Approaching value co-creation in different contexts through a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Value co-creation has become a widely used concept in various domains due to its broad applicability. However, the lack of a consensus among researchers regarding the underlying concepts and related processes has resulted in disparate definitions, leading to misunderstandings both within and across disciplines. Moreover, the abundance of literature on value co-creation makes it challenging to identify relevant papers and derive future research directions. Therefore, it is difficult to find the most relevant papers and to derive future research directions in each case. To address these challenges, this paper elaborates a bibliometric analysis of value co-creation, which offers the possibility to analyse the multitude of contributions on the topic. Through the use of different techniques of performance analysis and science mapping, we outline the different domains in which value co-creation is studied, identify connections between different streams, highlight overarching concepts and find emerging trends. This provides a foundation for future researchers in disciplines such as management, business, social sciences, information systems as well as engineering, who are interested in contributing to the value co-creation research.