This thesis addresses existing shortcomings in the co-creation literature by proposing organisational capabilities that support co-creation in financial service firms. A developing country perspective is taken and the context is Nigeria, a West African Country. In this thesis, the Resource-based view and Knowledge-based view are integrated with the Dynamic Capability perspective to identify capabilities required to manage the dyadic interactions during co-creation. First, a conceptual model is developed through an in-depth literature review, before testing, refining and validating the model through a mixed-method research approach, involving both qualitative and quantitative research steps. The conceptual model identified a set of capabilities - namely the firm's innovation, knowledge management and relational capability and their effect on co-creation practice. The aim of the qualitative research step was to improve the conceptual model through exploratory research. This step involved in-depth interviews (n=9) with key informants and a focus group discussion with users (n=7). In the quantitative step, empirical data was collected via a questionnaire (n=261) using a drop-off-pick-up (DOPU) technique. The data is analysed using structural path analysis, hypotheses testing and model re-specification. The results of the qualitative phase indicate that co-creation in financial services is dependent on regulation, user need and the structure of financial services in Nigeria. The results also confirm the influence of innovation, knowledge management and relational capabilities on co-creation practice. Nevertheless, qualitative findings also show that knowledge management capability emerged as a vital capability upon which other value creation activities in financial service firms depend. These findings were further tested and validated in the quantitative phase. In line with the resource-based view (RBV) and the knowledge-based view (KBV), empirical findings confirm that the firm`s resource endowments explain, in part, value co-creation in firms. Principally, the findings of this study show that the capacity of financial service organisations to provide sustainable value creation for its clients and itself depend on the degree to which they possess specific dynamic capabilities. The findings also show the relative importance of co-creation practices and how they are effective only in certain conditions and specific environments.

Abstract Background: Value co-creation emerged at the beginning of the 21st century as a new way of understanding of value and its creation which occurs around individualized experiences of co-creation, leading to the creation of value that is exclusive to every person. In the essence of the concept of value co-creation lays the service-dominant logic of marketing. The investigation of value co-creation within brand communities has been emphasized in recent years. The practices of brand community members play a significant role in the value co-creation. Since Airbnb has never been looked as a brand community in the value co-creation literature, it remained unclear how value can be co-created through the practices of Airbnb community members. Purpose: How value is co-created between brand community members of Airbnb (between hosts and guests and guests themselves) through their practices in their experiences within the corporeal world? Method: In order to meet the purpose of this study, authors applied a qualitative method. Further, a netnographic strategy has been employed which led us to collect online-posted reviews of Airbnb guests from Airbnb website. Authors used purposive sampling by selecting the only guests who had the previous experience of stay in Airbnb accommodations in cases of on-site hospitality. 155 reviews of different guests from 31 accommodation profiles were collected in three waves of data collection. Moreover, a grounded theory coding was employed in order to analyze the data. Conclusion: We identified 14 sub-categories of value-creating practices that emerged under four major categories, namely: practice of sharing, practice of communicating, practice of saving, and practice of authenticating. Further, in the process of elaboration of main elements of practices (i.e. objects, doings, and meanings), we found general connections of these elements within the practices of hosts and guests (i.e. Airbnb community members) that helped us to understand how value is co-created in their experiences within the corporeal world.

How can suppliers contribute to their customers’ value creating processes? Although this question is crucial for firms’ collaboration with customers and for their competitiveness, it is not clear how firms co-create value with their customers. Research on value co-creation has increased notably the last years. However few empirical studies have been conducted on how value is co-created in the day-to-day activities. Therefore this thesis addresses value co-creation with a strategy-as-practice perspective. The strategy-as-practice enables to link micro-level activities with the structures in which they are carried out as well as the strategic outcomes they lead to. In order to understand the process of value co-creation, a supplier and four customer companies are studied. The empirical context is a technical knowledge-intensive business service company providing its competence in product development and operating in a highly competitive environment. Focus is put on how the supplier’s processes fulfil customers’ requirements and expectations. The notion of value-in-use from the service logic forms a starting point in the analysis of customer’s requirements. Dynamic capabilities in the strategy field is used to analyse the supplier’s processes. Based on interviews, annual reports, observations and workshops, the empirical material indicates that the supplier’s processes play a crucial role for the customer. The findings in this thesis show that value-in-use is a contextual and compound concept that can take different forms as “values-in-use”, “postpone value” and “value-after-use". Understanding customers’ value-in-use requires an open dialogue between the customer and the supplier. In this sense, processes that help capture the more intangible and unconscious parts of a relationship, and the roles the parties take during the process are necessary. A finding in this thesis is that culture enhances certain processes at the expense of others. Another finding is that dynamic capabilities need to be more than well-performed processes in order for the customer to differentiate the firm from competitors. Dynamic capabilities necessitate the combination of smooth processes, understanding of customers’ value-in-use as well as managerial skills in order for the supplier to co-create value, and this in a competitive way.

Marketing is on the path of evolving to a Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic perspective. S-D Logic researchers have acknowledged that customers do not only receive value, they contribute to create value and subjectively assess it in use - a notion that challenge the logic of traditional marketing. In interaction, suppliers have the opportunity to reveal processes of customer value creation, and accordingly, align these with its own internal processes. From this perspective, the supplier is turned into a co-creator of value. This study investigates the potentials of value co-creation, through interaction, within the context of card game encounters, an activity originally developed for traditional marketing purposes. Atlas Copco Rock Drills AB has implemented the method of the card game, and is now in search for academic support to identify the actual potentials of interaction within these encounters. By drawing on a literature review compromising (1) a conceptual model presenting the functions of direct interaction as a merging of processes (Grönroos & Voima 2013), and (2) a processed-based framework for co-creation of value (Payne et al. 2008), a qualitative study was conducted to investigate Atlas Copco employees’ perception of how supplier representatives and customers engage in learning process by co-creating value. The study provides guidance of how the supplier, through direct interaction, engages in the learning process through keeping a customer-oriented dialogue. Supplier representatives’ product-specific knowledge is operative to the comprehension of customer processes. It is also decisive for the organizational learning outcome from card game encounters. Statistical customer research with all due respect, however, interaction is the key to forming value propositions supporting real value creation. The study suggest an identification of mechanism supporting supplier and customer learning processes and show how supplier actions may influence the levels of customer learning within the context of discrete interactions. It suggests that customers’ (1) cognitive ability are to be supported in information search, (2) emotions are to be supported by recognition and appreciation and (3) behavioral elements of value creation are to be supported through the sharing of knowledge and skills.

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.

Baigiamuoju darbu atskleidžiama bendro vertės kūrimo koncepcijos svarba lojalumo formavimo kontekste bei pagrindžiama prielaida, kad bendras kūrimas gali sąlygoti klientų lojalumą įmonei. / Final work reveals the importance of concept of value co-creation in the context of the concept of loyalty formulation; and justifies that value co-creation can lead to customer loyalty.

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.

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.

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.

Value co-creation is a popular marketing research topic in recent years, and there were already some studies regarding raising consumers’ involvement in co-creation. However, virtual communities such as online games have seldom been addressed in this topic. This thesis aimed to shed light on mobile gamers’ co-creation from the perspective of the characteristics of the virtual community. Hence, this study applied the theory of value co-creation and the characteristics of virtual communities to propose a research model. After analyzing 167 valid online questionnaire respondents from game players, the results indicated that Incentive Mechanism, Members’ Communication, Norm of Reciprocity had significantly positive effects on players’ involvement in co-creation. In addition, the finding’s practical implication suggested that the game companies need to provide unique services so that consumers could voluntarily and actively participate in value co-creation activities.