ABSTRACT
Recently, trends in the market and discussions in marketing literature signal the changing roles of customers. Marketing literature not only emphasizes the importance of devising customerfocused strategies for organizations to stay competitive in the market, but also, to a great extent, makes an attempt to theorize consumers as co-producers and co-creators of value (Lusch and Vargo 2006; Cova and Dalli 2009). Many different terms have been suggested to signal this new role of consumers: prosumers (Toffl er 1980), consumeractors, etc., all of which characterize consumers as able and willing to actively engage in the construction of value through experiences and relationships with organizations. Therefore, the concept of co-creation surfaces, suggesting that consumers can enter into and engage in production and innovation processes with companies.
