Marketing literature has propagated “customer-participation” and “co-production” in the seller-buyer framework since the 1970s (Lovelock and Young 1979), yet marketing knowledge gaps exist in this area. Recent management research emphasise the need to re-evaluate how value is created for consumers and to consider the close nature of the interactions between buyers and sellers (Payne et al 2008). Vargo and Lusch’s (2004) proposed service-dominant logic reiterates this need, arguing that the “customer is always the co-creator of value”, as they are part of the system that delivers value. Understanding value co-creation is then important to management research, as it uncovers new opportunities to create “value” for customers. This also enables firms to formulate better pricing strategies. This thesis examines value co-creation attributes and how they may impact on the customer’s willingness to pay. Three studies utilising qualitative and quantitative methods have been conducted to address the research question. The first two studies employed qualitative methods to derive insights into value co-creation attributes from a comparative case study perspective under two different service contexts; the defence and healthcare industries. The third study, conducted under the higher education context, employed quantitative methods to gauge the impact of value co-creation attributes on the customers’ willingness to pay. The qualitative studies found six generic value co-creation attributes, while the quantitative study empirically verified the importance of value co-creation attributes and the fact that they may impact on the customer’s willingness to pay for a service. This thesis validates that value co-creation is important in service provision. As customers become increasingly informed and empowered, a deeper understanding of how customers co-create value with the firm is then central to marketing activities, specifically in how firms design and price their services. Therefore, this thesis contributes to marketing knowledge by proposing value co-creation attributes that have both theoretical and managerial implications.

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<p>This thesis examines customer value by studying the iPhone through its users from a Service- Dominant logic perspective. We distinguish three parts of the theory: the process of value- creation; the role of the firm; and customer involvement in shaping the offering. By conducting interviews with students in Uppsala, Sweden, we recognize three findings. First, while value is mainly created through the use of an offering the start and end of the value creating process is difficult to distinguish. Second, by interacting with the customer during the use of an offering the firm can affect the value the customer experiences. Third, by customizing an offering more value can be created, and if the customer participates in the process it is more like to succeed.</p>

This thesis examines customer value by studying the iPhone through its users from a Service- Dominant logic perspective. We distinguish three parts of the theory: the process of value- creation; the role of the firm; and customer involvement in shaping the offering. By conducting interviews with students in Uppsala, Sweden, we recognize three findings. First, while value is mainly created through the use of an offering the start and end of the value creating process is difficult to distinguish. Second, by interacting with the customer during the use of an offering the firm can affect the value the customer experiences. Third, by customizing an offering more value can be created, and if the customer participates in the process it is more like to succeed.

Offering business solutions instead of selling products has been identified by many firms as a strategy to fight against price pressure through commoditisation, to strengthen relationships with customers, and to increase ‘share of wallet’. Yet, three out of four companies selling business solutions fail to see a sustainable economic impact (Johansson et al., 2003). One approach to understanding how business solution suppliers could change this situation is to develop an understanding of the life cycle of business solutions, from idea generation to redeployment. This systematic review examines how the literature conceptualises the development, deployment and redeployment of business solutions. It systematically identifies and then analyses 31 scholarly articles contributing to our knowledge on this issue. The review discusses the literature within the framework of four aspects. Firstly, the review proposes the processes and phases of the development and deployment of business solutions. Secondly, it presents the components of the redeployment of business solutions. Thirdly, it provides information on the actors involved in the development, deployment, and redeployment of business solutions, and, fourthly, it discusses the interaction forms of these actors. The discussion shows that evidence in relation to the conceptualisation of the development, deployment, and redeployment of business solutions remains at a superficial, tentative and inconclusive level. The major limitations of the extant literature relate to the studies’ context-specificity, their lack of theoretical underpinning, and their deficiency of including actors of the supplier and/or customer network in the empirical investigation even though there is evidence that they play a role in the development, deployment, and redeployment of business solutions. Based on the limitations identified, the study suggests opportunities of further research.

User participation has long been considered as one important factor which affects the development of information management systems performance. It is believed that the cooperation between users and developers contributes to higher satisfaction and acceptance. Service has become the main economic activities in the modern society and traditional good-dominant logic has been replaced by service - dominant logic. Based on this concept, information system development can also be considered a service in which the final value determined by the extent to which the project can meet the predefined goal and fit users¡¦ needs. To maximize the value created, users should be viewed as co-producer and play a more active role in the system development process. The main research purpose of this study is to understand how users can act as value co-production in different types of information system development project. We studied three different hospital information system projects: user-initiated internal project, IT department initiated the project, and outsourcing development project. We then explored how users can co-create value under different contexts. By using case study approach and based on service-dominant logic concept, we identified the importance of user co-production and clarify the role that users may play. The results of this study can contribute to system development project and serve as a reference for subsequent research.

Service-Dominant (S-D) Logics are the basis of contemporary economic activities. Based on this concept, Information System department should transform its role from a technical supporter to a service provider. S-D Logics highlight the importance to build up a successful value-cocreated service systems. This implies that, in addition to technical capabilities and business knowledge, IS department should possess certain capabilities to collaborate with other functional departments to delivery maximum value. The purpose of this research is to explore possible collaborative capabilities that IS personnel should possess, besides the technical skills and business know-how. This research adopted exploratory case study method. Through in-depth interview with developers and users of three complex information system development(ISD) projects, a total of 14 collaborative capabilities that IS personnel need were identified. The relationships among those capabilities as well as their impacts on performance were also identified. Implications of the research results to practitioners and academia are also provided.

The Service-Dominant Logic concept has replaced the traditional Product-Dominant Logic to be the mainstream of contemporary business activities. Based on this concept, value creation is viewed as a co-produced result instead of the responsibility of producer only. Through applying Service-Dominant Logic to information systems development and maintenance process, one can conclude that users should play a more active role as a co-producers. Past user participate studies largely focused on system development stage only and only little attention has been paid the maintenance process. Given the importance of maintenance in system life cycle, the main purpose of this study is to understand the factors that drive users to engage in value co-production. I adopted case study method and analyzed antecedents of co-production behavior performed by users. According to the found results, I suggest that familiarity toward system, source of demand for services, and system complexity are three potential factors that may lead to various co-production behaviors. The findings of this study can serve as critical reference for future studies. Practitioners can also be benefited by knowing how to enhance user co-production in the maintenance stage of system life cycle. Keywords: Service-Dominant Logic, System Maintenance, User Participation, Value Co-production, Case Study

Service organizations need to respond rapidly to both changes in the market and customer expectations. One way of accomplishing this is through service innovation enacted to achieve competitive advantage. This study applies a service-dominant logic (SDL) lens to describe how a service organization may achieve service innovation through value co-creation that is facilitated by agile distributed methods. Literature on value co-creation is somewhat limited; although a few studies have provided guidance on what is needed to achieve value co-creation, no study has yet presented how this might be achieved. Therefore, using a single-site case study in the context of a large service organization, this study examines how value is co-created and the role that agile distributed methods play in this process. This research seeks to contribute to practice by providing service organizations with recommendations for achieving value co-creation. It contributes to theory by advancing our understanding of value co-creation processes; moreover, by using the context of an SDL, it presents a framework that maps elements of service innovation to agile distributed practices.

Ett föränderligt medielandskap fordrar en anpassning från företagens sida och därmed ett nyanserat sätt att skapa marknadsföring. I en värld där konsumenter tenderar att vara alltmer aktiva i köpprocessen uppkommer nya typer av marknadsaktörer. Studien undersöker hur detta nät av aktörer samarbetar för att skapa en marknadsföringskampanj anpassad efter det rådande medieklimatet. Centrala begrepp för undersökningen är nätverk, resurser och samskapande av värde som tillsammans utgör utgångspunkten för studiens analysmodell. Med utgångspunkt från Volvos framgångsrika marknadsföringskampanj Made by Sweden har fyra intervjuer med representanter från aktörer som varit med i arbetet bakom genomförts. Studien visar att ett integrerat och organiskt samarbete där tillämpningen och integreringen av gemensamma resurser som kunskap och kompetens uppfattas som en av kampanjarbetets mest fundamentala grundstenar. Avslutningsvis kan även interaktionen med konsumenter i sociala medier ses som en viktig kunskapskälla i kampanjarbetet och en vägvisare för hur och i vilka kanaler kampanjen skulle kommuniceras. Kampanjens framgång stavas, med andra ord, inte bara Zlatan Ibrahimovic utan kräver att företag förvaltar de förutsättningar som finns för att skapa någonting större.