The advent of smart shopping environments including innovative information technology, advanced delivery systems, and extended smart phone use has rapidly changed the shopping methods and activities of the consumers. They have chosen smart shopping with greater frequency, which minimizes the use of time, money, effort and energy to buy the right products and to gain shopping experiences such as hedonic and utilitarian feelings (Atkins and Kim, 2012). The concept of smart shopping is based on value co-creation which can be explained as the value from the outcome of interaction between firms and consumers (Grönroos, 2011, Vargo and Lusch, 2004). In the value co-creation process, smart shoppers are willing to perform customer participation behaviors such as information seeking, information sharing, responsible behavior, and personal interaction, and to show customer citizenship behaviors such as feedback, advocacy, helping, and tolerance (Yi and Gong 2013). In smart shopping, a consumer involves in shopping experiences through product purchases and while engaged via the shopping environments such as an elaborate store design, educational events, recreation, and entertainment (Fiore and Kim, 2007). These shopping experiences, which contain both hedonic and utilitarian value (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982), are better explained by consumer processes, responses on the shopping environment, situation, and consumer characteristics (Fiore and Kim, 2007). The attributes of shopping experience are symbolic, hedonic, and aesthetic (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982) and utilitarian and hedonic (Kim, Lee and Park, 2014). Smart shoppers who are involved with value co-creation obtain hedonic benefits with emotional, funny, and enjoyable feelings and along with utilitarian benefits such as rational, functional, task-related experiences (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). The value co-creation and the shopping experience lead to greater customer equity such as value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity (Lemon, Rust, and Zeithamal 2001). Based on previous literature review, the authors constructed the following hypotheses. First, smart shopping will have positive effects on value co-creation, the shopping experience, and customer equity. Second, the smart shopping will have positive effects on both value co-creation and the shopping experience. Third, value cocreation will have positive effects on the shopping experience. Fourth, value cocreation and the shopping experience will have positive effects on customer equity. The authors collected the data based on questionnaires from mobile smart shoppers. The SPSS 20 and AMOS 20 statistical programs will be used for the data analysis. The analysis found the positive influence that smart shopping has on value co-creation and the shopping experience, and customer equity. This is the first study that shows these relationships from an empirical point-of-view. The findings of the study have useful managerial implications on the effects of value co-creation on both smart shoppers and firms. Value co-creation will provide smart shoppers with better product or service quality and enhance firms with more valuable customer equity. The greater shopping experience is the greater customer equity that will be developed. Value co-creation also will give firms a strong competitive advantage in terms of an organization’s learning, brand perception, reduced risk, improvement of customer relationships, and lowering cost for marketing, and research and development. The study has limitations. First, other potential variables of the value co-creation influencing new service development, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction etc, could be considered. Second, the length of the relationship between smart shoppers and the service provider in value co-creation process should be considered. Third, the study needs to be generalized to cross sectional research beyond smart shopping area. Finally, to examine the effects of value co-creation and the shopping experience on customer equity, future research could investigate how value co-creation and the shopping experience affect the objective financial performance of a firm.

This paper examines the co-creation of human brands identities exemplified by celebrities in a stakeholder-actor approach. By bringing together the theoretical web of service-dominant logic, stakeholder theory, actor-network theory, and consumer culture theory, we argue that human brand identities are co-created by multiple stakeholder-actors that have resources and incentives in the activities that make a up an enterprise of a human brand, including the celebrities themselves, consumer-fans, and business entities. By utilizing an observational, archival netnographic data from popular social media channels, four exemplars of celebrity identities from the Philippines demonstrate the co-creation of human brands. Findings illustrate key stakeholder-actors’ participations, production and consumption, and integrations of resources and incentives in the co-creation process as articulated in social media. The co-creation process happens through sociological translations codes namely: social construction and negotiation of identities, parasocialization, influence projection, legitimization, and utilization of human brand identities. These dynamics of human brand identity advance a stakeholder-actor paradigm of service co-creation that is adaptive to the predominant consumer culture and human ideals that surround the celebrity. Implications and future research on celebrity brand marketing management are discussed.

In service experiences, customers often look to create their own magic in the service environment, through interaction with other customers, not the producer of the experience (the provider) at all. The current study examines the bar environment, where hedonically-driven service encounter experiences are constructed, not by the provider, but by the social interactions of the consumers of the environment. The study surveys 130 consumers, measuring experiential, situational and social involvement levels in relation to consumption motivation and overall experience evaluation. The research finds that, while bar consumers are likely to be highly socially involved, they still need the company of close friends to become fully involved in the bar service experience. In addition, where atmospheric theory discusses the value of extraordinary or surprising service environments, consumers in the already hedonic bar environment may indeed prefer environments which are simply comfortable and consistent with their expectations (in regard to motivations to consume and overall positive evaluations).

43 5. Research Model Value Co-Creation Customer ParticipationㆍInformation seeking ㆍInformation sharing ㆍResponsible behavior ㆍPersonal interactionCustomer Citizenship ㆍFeedbackㆍAdvocacyㆍHelpingㆍToleranceRelationship PerformanceㆍTrust ㆍCommitment ㆍLoyaltyEntrepreneurial Value OrientationEntrepreneurial Orientation(EO)Relationship Orientation(RO)MarketOrientation(MO)H1H2H3H4H5H6H7H8 Hypotheses H1: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H2: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H3: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H4: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H5: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H6: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H7: Customer participation behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance H8: Customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance43 5. Research Model Value Co-Creation Customer ParticipationㆍInformation seeking ㆍInformation sharing ㆍResponsible behavior ㆍPersonal interactionCustomer Citizenship ㆍFeedbackㆍAdvocacyㆍHelpingㆍToleranceRelationship PerformanceㆍTrust ㆍCommitment ㆍLoyaltyEntrepreneurial Value OrientationEntrepreneurial Orientation(EO)Relationship Orientation(RO)MarketOrientation(MO)H1H2H3H4H5H6H7H8 Hypotheses H1: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H2: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H3: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H4: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H5: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H6: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H7: Customer participation behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance H8: Customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance43 5. Research Model Value Co-Creation Customer ParticipationㆍInformation seeking ㆍInformation sharing ㆍResponsible behavior ㆍPersonal interactionCustomer Citizenship ㆍFeedbackㆍAdvocacyㆍHelpingㆍToleranceRelationship PerformanceㆍTrust ㆍCommitment ㆍLoyaltyEntrepreneurial Value OrientationEntrepreneurial Orientation(EO)Relationship Orientation(RO)MarketOrientation(MO)H1H2H3H4H5H6H7H8 Hypotheses H1: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H2: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H3: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H4: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H5: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H6: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H7: Customer participation behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance H8: Customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance43 5. Research Model Value Co-Creation Customer ParticipationㆍInformation seeking ㆍInformation sharing ㆍResponsible behavior ㆍPersonal interactionCustomer Citizenship ㆍFeedbackㆍAdvocacyㆍHelpingㆍToleranceRelationship PerformanceㆍTrust ㆍCommitment ㆍLoyaltyEntrepreneurial Value OrientationEntrepreneurial Orientation(EO)Relationship Orientation(RO)MarketOrientation(MO)H1H2H3H4H5H6H7H8 Hypotheses H1: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H2: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H3: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H4: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H5: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H6: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H7: Customer participation behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance H8: Customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performanceand relationship performance. 2. Conceptual framework 2.1 Entrepreneurial Value Orientation Entrepreneurial Orientation Entrepreneurial-oriented firms with risk-taking, proactivness, and innovativeness focus on finding new market opportunities and reshaping current operating areas (Hult and Ketchen 2001). Entrepreneurial orientation provides firms with first-mover advantages and has a positive effect on performance. Entrepreneurs create value through innovation with exploiting new opportunity and creating new product-market areas. Market Orientation Market-oriented firms create superior value through the understanding of customers’ needs and the capabilities to fulfill those identified needs (Jaworski & Kohli, 1993). The value creation of market-oriented firms is based on strong commitment to developing product innovation capabilities (Atuahen-Gima, 1996). Market orientation provides firms with market-linking capabilities that help create and deliver value to customers (O’Cass and Ngo, 2012). Relationship Orientation Interaction orientation An interaction orientation is regarded as a sustainable competitive advantage and a value rare and as a value creation driver. Interaction oriented firms with specific and actionable nature are characterized by analyzing individual customer, not a market, performing marketing activities with customers, not for customers, by emphasizing the importance of the relationship to firms (Ramini and Kumar, 2008). The relational performance of interaction orientation is measured by customer satisfaction, customer ownership, and positive word of mouth (Ramini and Kumar, 2008). Long-term orientation Long-term orientation also creates a sustainable competitive advantage through information on best-selling product, best allowable price, cooperative advertizing, etc (Ganesan 1994). Firms with short-term orientation focus on market exchange for profit in a transaction, but firms with long-term orientation focus on relational exchange for profit from joint synergies over a series of transactions, not the length of the relationships (Ganesan 1994). Relational elements like long-term orientation increases mutual commitment to enhance mutual profitability in buyer-seller relationships (Noordewier et al 1990). 2.2 Value co-creation The customers co-create value based on their roles as participants or co-creators in various value-creating processes (Vargo and Lusch 2008a). Joint value is created among customer, suppliers, competitors, and other stakeholders involved in the relationship (Gummesson 1999). The various approaches to value co-creation have discussed. A unified value co-creation concept is explained by three types of processes such as customer value-creating processes, supplier value-creating process, and encounter processes (Payne et al., 2008). Value co-creation behaviors consist of customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior. Customer participation behavior that they conceptualizedand relationship performance. 2. Conceptual framework 2.1 Entrepreneurial Value Orientation Entrepreneurial Orientation Entrepreneurial-oriented firms with risk-taking, proactivness, and innovativeness focus on finding new market opportunities and reshaping current operating areas (Hult and Ketchen 2001). Entrepreneurial orientation provides firms with first-mover advantages and has a positive effect on performance. Entrepreneurs create value through innovation with exploiting new opportunity and creating new product-market areas. Market Orientation Market-oriented firms create superior value through the understanding of customers’ needs and the capabilities to fulfill those identified needs (Jaworski & Kohli, 1993). The value creation of market-oriented firms is based on strong commitment to developing product innovation capabilities (Atuahen-Gima, 1996). Market orientation provides firms with market-linking capabilities that help create and deliver value to customers (O’Cass and Ngo, 2012). Relationship Orientation Interaction orientation An interaction orientation is regarded as a sustainable competitive advantage and a value rare and as a value creation driver. Interaction oriented firms with specific and actionable nature are characterized by analyzing individual customer, not a market, performing marketing activities with customers, not for customers, by emphasizing the importance of the relationship to firms (Ramini and Kumar, 2008). The relational performance of interaction orientation is measured by customer satisfaction, customer ownership, and positive word of mouth (Ramini and Kumar, 2008). Long-term orientation Long-term orientation also creates a sustainable competitive advantage through information on best-selling product, best allowable price, cooperative advertizing, etc (Ganesan 1994). Firms with short-term orientation focus on market exchange for profit in a transaction, but firms with long-term orientation focus on relational exchange for profit from joint synergies over a series of transactions, not the length of the relationships (Ganesan 1994). Relational elements like long-term orientation increases mutual commitment to enhance mutual profitability in buyer-seller relationships (Noordewier et al 1990). 2.2 Value co-creation The customers co-create value based on their roles as participants or co-creators in various value-creating processes (Vargo and Lusch 2008a). Joint value is created among customer, suppliers, competitors, and other stakeholders involved in the relationship (Gummesson 1999). The various approaches to value co-creation have discussed. A unified value co-creation concept is explained by three types of processes such as customer value-creating processes, supplier value-creating process, and encounter processes (Payne et al., 2008). Value co-creation behaviors consist of customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior. Customer participation behavior that they conceptualizedcomprises four dimensions including information seeking, information sharing, responsible behavior, and personal interaction. Customer citizenship behaviors include feedback, advocacy, helping, and tolerance (Yi, and Gong 2013). 2.3 Relationship performance Ulaga(2003) proposed to identify the linkage between relationship value and relationship variables including commitment, trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. The authors consider trust, commitment, and loyalty as measurement items of relationship performance. Trust is measured as a dependent variable in channel relationships. Commitment is a good indicator of long-term relationships (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) and has been used as the dependent variable in several relationship marketing models including buyer-seller relationship (kumar et al., 1995). Consumer loyalty is related to a motivation to maintain a relationship with a firm, including more resources, positive word of mouth (WOM), and repeat purchasing (Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman 1996). Value drives loyalty and trust affects loyalty through its influence in creating value (Sirdeshmukh, Singh and Sabol 2002) 3. Plan for Data Collection and analysis The instrument used to test the hypotheses a mail survey. A draft questionnaire based on existing measurement scales for the research model will be drafted. This draft questionnaire will be pretested with academics and practitioners to check its content validity and terminology and modified accordingly. The modified questionnaire will be pilot tested to check its suitability and appropriateness for the target population before mailing. The sample population for this study will be business-to-business manufacturing firms in South Korea. The authors will undertake both confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses using the SPSS 20 and AMOS 20. 4. Expected outcomes and contribution 4.1 Expected outcomes The analysis will identify whether or not the positive influence of entrepreneurial value orientation has on value co-creation including customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior. The relationship between the value co-creation and relationship performances will be identified. The more actively customers engage in the value co-creation process, the greater trust, commitment, and loyalty could be positively influenced. Value co-creation plays an important role in increasing relationship performance and could be regarded as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. 4.2 Contribution This study will be the first effort to identify between the relationship between value co-creation and relationship performance. This research will be the first empirical study to apply the concept of value co-creation to business-to-business firms. In terms of marketing academics, this study will contribute to broaden marketing research areas. Managers of business-to-business firms from the results of this study will recognize valuable information on how the extent of an individual’s orientations such as entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and relationship orientation affects value co-creation.comprises four dimensions including information seeking, information sharing, responsible behavior, and personal interaction. Customer citizenship behaviors include feedback, advocacy, helping, and tolerance (Yi, and Gong 2013). 2.3 Relationship performance Ulaga(2003) proposed to identify the linkage between relationship value and relationship variables including commitment, trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. The authors consider trust, commitment, and loyalty as measurement items of relationship performance. Trust is measured as a dependent variable in channel relationships. Commitment is a good indicator of long-term relationships (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) and has been used as the dependent variable in several relationship marketing models including buyer-seller relationship (kumar et al., 1995). Consumer loyalty is related to a motivation to maintain a relationship with a firm, including more resources, positive word of mouth (WOM), and repeat purchasing (Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman 1996). Value drives loyalty and trust affects loyalty through its influence in creating value (Sirdeshmukh, Singh and Sabol 2002) 3. Plan for Data Collection and analysis The instrument used to test the hypotheses a mail survey. A draft questionnaire based on existing measurement scales for the research model will be drafted. This draft questionnaire will be pretested with academics and practitioners to check its content validity and terminology and modified accordingly. The modified questionnaire will be pilot tested to check its suitability and appropriateness for the target population before mailing. The sample population for this study will be business-to-business manufacturing firms in South Korea. The authors will undertake both confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses using the SPSS 20 and AMOS 20. 4. Expected outcomes and contribution 4.1 Expected outcomes The analysis will identify whether or not the positive influence of entrepreneurial value orientation has on value co-creation including customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior. The relationship between the value co-creation and relationship performances will be identified. The more actively customers engage in the value co-creation process, the greater trust, commitment, and loyalty could be positively influenced. Value co-creation plays an important role in increasing relationship performance and could be regarded as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. 4.2 Contribution This study will be the first effort to identify between the relationship between value co-creation and relationship performance. This research will be the first empirical study to apply the concept of value co-creation to business-to-business firms. In terms of marketing academics, this study will contribute to broaden marketing research areas. Managers of business-to-business firms from the results of this study will recognize valuable information on how the extent of an individual’s orientations such as entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and relationship orientation affects value co-creation.43 5. Research Model Value Co-Creation Customer ParticipationㆍInformation seeking ㆍInformation sharing ㆍResponsible behavior ㆍPersonal interactionCustomer Citizenship ㆍFeedbackㆍAdvocacyㆍHelpingㆍToleranceRelationship PerformanceㆍTrust ㆍCommitment ㆍLoyaltyEntrepreneurial Value OrientationEntrepreneurial Orientation(EO)Relationship Orientation(RO)MarketOrientation(MO)H1H2H3H4H5H6H7H8 Hypotheses H1: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H2: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H3: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer participation behavior in value co-creation process H4: Entrepreneurial Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H5: Market Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H6: Relationship Orientation will have a positive influence on customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process H7: Customer participation behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance H8: Customer citizenship behavior in value co-creation process will have a positive influence on relationship performance

Dongdaemun Fashion Town, a representative clothing wholesale and retail market in South Korea, is a traditional market that was formed in the 19th century in the late Chosun Dynasty. Since then, the market system has strengthened and, as of now, Dongdaemun Fashion Town can produce various products in batch production and is characterized by a quick market response (Jung, Choo, & Chung, 2007). Furthermore, all fashion-related functions are available, making Dongdaemun Fashion Town an industrial cluster where all related businesses and services are locally concentrated (Ko, Choo, Lee, Song, & Whang, 2013). These characteristics of Dongdaemun Fashion Town relieve market trade cost and build a unique production system. It is positioned as a central clothing wholesale and retail district with the function of a national wholesale market. This Dongdaemun Fashion Town system creates services that customers demand through cooperation, partnership, or outsourcing between various suppliers and various resources (Nam, Kim, Yim, Lee, & Jo, 2009). Thus, Dongdaemun Fashion Town is a system space composed of subordinate markets with unique taste functions; here, a systematic network between the suppliers is significant. It produces value co-creation through collaboration with suppliers. However, few previous studies have investigated co-value created through co-production or co-innovation from Dongdaemun Fashion Town. Also, the shift from product-centered thinking to the customer-centered thinking implies the need for an accompanying shift to the customer-based strategy. It also refers the necessity of strategy to improve customer equity (Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004). Therefore, further study is needed on co-creation research to make cyclical growth of traditional market and customer equity. The structure of this study is as follows. First, the characteristics of the Dongdaemun Fashion Town’s co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation are investigated and each of the subordinate aspects is investigated. Second, the influence of co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation on customer equity driver is analyzed. Third, the moderating effects on the types of suppliers’ (wholesale/retail) influence relationship are analyzed. In total, 300 samples by wholesalers and retailers were collected for the final analysis. Data analysis was performed used SPSS 21.0 for exploratory factor analyses, reliability analysis, and descriptive statistics. Based on the results, AMOS 18.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and multiple group analysis. The results of this study provide an insight into the influence of Dongdaemun Fashion Town’s co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation on customer equity by wholesalers and retailers. The study concludes with outlining future directions of research that can be used in the development of marketing strategies.

This study was designed to investigate luxury brand co-value creation. A mixed method approach was used to 1) identify encounter attributes of value co-creation, consumer value and brand value and 2) examine the relationships among encounter attributes, consumer value, brand value, and purchase intention to explain the process of value co-creation.

In this paper we explore the process of value co-creation in two elite kaiseki restaurant companies in Japan. The authors first describe key themes that underlie the omotenashi of the tea ceremony. The authors then examine the ways in which these themes influence the service philosopy of Teiichi Yuki, the found of the Kitcho restaurant chain, and Rikifusa Satake, the president of the Minokichi restaurant chain. Based on these analyses, we argue that existing discussions of co-creation, which focus on the customer’s creation of value-in-use, should be extended to permit the analysis of usage experiences that involve multiple, simultaneous, interdependent value-in-processes. In particular, in the two companies examined by the authors, both the master and the customer experience value-in-use during the delivery of kaiseki cuisine. Moreover, given the importance of mutual consideration, the value-in-use experienced by each party is critically dependent on the value-in-use received by the other.

Purpose Two patterns of consumer value creation are commonly observed in literature: standardisation and customisation of products. An important value-creating feature of standard products is reduction of consumer costs, both direct (prices of standard products are lower) and indirect (costs of recognising, selecting and learning-to-use). Personalised production, on the contrary, is costly, but the decrease in value due to a complexity of choice and use is compensated by an additional value from the perfect fitting to THE consumer needs. Service industry, especially B2B services, provides a good example of personalisation. This paper focuses on marketing to study drivers and determinants of the successful value creation in an individualised service production. Incentives to provide bespoke services arise when it is impossible to sell a second copy (a replica) of previously provided services: the service should be personally tailored and tuned to the needs of a particular customer. Bespoke services cannot be properly produced without detailed information about THE customers’ needs; a common knowledge about a representative consumer is not sufficient in this case. Customised KIBS have two producers: first, the service provider, who inputs its intellectual human resources; second, the customer, whose input is information, i.e. knowledge about itself. This phenomenon is known as co-production. The value of a customised service is therefore added by consumer as well. Co-production adds value to the supplied item by transforming it from replica into a unique object. The purpose of the current paper is to analyse the mechanism of co-production in marketing services in order to identify the sources of the above mentioned inefficiencies. Methodology The study of marketing services is part of the broader study of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in Russia. Our methodology includes the study of observable patterns in KIBS sector performance with an objective to arrive at a better conceptual understanding of contemporary practices. We employ empirical data from 2007-13 obtained from specialised surveys of Russian executives who were asked to answer questions both on their own company and on market developments. The survey covers 600-800 producers of KIBS annually, and one tenth of them are suppliers of marketing services. Furthermore, in 2007, 2011 and in 2013 the survey involved over 700 business consumers of KIBS, of whom at least one third are users of marketing services. Marketing services involve a visible share of customised production (up to 70 per cent before the recent economic downturn), which makes them a convenient field for a research on individualised services. Original metrics of their knowledge intensity, level of customisation, customer involvement and customers’ absorptive capacity are the most important empirical outcomes of our surveys. Maim findings First, we argue that marketing services in Russia are highly knowledge intensive. The literature on KIBS usually proposes three main characteristic of knowledge intensity: 1) educational attainments of the workforce that are associated with the level of professional skills; 2) share of the value-added, and 3) share of customised services. With our original methodic we obtain quantitative metrics of all the three characteristics and prove high knowledge intensity of marketing services. Second, we present thorough investigation of provider-customer relations within service production. We provide original metrics of the intensity of customer co-production and show that the users of marketing services are deeply involved into co-production. We also demonstrate how the level of co-production fluctuates along the service production cycle to prove our hypothesis about positive relation between the intensity of customers’ involvement and their ability to add value to customised services. Third, we prove that value adding via co-production of marketing services is rarely absolutely efficient. The losses in efficiency results in value losses because proper customisation is impossible without perfect co-production, and insufficient co-production thus generates standard service instead of bespoke one. We reveal the sources of imperfect co-production and provide empirical evidence of their relative importance. Fourth, we demonstrate that value added through co-production can be lost due to incomplete absorption of the service. We provide evidence about imperfect absorptive capacity of Russian users of marketing services and expose its sources. We also discuss the relation between absorptive capacity and the general economic cycle in Russia. Research implications The study of co-production of marketing services may help their providers to optimise their customer strategy, to upgrade their value chains and to avoid value losses in their interaction with customers. More generally, the study improves our understanding of the bespoke production which takes the growing importance with the progress of post-industrial mode of production and life.

Although the SDL paradigm has contributed to the conceptualization of “value co-creation”, and despite the prioritization of sustainable marketing by business-to-business corporations, the academic literature has failed to study the role played by sustainability in business-to-business (BtoB) value co-creation. Here, using case studies, we examine how business-to-business companies embrace the concept of sustainability to co-create value, and we further develop the theory through a qualitative approach. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the interaction between the supplier and customer networks and how the SDL value co-creation translates into business-to-business offering. The customer network is first used by the supplier to create sustainability awareness among end users (social marketing) or to understand their behaviors, whereas the supplier network creates the fit with the customer or end-user expectations for sustainability by delivering a sustainable service targeting performance or supply chain integration (green marketing). The dichotomy between green and social marketing is of high interest for BtoB marketers as in vertical business relationships, upstream companies may implement green marketing but they cannot be certain their efforts will meet the needs of the end users as they have little to no direct contact with these users. Ross et al. (2011) define green marketing, as “companies applying sustainable thinking holistically, from production to post-purchasing service, aiming to balance the company’s need for profit with the wider need to protect the environment”. The authors also recognize that “while companies may do all they can to pursue a green marketing effort to contribute to sustainability, if consumers do not change their own behavior to become more sustainable then little will be achieved” (2011: 149). To overcome this potential hurdle they introduce the concept of “social marketing”, which can be defined as “the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social or public good” (French and Blair-Stevens, 2006: 4). If we apply the SDL value co-creation model to this diachronic approach, splitting the production from the use of the product, and even looking at the use of the product across time (i.e., during the product life cycle), then we have to look at the network of actors involved in the different stages of this value co-creation model in a BtoB context. The SDL paradigm implicitly recognizes the value creation network (Lusch and Vargo, 2006), which can be defined as when “actors come together to co-produce value” (Norman and Ramirez, 1994). Cova and Salle (2008: 272) show that to translate the SDL into a BtoB offering, the supplier network must interact with the customer network, “thereby co-creating value with them and for them”. From there, we can suggest that a sustainable value proposition in BtoB will be the process by which companies link the supplier and the customer network while incorporating green and social marketing (Ross et al., 2011). Our findings improve and detail our understanding of this interaction between the supplier and customer networks.

The events industry continues to grow and is estimated to be worth around 30 billion dollars yearly involving more than 50 million trips worldwide. MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions) offer opportunities for business networking, business development and customer loyalty, and are used for internal company purposes as well as for external commercial gain. However, capturing the value of any given MICE appears difficult and relatively little is known about how customers engage in co-creation and there are few models or frameworks. Moreover, dyadic encounter and value from a provider perspective ignore the measurement of customer value in multi-actor service encounters. The research questions posed by this study were therefore: How do multi-actor service encounters differ from dyadic ones? Do current value frameworks capture all the value created in these encounters? And how can multi-actor service providers increase customer value? To address these questions, we embarked on a qualitative study with 35 actors (attendees, organizers, speakers) from networking events, using a service-dominant logic approach to conceptualizing customer perceived value from networking events. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first empirical studies to address the joint creation of value in service encounters characterised by multiple providers (provider network approach) and multiple customers (customer group approach) at the same time and studied from the perspectives of both sides. In answering our first research question of how do multi-actor service encounters different from dyadic ones, we first identify several characteristics that define multi-actor services and compare them to traditional one-to-one services. Our second research question asked whether current value taxonomies capture all the value created in these encounters and we conceptualised the dimensions of event value (social, professional, learning, emotional and hedonic), and show how these relate to existing value taxonomies, as well as highlighting professional value which is new and novel to event encounters. Thirdly, in answering how multi-actor service providers can increase customer value, we supplement previous research on customer value from the providers’ view by adding how the design and execution of service impacts customer value. From this managerial perspective, our study brings new perspectives for event management in understanding when and where value is created and therefore when and how it should be measured. In terms of assessing interaction and engagement, we have found that few practices are in place. We suggest that observation within an event setting could be complemented by video recording.

Introduction Recent research in management and marketing has focused on the concept of value cocreation, and numerous attempts have been made by scholars to clarify the essence and process of value cocreation according to the service-dominant logic (Vargo & Lusch 2006). The value cocreation perspective is substantially different from the traditional value creation perspective in the following two respects. First, while in the value creation perspective the seller or firm is the initiator of value creation and value proposition, the value cocreation perspective considers both the buyer or consumer and the seller or firm to be value-creating actors (Vargo & Lusch 2006). Second, the value cocreation perspective focuses on the fact that value is cocreated through interaction between the seller and buyer, or company and consumer (Vargo & Lusch 2006). The purpose of this paper is to (1) analyze the case of ‘COOKPAD’, the top recipe site in Japan, as a platform for value cocreation, (2) consider the relationship between firms and consumers in the value cocreation process, and (3) draw some theoretical insights on value cocreation, open innovation, and service innovation. While tremendous progress has been made in these research fields, little is known about the ‘platform’ of value cocreation. This paper will focus specifically on the function of ‘platform’ in value cocreation. Case analysis of COOKPAD COOKPAD has following three theoretical features. First, COOKPAD is a service provider, which is thought to be more likely to cocreate value with consumers than goods manufacturing companies (Grönroos 2011). Second, it is an online service provider that operates in an environment where a higher number of consumers are likely to become involved in the value cocreation process. And thirdly, it is a leading-edge case that could provide new theoretical knowledge to the existing theories on value cocreation, open innovation, and service innovation. Overview COOKPAD Inc. was founded in 1997 by an entrepreneur Akimitsu Sano, and the Internet site called ‘COOKPAD’ became the most popular recipe site in Japan in a very short period. In accordance with the corporate mission of ‘making everyday cooking fun,’ it allows users to upload and search through original, user-created recipes. In July 2013, COOKPAD had more than 1.5 million registered recipes, a total of 20 million users, and over 1 million paid subscription users. Currently, it is being used by almost 80-90% of all Japanese women in their 20-30s (COOKPAD 2014). Combined with its mobile and smartphone services which can be used on the go and in stores, COOKPAD plays an influential role in the shopping decisions that consumers make in their everyday lives. Business Model COOKPAD has two revenue-generating businesses. One is a ‘premium service’ business aimed at consumers, and the second business is advertising aimed at food manufacturers (Uesaka 2009). COOKPAD users can search through a large database of recipes using search options such as ingredients, menu, and keywords. Free users can view the recipes, but for them the functionality of the service is more limited. ‘Premium service’ members (a paid service costing ¥294 per month) have access to value-added services such as ‘MY kitchen’ and ‘MY folder’. ‘MY kitchen’ allows a member to upload a recipe with a self-made photo of the food, check the traffic to the recipe, and browse the feedback to the recipe from other paying members. Paying members can also save their favorite recipes in ‘MY folder’, can register their favorite recipe-posting members, and search for new recipes posted by these members. The company’s advertising business offers corporate clients the option to display clickable ads and also runs recipe contests. Its advertising clients include food and beverage manufacturers, and the service aims at enhancing the awareness of client products and services and at enhancing consumer knowledge on how to use these products. More specifically, COOKPAD provides food companies with a virtual space or ‘platform’ to hold recipe contests and to promote their products by inviting users to create recipes for these products. COOKPAD’s cocreated value The value cocreation process of COOKPAD has two aspects. The first is in the relationship with consumers. Consumers upload their vaunted recipes to COOKPAD, and derive great satisfaction from providing other consumers with value by having these other consumers browse and use these recipes. A series of customer experiences (searching for recipes, cooking, uploading recipe) on COOKPAD results in customer satisfaction. The important point here is that consumers are actors who cocreate value in a multilateral and interactional fashion through browsing and uploading of each other’s recipes, while usual cookbooks produced by professionals create value in a unilateral fashion. Therefore, COOKPAD is an interactive platform that promotes value cocreation among consumers. The second aspect is in the relationship with food manufacturers. Usually, food manufacturers try to take in customers’ needs through group interviews and/or consumer surveys to develop more appealing products or services. However, although customer needs may be incorporated in the product development process, it is arguably the food manufacturer that creates value in the form of food products. Also, it is usually the manufacturers who propose recipes using their ingredients to consumers on their websites, and, in this case, they use the website as a one-way communication channel for their products. In contrast, COOKPAD plays not only the role of a platform where food manufacturers place Internet advertisements, but they can also ask consumers for ideas on how to use the ingredients in the form of ‘recipe contests’. In the case of COOKPAD the value-creating actors are not the food manufacturers that strategically promote the usage of their ingredients, but instead it is the consumers —usually considered value receivers in the goods-dominant logic— who perform this role. The value cocreation on COOKPAD is based on the fact that it is a platform connecting two markets. Platform is defined as the tool and/or system that functions as a communication infrastructure promoting cooperation among multiple types of actors (Kokuryo & Platform Design Lab 2011). Applying this definition to COOKPAD, the multiple types of actors are the many consumers and food manufacturers using the COOKPAD website, the interactive cocreation among these actors embodies the cooperation aspect, and the COOKPAD website is the platform that provides the communication infrastructure that enables the cocreation process. COOKPAD in fact consists of two platforms: a platform of consumers and a platform of food manufacturers. This type of platform has been called a two-sided platform where products and services are brought together by groups of users in two-sided networks (Eisenmann, Parker, & Van Alstyne 2006). In a two-sided platform two unique effects appear, namely same-side network effects and cross-sided network effects. Same-side network effects “are created when drawing users to one side helps attract even more users to that side” (Eisenmann, Parker, & Van Alstyne 2006, p.96). On COOKPAD’s platform, a large number of consumers upload various recipes, and more consumers who are attracted to the variety of recipes start to use them. The cross-side network effects are generated “if the platform provider can attract enough subsidy-side users, money-side users will pay handsomely to reach them” (Eisenmann, Parker, & Van Alstyne 2006, p.96). Indeed, in the case of COOKPAD, the large number of subsidy-side consumers attracts money-side food manufacturers to the platform who are willing to pay the advertisement rates to reach those consumers. Theoretical insights from the case Based on the COOKPAD business model, we would like to propose some theoretical insights to existing research in value cocreation, open innovation, and service innovation. First, the situation in which consumers actively engage in value cocreation and generate product innovation has been understood as ‘user innovation’. The users engaging in innovation are called ‘lead users’. Lead users are defined as those who have advanced knowledge related to a specific field, participate in product development and the service provision process, and cocreate value with firms (von Hippel 1988). This means that in this case the value cocreation is limited to lead users who are able to generate user innovation. The important point here is that users who cocreate value on COOKPAD are not lead users with advanced cooking knowledge, but amateurs in cooking, which is different from the premise of user innovation theory. COOKPAD functions as a platform that accumulates numerous knowledge resources on cooking by connecting these ordinary consumers and food manufacturers. Therefore, COOKPAD can be positioned as a value cocreation platform integrating consumers’ resources. Secondly, this feature of COOKPAD provides an important implication for research on open innovation. Open innovation is defined as the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and to expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively (Chesbrough 2006). The value cocreation platform of COOKPAD is the very infrastructure that invokes open innovation. And this aspect represents a strategy that is completely opposite to the strategy of developing a solid customer base by enclosing good customers and gaining higher profit, as typified by CRM (costumer relationship management). COOKPAD develops a relationship for cocreating values with a large indefinite number of consumers and reaps profit from paying members who are highly loyal to it. And thirdly, in association with the value creation network, the network has been considered in the concepts of value constellation (Norman & Ramírez 1993) and value network (Lusch, Vargo, & Tanniru 2010), and both of these concepts focus on the network of value-creating actors and the relationship in which the actors create one value. However, the COOKPAD platform goes beyond these concepts in the sense that recipes as cocreated values are generated emergently through consumers’ positive commitment to value cocreation. COOKPAD invoking open innovation includes a possibility of emergent value cocreation. Emergence is defined as a phenomenon in which unpredictable value added can be generated through interaction among multiple actors (Kokukyo & Platform Design Lab 2011, p.260). Both COOKPAD and consumers are not able to predict in advance what kind of value-added recipes will be uploaded, and food manufacturers cannot foresee what kind of recipes will be submitted in recipe contests. Recipes as cocreated value cannot be determined in advance, and thereby, COOKPAD is also a platform with a post-emergent process, which means a process in which the value that customers experience is not determined in advance by both firms and consumers, and the real value only becomes apparent for the first time during the use process (Ono et al. 2014). Conclusion As we analyzed above, COOKPAD has unique features in three ways. Firstly, it is a platform in which all values are generated by a cocreation process between consumers and firms. Secondly, the innovation on COOKPAD has a character of open innovation by numerous amateur consumers. Thirdly, the innovation cannot be fully determined in advance by COOKPAD, food manufacturers, and consumers. We believe we will be able to contribute to research on value cocreation, open innovation, and service innovation by further exploring the case of COOKPAD.

Entrepreneurship and marketing are two disciplines whose paths have intersected frequently, because the underlying orientation of each relates to markets and customer needs (Hills and LaForge, 1992). The most common argument surrounding this relationship has been that entrepreneurs do not follow the mainstream approach taken by large corporations when performing marketing functions. Consequently, many researchers have attempted to better understand how marketing is performed differently by entrepreneurs. Interestingly, however, extant research has tended to overlook the sui generis relationship between the entrepreneur and his firm, and the impact that such relationship potentially has on both the entrepreneur and his firm/brand.The missing link in entrepreneurial branding, we believe, lies in further understanding the dynamic that exists between the entrepreneur’s roles and his firm’s growth. Our thesis is that the entrepreneur assumes different roles in order to develop and grow his firm/brand and a newly created social structure, and eventually matures into a sense of belonging and commitment to his firm/brand that potentially attracts and retains all the other stakeholders associated with the firm/brand. This may be regarded as an identity construction process which is triggered by the entrepreneur and permeates into his firm/brand. In their cross-disciplinary exploration of entrepreneurship research, Ireland and Webb (2007) identified identity construction as one of the three broad concepts around which multilevel entrepreneurship theory can develop.Qualitative data were collected through a total of 25 in-depth semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs from the U.K., Guatemala and Colombia. Informed Grounded Theory by Thornberg (2012) was used as a data analysis approach, permitting an empirical understanding of entrepreneurial branding illuminated by extant literature on branding, entrepreneurship and identity. Data analysis revealed that entrepreneurs whose businesses are growing are involved in a variety of actions that compel them to embrace three different roles. The first role, identified as the Entrepreneur Strategist, encompasses the triggering elements through which the entrepreneur creates the foundations and key purposes of his firm. The second role, identified as the Entrepreneur Sense-giver, captures the actions that the entrepreneur undertakes to embed his central beliefs, values and personal assumptions through his daily experiences with his employees in the firm. The third role, identified as the Entrepreneur Developer, captures the various actions that the entrepreneur embraces to permeate his firm’s and brand’s essence to the outside world, including the customers. Our study also supports the notion that the identity of an entrepreneur is a co-creation of an individual identity and a social identity. Our argument implicitly bridges the two traditionally disconnected perspectives of Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory through the entrepreneurship process. More specifically, the three roles that entrepreneurs potentially need to embrace in order to grow their firm/brand in the market are embedded within a dynamic process in which the entrepreneur’s personal identity is co-created alongside his firm’s and brand’s social identity. A successful entrepreneur of each entrepreneurial firm should eventually permeate the entrepreneurial brand essence, a distinct blend of his personal identity and his firm’s and brand’s social identity, into the world.

Employing a 2 (Source disclosure: Health agency vs. Co-created) x 2 (Co-creator identity: General vs. Specific) between-subjects fractional factorial design, this research explores how the disclosure of consumer involvement in developing public health messages can increase advertising effectiveness. This effect is enhanced by revealing the co-creator’s identity and experience with the health issue.