Korean foods have the strengths to addresssome of the health problems of modern man. To assess the properties of Korean noodles, daily value %, DVS, DDS and energy density were compared between many kinds of noodles from around the world. Using a variety of reference materials, a nutritional database of noodles was built for this study. For carbohydrate, lipid, vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin C, niacin, zinc, and copper, the daily values % of western noodles were significantly higher. Also, the serving size of Korean noodles was significantly small. Comparing the average energy density of the noodles, they showed 1.87±0.93 kcal/g (Korean noodles), 2.42±1.08 kcal/g (western noodles) and 1.84±0.84 kcal/g (other noodles). The dietary fiber, polyphenols, and flavonoids content of the noodles showed no significant difference. Neither DVS nor DDS showed a statistically significant difference. In the Korean noodles, the GMDFV pattern showed a diverse choice of food groups. Korean noodles show a lower energy density, and the small serving size to have favorable for the prevention of obesity. Thus, Korean noodles are an excellent choice in terms of diversity and energy density.

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Korean red pepper extracts on physiological and sensory characteristics. The Korean red pepper extracts were added to chocolate at weight percentages of 0, 2, 4, and 6%. The sensory characteristics made with various Korean red pepper concentrations of the additives were measured as follows: color values (L-value, redness, and yellowness), total phenol, total capsaicinoid, total carotenoid, and ABTS radical scavenging activity. In sensory evaluation, significant differences (p<0.05 and p<0.01) were shown in taste, spiciness, and overall acceptability depending on the addition of pepper extracts. However, there were no significant differences in the properties of aroma and bitterness for chocolate.

The Korean Legation in Washington, D.C., is a proof that Emperor Kojong of Chosun Dynasty tried to establish relationship with the U.S. in 1891, that was before the declaration to establish Korean Empire. In that sense, the building is a historic place. The legation building is a symbolic place attesting to the turbulent history at the time of 1890 to 1910, when Korea had to suffer the forced treaty with Japan in 1905 and the annexation into Japan, and then to the 20th century up to the present time, 2014. The legation building can be turned into a space to host well-planned exhibits to show Korea's history and culture to local residents, foreign visitors to Washington, D.C., and overseas Koreans. The followings are the basic principles for the future use of the legation in line with the basic direction. The building's use should not be limited to museum, but should be flexible to accommodate various different practical usage. It is necessary to make the Korean Legation building that can incorporate the characters and the history through modern interpretation of the historicity of the place, the Korean culture, and historical events. The future usage of the Korean Legation building should enhance the value as a cultural heritage by linking the interpretation of the historical events and real life shown through exhibits, performance and people.

Saung Angklung Udjo (SAU) is recognized as a cultural tourism destination in Indonesia. The aim of this paper is to study the consumer personal value toward SAU. This research reported that consumers perceived angklung as an unique and attractive musical instrument and felt very satisfied to performance in SAU.

Deciding what value to offer to customers is a key managerial task in differentiating a service in the market and in satisfying customer needs better than competitors. This task is more critical for B2B services because customer satisfaction results from both the customer’s actual experience with the service and the ongoing interactions a customer has with the service provider. Previous research supports this view by showing that a service’s performance and relational value offerings are paramount in driving customer satisfaction; however, the distinct effect of each of these value offerings on customer satisfaction has not been fully explained. Using a multi-informant design and data from 173 B2B service firms, our study provides a deeper understanding of how the outcomes of performance and relational value vary at different levels of customer participation and supplier collaboration in a B2B service project. This deeper understanding helps managers to identify precisely the conditions under which a specific configuration of performance and relational value offerings is more or less influential with respect to customer satisfaction.

This paper is conducted to support Korean game development companies to enter the MSNG market in China. According to preceding researches, the life-cycle of MSNG is under 3 months. Short-term of the MSNG's life-cycle raises the problems of low profits or deficit of companies managed to enter the Chinese market. Therefore, it needs to lead MSNG users to continuos use to extend the life-cycle. The plan to extend the life-cycle is likely to be a critical factor to be survived in Chinese market. The commitment is considered as the factor to make usage of MSNG longer by researchers. This paper also infers that the plan to keep MSNG user's commitment continuos develops their perceived functional value, emotional value and social value, with the reasonal, emotional and psychological point of view. We make a effort to reveal the relationships among factors through 318 data from Chinese MSNG users. Futhermore we would like to suggest that the companies consider continuos usage intention of MSNG users as the critical factor which makes a profit based on the result of this survey and propose the direction of future researches from the limit of this paper.

Now the frame for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in any industry is shifting to Creating Shared Value(CSV). The tremendous profits made in the fashion industry create the temptation to engage in illegal or unethical behavior. When producers, manufacturers, models or consumers are being exploited or treated unfairly, fashion industry has a legal and ethical responsibility to change the situation. Based on issues stated below, therefore, there is an urging need for the CSV in fashion industry. 1) First, eco-friendly issue for the fashion industry matters. The materials, transportation and production that are involved in the fashion industry all have an impact on the environment. Many synthetic materials are derived from petroleum, while many more natural materials are grown on land that could be used for food production. 2) Marketing for fashion seduces people into buying things that they don't need, rather than merely informing them of a product's availability. Advertising and fashion both encourage people to consume as much as possible. New fashions are widely advertised as better than whatever came before. 3) Protection of the fashion design covers the most frequent and important issue now. The main appeal of many fashionable accessories is the brand name. A Gucci bag can be sold for many times more than an identical bag made by a competitor. Forgers take advantage of this fact by creating cheap knock-offs and illegally adding the names of famous and expensive fashion houses. 4) Networking in the fashion industry is another focal point. To survive in a competitive field, fashion firms have to deploy their strategic networking policy in order to sustain long-term relationships with their suppliers, which means the increase of transaction-specific investments on both sides, increase of the years of relationships with suppliers, and reduction of supplier base.

This paper describes how customer asset management can influence the profit and loss and the balance-sheet drivers of shareholder value. The authors argue that economic profit should be used as a measure of shareholder value creation because the former acknowledges both operating and financial expenses and allows analysis of individual customer relationships. The developed framework suggests that the drivers of shareholder value can be divided into four main categories: revenue, cost, asset utilization, and risk. The paper identifies 13 distinct roles for customer asset management that influence the four shareholder value drivers. The empirical research consists of three longitudinal B2B case studies describing customer asset management aimed at improving shareholder value creation. The findings of the empirical research suggest that B2B firms are able to acknowledge all suggested four shareholder value drivers. Findings also suggest that firms should differentiate their customer management concepts in order to move customer asset management beyond traditional acquisition–retention optimization.

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.

This study investigates the role of green perceived value, green trust and perceived quality on the adoption behavior of green consumers. A survey was conducted using a sample of 188 respondents and a partial least squares approach was used to validate the research model. The research results show that both green perceived value and perceived quality have a direct influence on green purchase intention. Green trust also mediates the relationship between green perceived value and green purchase intention, which in turn predicts the purchase behavior of green products. The research results indicate that the drivers of green product adoption are represented by green perceived value, green trust, and perceived quality. Marketers should be putting more emphasis in this relatively new approach of green marketing strategies to induce purchase and adoption of green products by creating competitive advantages for the company.

These days, thanks to lots of smart devices and advanced communication technologies, consumer’s recognition and relations have been changed. They, beyond relying on information and services which are produced by experts, produce information and knowledge by themselves via SNS or web that they want to know. As consumer’s recognition is changing like this, SNS is evolving into social platform. Therefore, this paper is intended to clarify overall relationship between network characteristics in social platform, knowledge sharing, social capital, social innovation and customer’s value. This paper has clarified influences between variables related to consumer’s behaviors in social platform and the results are summarized as following: First, network characteristics in social platform are found to positively affect knowledge sharing efforts of social platform. Second, knowledge sharing has been found to positively affect social capital and innovation in social platform. However, enjoyment in helping others i.e a sub variable is found to positively affect social capital and innovation through anticipated reciprocal relationships. Third, social capital and innovation in social platform have affected customer value in social platform positively. Consequently, this paper is intended to solve various problems found from overall societies and industries through social innovation and also to advance them. For these purposes, social platform is believed to prompt sharing idea and knowledge based on interactions between users and social relationship. These actions become social capitals resulting in social innovation. Moreover, these would create new businesses and marketing opportunities across various areas in the processes that innovative activities form customer values.

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.

Purpose The current rapid growth of internet-based commerce is putting pressure on brick-and-mortar retail outlets due to an urge to redefine the role of store spaces from sales channel to, among others, a branding instrument (Hines & Bruce 2008, Nobbs et al 2013). Differentiation in the fashion business being mostly based on non-tangible, emotional, produt attributes, fashion brands recognise the importance of offering a three dimensional environment in order for people to ‘experience’ the brand (WGSN 2014, Lea-Greenwood 2013, Easey 2008). The increased amount of flagship and (or) concept stores must be understood in this context. However, given the need for a clearly identifiable brand identity, one could argue that, depending on a brand’s idiosyncratic identity, sometimes a flagship store might be superfluous, or else it should present different features and chatracteristics. So for instance the introduction of what are commonly know as ‘third spaces’ in stores goes at the expense of space where garmets could be stocked, and thus impacts an important metric like turnover per square meter. Hence, in the context of flagship stores, the questions arise of 1) should every fashion brand have a flagship store? or else: 2) given that a brand has a flagship store: is there a relationship between its symbolic value some flagship store’s characteristics? Design/Methodology The methodological stance in this paper is mainly interpretative, as we aim at a richer understanding of the relationship between branding and retailing. At first a large number of qualitative data (22 interviews and 678 store observations) have been collected about characteristics of flagship stores around the globe. Afterwards the brands, owners of the stores, have been classified according to their Glue Value, i.e. according to the benefits that the symbolic value of the brand implies. We have then looked for a corrispondence between the store features and the brand that would reflect the Glue Value dimension. Findings We have found partial evidence of a correspondence between the glue value of a brand and its flagship store’s characteristics. We hypothesise this might be due to two main reasons 1) brands with a lower glue value tend to profile emotional rather than functional values, and attempt to portray that in a store with mixed results (literally). Secondly it is clear that the location and ownership of the store has a major impact on the need to fulfill ‘harder’short term financial goals (like e.g. turnover per square meter). Limitations One main limitation in this study is the self-selection bias. As normally brands with a higher glue value feel the need for a flagship store , the data could be richer and results more valid if we did include data from a wider range of store typologies. Social/Managerial implications The outcomes suggest that brand owners are seldom aware of the longer-term strategic function of their stores. Especially given the growth of internet based transactions, we offer a framewokr for brand owners to rethink the role of their stores in the context of their branding strategy. Also we suggest that, as with strategy (cfr Michael Porter) making a unique and definitive choice about the role and function of a store is increasingly important for the perception of a brand’s identity. Originality To our knowledge som eauthors suggest a relation between branding and distribution strategy, but little work has been done that tends to infer a relationship between a brand’s characteristics and the physical characteristics of its retail outlets.

The luxury market is surely one of the most affected areas by the counterfeiting phenomenon. The presence of fake goods means very often a financial loss for companies, both in terms of reduced turnover, but also in terms of intangible losses (i.e. brand value reduction). This phenomenon has led companies, in the last years, to ask their New Product Development (NPD) division if and how it was possible to develop unique products, difficult or even impossible to replicate, and how to help customers in the identification of authentic goods versus fake ones. The authors propose a model to support fashion companies for developing anti-counterfeiting solutions since the NPD phases in order to deal with the effect of black and grey market and preserve their brand and products values.

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.

During the last decades more and more consumers worldwide, started integrating environmental considerations into daily purchases what leads the so-called ‘green consumer’ to ask for healthier, safer, and better quality food. Nonetheless, a deeper understanding of value dimensions consumers across nations perceive in the context of organic food products is still required to develop successful management strategies which might transfer positive consumer perceptions to satisfaction and resulting buying behavior. Against this backdrop, the present study focuses on a) the antecedents leading to the consumption of organic food products and b) the identification of differences regarding the relative importance of the value-based drivers across US and German consumers

Customers are regarded as the key intangible assets of a company. It is necessary to have the capability to anticipate customer value. The study discusses the relationship among customer value anticipation, product innovativeness, and customer lifetime value from customer perspective. 178 MBA students were surveyed by questionnaire in this study. The results show that customer perceived customer value anticipation can significantly influence product innovativeness. Product innovativeness not only positively affects customer lifetime value, but also plays a partial mediating role between customer value anticipation and customer lifetime value. Both functional and emotional advertising can play a moderating role on the relationship between product innovativeness and customer lifetime value. At the end, managerial implications are discussed.

Impacts of Relationship value on Loyalty of Online Group-Buying Customer in China With the development of e-commerce industry, online group-buying pattern has been one of the most popular online shopping patterns in China. Although the online group-buying platform has a large number of consumers, the consumer loyalty to specific online group-buying platform is low. For this phenomenon, scholars usually studied from the perspective of factors which influenced consumer behavior intentions. However, few studies focus on the component and measuring of relational benefits in the process of group-buying. Based on the perspective of consumers, this paper studied the relational benefits between consumers and online group-buying platform, and the perceived benefits of consumers who are in different relationship life cycle.This paper used SPSS to test the reliability and validity of data and carried some discussions about research model through factor analysis and regression analysis. The results indicated that relational benefits were significantly related to customer loyalty, that relationship quality and relationship life cycle was considered as mediator and moderator, respectively. Further, we made some management recommendations for operators in the online group-buying platform.