Value co-creation: critical reflections

Over the last few years, we have seen a tremendous rise in the use of value co-creation as a concept in academic marketing and service contexts. Value co-creation generally refers to the mechanisms of interplay and collaboration between service providers and customers, resulting in experienced value for the parties. In this paper, we reflect on the concept and the use as well as usefulness of the concept. Critical reflections imply revealing and discussing underlying assumptions as well as implications for researchers and for managerial practice.
We believe a critical approach is warranted since value co-creation as a term in marketing has evolved over the last 10 years from non-existence to almost self-evidence. How is this possible and how will it affect marketing theory and practice? Although the use of a novel concept like value co-creation directs attention to the underlying phenomenon and makes it more visible, it does not mean that the phenomenon itself has emerged only recently. Cocreation
as a phenomenon has existed, but it has not before been recognized and considered important to this extent. What, then, are the explanations for the recent interest in cocreation? These are issues that we discuss in this paper. We are concerned about the often unreflected use of the concept, leading to theoretical dysfunctionalities and practical confusion. We therefore suggest that value co-creation needs to be properly defined and used in an analytical manner.