Value Co-creation Research Articles

Co-creating value in manufacturing supply chains: unravelling the dynamics of innovation ecosystems

ABSTRACT This research delves into the operational intricacies and pathways driving value realization within a supply chain innovation ecosystem, with a specific focus on the lens of value co-creation. Leveraging China’s home appliance manufacturing industry as a case study, we develop a system dynamics model, revealing that the collaborative interaction among core enterprises, partners, and customers significantly contributes to system value creation. Notably, the digitalization level of enterprises emerges as the primary catalyst for value creation within the system. This study establishes the framework and boundaries of the supply chain innovation ecosystem, outlines value realization pathways, provides key insights on value co-creation for manufacturing enterprises.

Correction to: Boost effect of sustainable practices and relational innovation on value co-creation and brand equity: outcomes of hotel size moderation

Correction to: Boost effect of sustainable practices and relational innovation on value co-creation and brand equity: outcomes of hotel size moderation

Does dispositional awe promote customer citizenship behaviours? The multiple mediating effects of construal level and social connectedness

In the digital economy, the relationship between customers and companies is a win-win cooperation, and value co-creation has become the mainstream business development concept. Against this background, customer citizenship behaviours have received increasing and widespread attention in marketing and consumer behaviour research. However, previous studies have not sufficiently considered the importance of trait emotions in predicting customer citizenship behaviours. By focusing on a specific emotional disposition with positive functions, dispositional awe, this study develops an integrative model based on the prototype model of awe and the elaborated model of awe’s prosocial effects. This model examines the impact of dispositional awe on customer citizenship behaviours and analyses the roles of construal level and social connectedness in it. Drawing on a sample of 701 questionnaires from Chinese adults and using structural equation modelling, this study finds that dispositional awe contributes positively to three types of customer citizenship behaviours: making recommendations, helping other customers, and providing feedback. In addition, dispositional awe can influence customer citizenship behaviours through the independent mediating effect of social connectedness as well as the serial mediating effect of construal level and social connectedness. These findings suggest that frequent experiences of awe help develop an individual’s internal abstract mindset and subjective sense of connection to external society, thereby motivating customer citizenship behaviours. This study provides valuable insights into whether and how dispositional awe can influence customer citizenship behaviours and offers operational strategies for marketing practice.

Co-creating sustainability: transformative power of the brand

ABSTRACT We explore marketing activity at the micro level as it contributes to the co-creation of sustainability and leads to transformational shifts towards sustainable futures. Utilising a value co-creation lens our study implements a novel four phase case research process. Three sustainable fashion brands are analysed via brand-generated content on their Instagram accounts, through interviews with thirty self-confessed brand enthusiasts and using consumer focus groups. Analysis provides insights into how sustainability is co-created between brands and consumers demonstrating that marketing and brands have the power to harness sustainability and instigate change. The paper contributes an innovative ‘Co-creating sustainable futures’ framework providing a platform to implement marketing activity and future research by marketing/brand managers and researchers committed to sustainability and initiating transformation towards sustainable futures.

Sustainability-oriented service innovation and customer satisfaction in hospitality: Assessing the impact of value co-creation, ecological knowledge and gender

In response to recent research calls on sustainability, innovation and consumer behaviour, in this article, the following objectives are pursued: (1) to empirically test the relationships between the newly introduced variable, the so-called ‘sustainability-oriented service innovation’ (SOSI), ecological knowledge and value co-creation; (2) to observe whether SOSI, ecological knowledge and value co-creation boost customer satisfaction; and (3) to examine the moderating effect of gender on the proposed relationships. The data were collected through a panel of hotel guests applying quota sampling in Spain in 2020. In total, 405 valid questionnaires were obtained. The partial least squares structural equations modelling was used to analyse the data, test hypotheses and conduct a multigroup analysis. The results allow a contribution to the body of knowledge by observing the advantages of simultaneous implementation of sustainability and innovation in the hotel industry through a novel approach such as SOSI. The finding supports the SOSI effect of SOSI on value co-creation. However, it is shown that the effect of SOSI on satisfaction is significant only if value co-creation acts as a mediator. Ecological knowledge is also a significant antecedent of SOSI and satisfaction; however, it impacts value co-creation indirectly through SOSI. Furthermore, significant moderating effects of gender were found in the relationship between SOSI and value co-creation, highlighting the more robust relationship between variables for women. Finally, regarding practical implications, the results reinforce the importance for hotel managers to develop innovative and sustainable actions and interact with the clients to increase their satisfaction.

Understanding the Value Co-Creation Behavior of Rural Tourists: An Application of Fsqca

Understanding the Value Co-Creation Behavior of Rural Tourists: An Application of Fsqca

Research on the Impact of Digital Customer Orientation on Value Co-creation in the Tourism Industry

With the rapid development of digital technologies, customer-oriented strategies have become a key driver for value co-creation in the tourism sector. This paper examines the applications of digital tools such as social media, mobile applications, and virtual reality in the tourism industry, exploring how these technologies enhance customer engagement and personalized experiences, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and business revenue. The study finds that by effectively leveraging these digital tools, tourism enterprises can better understand customer needs and achieve greater flexibility and responsiveness in service delivery, promoting overall value co-creation in the tourism industry. Additionally, the paper discusses the long-term impact of digital customer orientation on the sustainable development of the tourism industry and how enterprises can strategically integrate these technologies to optimize customer experiences and enhance competitiveness.

Service dyads: understanding the dynamics of social perspective-taking and value co-creation amidst service problems

Service dyads: understanding the dynamics of social perspective-taking and value co-creation amidst service problems

The role of religious brand community support to increase value co-creation in market religio-centric

The role of religious brand community support to increase value co-creation in market religio-centric

Sustainable Value-Sharing Mechanisms of the Industrial Internet of Things Platforms: A Case Study of Haier’s Service-Oriented Transformation

Ensuring fairness and equity in value distribution is crucial for the sustainability of platform ecosystems. However, existing approaches to distributing benefits among cooperative entities often find it difficult to accurately assess each stakeholder’s contributions. This paper tackles this challenge through a case study of the Haier COSMOPlat IIoT platform. By analyzing its value creation and value distribution processes, the research uncovers how platform enterprises can overcome existing limitations by quantifying and revealing intangible customer relationships alongside financial metrics. This revised value-sharing mechanism encourages a shift from “post-event value-sharing” to “mid-event adjustment”, promoting a fair and equitable profit distribution framework that motivates stakeholders toward sustainable value co-creation.

Study on the Influence of Live Broadcast Characteristics on Customer Value Co-Creation Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Interactive Attitudes

Study on the Influence of Live Broadcast Characteristics on Customer Value Co-Creation Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Interactive Attitudes

Fan and fantasy: investigating the impact of fantasy sports on sports fan identity

ABSTRACT Research question This study investigates the impact of fantasy sport on online sport fan identities. It explores the socio-psychological outcomes experienced by sport fans participating in fantasy sport and investigates their collaborative value co-creation practices. Research methods We use netnography to collect user comments across relevant subreddits. We further employ content analysis to identify the socio-psychological outcomes experienced by sport fans participating in fantasy sport and to gain insights into value co-creation practices within the fantasy sport community. Findings This study presents three significant findings. Firstly, it delineates BIRGing as celebration and trash talk and CORFing as disappointment, contemplation, and avoidance. Secondly, it introduces two new socio-psychological outcomes – FAGing and FARDing – encapsulating the dual identity of sport fans participating in fantasy sport. Third, it identifies three unique co-creation practices observed in fantasy sport communities – favoritism and subgrouping; sharing, supporting, and strategizing; and bragging. Implications This study contributes to our understanding of the impact of fantasy sport on the fan­ – team dynamic and the emergence of distinctive co-creation practices among evolved fans. From a practical perspective, the research has implications for sport managers and fantasy sport platforms, as fantasy sport serves as a powerful tool for engaging audiences of professional sport leagues.

The effects of customer brand engagement on brand love in sharing economy

ABSTRACT Collaborative consumption has drawn the attention of both managers and researchers. However, the literature focusing on the antecedents and outcomes of brand love in collaborative consumption is not well documented. Drawing on value co-creation theory, this paper has developed and tested a model capturing the role of brand love with data collected from Airbnb consumers. The results from 380 Airbnb consumers show that consumer brand engagement, perceived authenticity, and value co-creation are key drivers of consumer’s love of Airbnb. Brand love then positively influences consumers’ intention to revisit Airbnb. However, consumer brand engagement does not directly affect revisit intention. The paper concludes with theoretical and managerial implications.

An Investigation on The Extent of Usage and Challenges Faced by Tourism SMEs Concerning E-Marketing: Empowering Co-creation of Value

Due to advancements in technology and digital connectivity, travel patterns have changed. Technological developments have increased the amount of information and inspiration available to consumers, and big data analytics allows for the creation of innovative insights. When it comes to implementing cutting-edge technologies, small businesses typically lag behind larger ones. In light of the above, this study aims to examine the extent of usage and challenges SMEs face concerning e-marketing. SMEs in the tourism sector have demonstrated that they are drivers of economic growth through the development of entrepreneurial skills and job creation. In this study, data was qualitatively collected from 14 SME service providers, through a purposive sampling method. The findings revealed that SMEs struggle with the adoption of e-marketing. Moreover, the findings revealed that SMEs are also faced with the challenge of easy access to funding, this was found to affect their flexibility towards digital transformation. Lastly, this study found that SMEs are faced with the challenge of lack of expertise to implement digital transformations. This study concludes that, although in South Africa government funding provided to SMEs through grants plays a critical role, it is still not enough. The government can further their SME development initiatives through public sector and private sector partnerships. By increasing SMEs access to funding, joint SME development programs offer a substantial chance to promote entrepreneurship in South Africa.

EXAMINING EFFECTIVE ELECTRONIC WORD OF MOUTH IN SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE CUSTOMER’S PURCHASE INTENTION: A QUANTITIVELY APPROACH IN LIBYANS’ MARKETS

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive research of the effects social media developed in an essential part of marketing strategy for its ability to generate co-created value by EWOM. As a result of the advanced Technological revolution, the industries operations have grown a unique rate and creating multiple opportunities for marketing in online backgrounds. Recently, Technologies have been involved within modern marketing activities to promote their products and services and its approach is to evaluate products and services availabilities by using various platforms like social media, online review websites, blogs and discussion forums in the form of visual information. At the present time, social media has developed in an essential part of marketing strategy for its ability to generate co-created value, to interactively connect brands to consumers, to monitor brand-related discussions and sentiments, to guide consumers in the decision-making process, to activate Electronic Word of Mouth interactions, and transform consumers into brand supporters. This study highlights the role of key various digital channels by using applications of social media to be examined on the consumer buying decisions and intention with a mediating effect of the EWOM. It carried out A quantitative research approach was used to achieve objectives and examine the hypothesized research framework by using a questionnaire in the retailing sector. A total of 384 valid responses were considered for further analysis by using SSPS 21 software to conduct the key analyses. The results revealed the significant effect and role of all digital channels on the consumers buying decisions, with the moderated role of the EWOM on the effect of digital channels on consumer buying decisions. The study offers additional contributions to the existing literature and supports the assumptions to provide a better grasp about the study topic. Its originality and a unique approach for data collecting and using the schema theory of e-WOM to understand the phenomenon of social media influence on customers intention of destination services / brands.

Firm engagement: Scale development and verification

Stakeholder or actor (e.g., firms, employees, and customers) engagement is critical for value co-creation in the service ecosystem. As a provider of an engagement platform in a service ecosystem, the firm plays a critical role in employee and customer engagement. While customer and employee engagement have received much attention, firm engagement research remains unexplored, nonetheless, is critical for the business development and sustainability. There is no scale that has been developed to measure firm engagement. Development of this scale would provide a holistic picture of engagement from a multi-perspective. Following the conventional scale development process, this study developed and verified a scale to measure firm engagement. First, in-depth interviews with 23 managers of companies in different industries were conducted to establish initial items. Subsequently, item purification (N = 397) and validation (N = 398) were performed. The results show that firm engagement consists of eight dimensions from customer and employee perspectives. Specifically, customer engagement orientation includes empathy, employee participation, customer participation, and resource integration while employee engagement orientation includes management participation, corporate culture, interest alignment, and internal service quality. The scale contributes to the engagement literature and human resource management research and has practical implications for firms to improve employee performance and customer experience.

Diffusion of innovation in direct-to-avatar (D2A): A study of immersive communication and branding in the metaverse

Direct-to-Avatar (D2A) is the new phenomenon in the online retail segment. Brands are moving towards immersive commerce in which the central focus is on immersive communication for better customer experience in the metaverse. Diffusion of innovation theory acted as a theoretical framework to understand the premiums that the brands can enjoy from the customers by moving towards immersive commerce. 948 tweets on metaverse were analysed and five in-depth interviews with the experts on metaverse were conducted. For the quantitative study, the data were collected from a select metaverse Facebook group. The findings of PLS-SEM revealed that four factors - customer engagement, customer experience, value co-creation and customer empowerment - have statistically positive impact on customer citizenship behavior which ultimately affects customer satisfaction and loyalty towards the brands. The study extends the applications of diffusion of innovation theory in the content of immersive communication. It enriches the literature on technological advancements in immersive commerce. This is one of the first studies that focus on lifestyle brands in the metaverse. Also, this study depicts how socializing the digital brand communication with experience economy can be a key factor for lifestyle brands.

Human–AI resource relations in value cocreation in service ecosystems

PurposeApplications of artificial intelligence (AI), such as virtual and physical service robots, generative AI, large language models and decision support systems, alter the nature of services. Most service research centers on the division between human and AI resources. Less attention has been paid to analyzing the entangled resource relations and interactions between humans and AI entities. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to extend our metatheoretical understanding of resource integration and value cocreation by analyzing different human–AI resource relations in service ecosystems.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual paper adapts a novel framework from postphenomenology, specifically cyborg intentionality. This framework is used to analyze what kinds of human–AI resource relations enable resource integration and value cocreation in service ecosystems.FindingsWe conceptualize seven different human–AI resource relations, namely background, embodiment, hermeneutic, alterity, cyborg, immersion and composite relation. The sociotechnical entangled perspective on human–AI resource relations challenges and reframes our understanding of interactions between humans and nonhumans in resource integration and value cocreation and the distinction between operant and operand resources in service research.Originality/valueOur primary contribution to researchers and service providers is dissolving the distinction between operant and operand resources. We present two foundational propositions. 1. Humans and AI become entangled value cocreating resources in inherently sociotechnical service ecosystems; and 2. Human and AI entanglements in value cocreation manifest through seven resource relations in inherently sociotechnical service ecosystems. Understanding the combinatorial potential of different human–AI resource relations enables service providers to make informed choices in service ecosystems.

Exploring the nexus of smart technologies and sustainable ecotourism: A systematic review

Sustainable smart ecotourism, utilizing smart technologies like smartphones, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), aims to minimize harm to natural and cultural ecosystems, promoting education and environmental conservation. This review aims to examine the concept of sustainable smart ecotourism, analyzing existing literature to gain insights into the significance, components, challenges, and contributions to sustainable development on a global scale. A systematic review was conducted to evaluate sustainable smart ecotourism using PRISMA guidelines. The review focused on scholarly, peer-reviewed studies from developing countries, using databases like ScienceDirect, Jstor, Taylor & Francis, and IEEE. The study used Joanna Briggs Institute and Cochrane Risk of Bias tools to assess study quality. Thematic analysis techniques were used to extract and synthesize data, identifying patterns and trends relevant to smart ecotourism sustainability. Dual analyst verification ensured data integrity and reliability. After conducting a thorough quality evaluation using the Joanna Briggs Institute Checklist and Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool, we identified 29 studies of exceptional quality from an original pool of 9583 records. The use of thematic analysis sheds light on the diverse and important role of the IoT in promoting sustainable ecotourism. This study uncovered both the obstacles and possibilities associated with this technology. The findings provide important insights into the worldwide implementation of smart ecotourism techniques and highlight the significant impact of technology in promoting sustainable tourism models. Smart ecotourism involves multiple stakeholders to enhance environmental impact. Key characteristics include dynamic interactions, co-creation of value, sustainable development, resource sharing, and innovation services. Technology like IoT is crucial for sustainable tourism management. Collaboration with governments, local stakeholders, and organizations is recommended for sustainable policies. As a result of this study, sustainable ecotourism policies result from a collaborative effort between local communities, government agencies, and practitioners in the industry. Smart technologies, including AR/VR and AI, have the potential to enhance operational efficiency while reducing environmental concerns. Ecotourism, partnerships, and education are key to successful implementation and capacity building.

Empowering co-creation of services with artificial intelligence: an empirical analysis to examine adoption intention

PurposeCo-creation of services (CCOS) is a collaborative strategy that emphasises customer involvement and their expertise to increase the value of the service experience. In the service ecosystem, artificial intelligence (AI) plays a key role in value co-creation. Therefore, this study is undertaken to empirically uncover how AI can empower CCOS.Design/methodology/approachThe source data were collected from 305 service provider respondents and quantitative methodology was applied for data analysis.FindingsNew service development augmented with AI provides tangible value to service providers while also providing intangible value to supportive customers. With AI, service providers adapt to new innovations and enrich additional information, which eventually outperforms human-created services.Research limitations/implicationsAI adoption for CCOS empowerment in service businesses brings “service-market fit”, which represents the significant benefits wherein customers contribute to creativity, intuition, and contextual awareness of services, and AI contributes to large-scale service-related analysis by handling volumes of data, service personalisation, and more time to focus on challenging problems of the market.Originality/valueThis study presents theoretical concepts on AI-empowered CCOS, AI technological innovativeness, customer participation in human-AI interaction, AI-powered customer expertise, and perceived benefits in CCOS, and subsequently discusses the CCOS empowerment framework. Then, it proposes a novel conceptual model based on the theoretical concepts and empirically measures and validates the intention to adopt AI for CCOS empowerment. Overall, the study contributes to novel insight on empowering service co-creation with AI.