Table 1.

Theoretical approaches to value co-creation concept.

Theoretical approach	Main ideas and contributions	Key authors
Service dominant (S-D) Logic	Service, not goods, is the fundamental unit of exchange. Co-created value becomes a joint function of actions by the provider(s) and consumer(s). For services to be delivered, consumers must learn to use, maintain, repair, and adapt offerings to their unique needs, usage situations, and behaviors.	Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2008
Service science	Based on the S-D logic, service science analyzes value co-creation as configurations of people, technology, and value propositions. It integrates existing resources with those available from a variety of service systems that can contribute to system well-being, as determined by the system's environmental context.	Spohrer et al., 2008; Baron and Harris, 2010
Service logic	It is not the customer who becomes a value co-creator with a supplier; rather, it is the supplier that adopts its service logics and develops firm–customer interactions as part of its market offerings, such that it can become a co-creator of value with customers. Interactions ensure that value-in-use equates with the value proposition.	Grönroos, 2008, 2011
Many-to-many marketing	Customer networks have a key role (not dyadic firm–customer relationships) in value co-creation. Relations include a multitude of actors—intermediaries, employees, actors, and society in general—and generate value co-creation.	Gummesson, 2007, 2008
Social constructionist	Value co-creation is located within a social context; that is, it is value-in-social-context (not value-in-use), a view that captures the holistic nature of value.	Edvardsson et al., 2011
New product development	Following the more active role of customers, firms increasingly engage customers in new product/service development processes. New customer roles include product conceptualization, design, testing, support specialization, and product marketing. Customers are proactive.	Nambisan and Nambisan, 2008; O'Hern and Rindfleisch, 2010
Post-modernism	Firms shift toward offering more tailored goods and services to consumers to allow their active participation, such that they must open up more of their processes.	Firat and Venkatesh, 1993; Bendapudi and Leone, 2003