaktär inom alla faser. De egenskaper som var mest avgörande initialt visade sig vara marknadsförarens förmåga att tolka kunden och alla omständigheter som präglade varumärket samt att kunna tydligt kunna kommunicera dess värden i interaktion. Denna kommunikation visade sig genomgående vara viktigt att upprätthålla för att bygga ett starkt varumärke. Slutsatser: Studien bekräftar att Servbrand Framework är en relevant modell för varumärkesbyggande inom B2B även ur marknadsförarens perspektiv. De kvaliteter knutna till marknadsföraren som var avgörande för värdesamskapande kunde härledas från de aspekter som ingick i de olika faserna. Det är när immateriella resurser hos marknadsföraren saknas som man misslyckas med att skapa värde i interaktion. / Background: The increased globalization has significantly promoted competition in the B2B market. This has contributed to the growing importance of considering the interaction that takes place between different companies and the value that emerges from the interplay among various actors, in order to differentiate one's value proposition from competitors. The expanding market has also created room for intangible values that can be traced back to the marketer – which previously have been regarded as of little importance in the B2B context – such as relationships and intellectual capital. Purpose: The study aims to add a perspective on value-creating processes in the B2B market by looking at the external marketer in interaction and in different phases of branding. Since each actor makes a big impression in B2B, the study contributes to existing research by observing the marketer as an external actor in a context where their role has so far been insufficiently examined. Methodology: The study utilized a mixed-methods approach, incorporating semi-structured interviews based on an interview guide, a case study involving multiple participant observations conducted over a four-month period, and document analysis. The methodology and coding of the material were guided by the chosen theoretical framework of service dominant logic and the Servbrand Framework. The selected method was deemed most appropriate for capturing the respondents' and the studied objects' own experiences and perspectives within the chosen domain. Findings: The results indicate that the role of marketers is of essential nature across all phases. The characteristics that were most crucial initially were found to be the marketer's ability to interpret the customer and all the circumstances that influenced the brand, as well as effectively communicating its values in interactions. This communication was found to be important for maintaining a strong brand. Conclusion: The study confirms that the Servbrand Framework is a relevant model for brand building in B2B, even from the marketer's perspective. The qualities associated with the marketer that were crucial for value creation could be traced back to the aspects included in the different phases. It is when the marketer lacks intangible resources that value creation in interactions fails.

Co-creation is nowadays a booming activity implemented by companies in order to be closer to their customers and to fulfil their needs. By using co-creation, a company involves their customers in the process of creation aiming to get ideas and insights that allow the company to launch a new product or to improve an existing product. Nevertheless, most of the companies think that implementing a co-creation process is a question of methodology. Companies believe that by building on a formalized method and by using a step-by-step implementation, the co-creation will be successful. The truth speaks something else. Recently, researchers started to pop-up trying to highlight how the co-creation is a complex process arising the likelihood of having a value co- destruction rather than a value co-creation as a result of the process. Further, in 2015, a study states the importance of studying and understanding the negative consequences of value co-creation. For these reasons, the purpose of our thesis is to understand the downsides of co-creation during new product development and their effects on the relationship between the company and the customers. Our research question is: What are the downsides of the co-creation process and their effects on the relationship between the company and customers during new product development? In order to answer this question, we conducted a qualitative study to collect our primary data using an in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data have been collected from eleven participants involved in the co-creation field. From experts of co-creation to designers and researchers, we wanted to have a practitioner point of view rather than from a customer perspective. Indeed, the objectives of conducting these interviews were to gain a focus understanding and a comprehensive perception of the individuals using, implementing, researching on, or consulting about the co-creation process. From the data collected, we analysed our interviews using a thematic network analysis approach. From then, we tested and discussed our empirical results and our concepts from our theoretical frame of references. Through the analysis of the interviews data, we are able to state that there are four main downsides of the co-creation process during new product development: misbehaviour of the company, mismanagement of the environment, miscommunication and mismanagement of the process. The effects of these downsides will affect: the company, the product, the customer satisfaction, trust and commitment and the emotions. Further, we are capable to confirm the importance of the variables of trust, commitment and customer satisfaction in the management of a relationship. Finally, we compromise the idea of customer self-blaming, and the term of “failure”. Indeed, our analysis shows that the responsibility of co-creation belongs to the company that owns the project. Hence, the customer will not blame themselves or feel guilty in case of unsuccessful outcomes. Interestingly, our analysis debates about the use of the term failure to express unexpected negative outcomes from the process. We conclude that a mismanaged co-creation can be perceived as a learning process rather than a failure per se, leading us to confirm that we cannot consider the co-creation outcome as a failure.

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.

This paper explores value co-creation and value co-destruction with a focus on the social practices embedded in the online brand community “My Starbucks Idea (MSI).” The objectives of the research are accomplished through a detailed explanation of the study’s stages, starting with the Research design/Planning, and followed by the Community Entry (Entrée), Data collection, Limitations, and Ethical implications. Since the study is exploratory in character, the qualitative research strategy was used. As Bryman and Bell (2011) note, qualitative research gives particular attention to words rather than numbers in the gathering and interpretation of data. This study applied a modified ‘netnographic’ approach, a new qualitative method devised specifically to investigate consumer behaviour vis-à-vis cultures and communities present on the Internet (Kozinets 1998). This study identifies three elements of practice: stalking, gossip, and exhibitionism. It also supports the idea stated by Echeverri & Skålén (2011) that there is no positive without a negative in interactive value formation. Although those authors’ work was focused on the provider-customer interface, the idea proves applicable to the online brand community (OBC) used for illustration in this study. The present study also draws attention to a vital characteristic of practice often forgotten: ‘Language’ as an enabler of all other elements (Whittington 2006). The paper contributes to the knowledge in the practice theory domain, and thus consumer culture, especially relating to OBCs. When using OBCs as a marketing tool, considerable ingenuity must be employed by business managers to gain strategic information and feedback from online forum discussions. Such information can help in the company’s strategic decision making. By building relationships and gaining new customers through the process of collaboration, managers can become more like brand storytellers. Also, such communication can be channelled as a means to create greater awareness, both of the brand and the users’ experiences, along with aiding in the development of better services and products to meet customers’ needs. In the current study, consent was an ethical concern that limited the scope and path taken by the paper. The ten-week research period was another limiting factor in properly covering all of the contextualized consumption activities and gaining sufficient experience within the MSI community.

In recent years, AI has received increased attention in the field of marketing and is believed to grow even more in the future. It seems that the use of AI in marketing has a significant impact on consumer value creation. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how consumers experience the role of AI-marketing within the scope of the online customer journey, including how both positive and negative aspects of AI-based decision aids influence their value co-creation. Based on previous research, a conceptual model was created to determine whether consumers co-create or co-destroy value in the interactions with AI-based decision aids, as well as which types of values that are the outcomes. Three focus groups were used as a qualitative method to collect empirical data. Findings resulted in two main insights. Firstly, consumers experience the role of AI-based decision aids positively and can co-create values regarding economic and efficiency benefits, facilitation of information search, and more inspiring, personal and relevant experiences. Secondly, AI-based decision aids are also perceived negatively and contribute to co-destruction of value as well. Consumers experienced negative aspects regarding manipulation, limitations and loss of integrity and autonomy, as well as risks of overspending, being misled and distracted, and having irrelevant experiences. This thesis contributes with new insights into the consumer perspective of AI-marketing. Marketers can use these results to understand consumers’ value creation and avoid the negative aspects to achieve the best possible AI-marketing strategies.