Value Co-Creation in Industrial Services
Vargo and Lusch (2004) define services as applying knowledge through actions or processes that generate benefits for other organizations. In the industrial environment, suppliers' application of knowledge improves customers' production processes (Kowalkowski, 2006). Thus, industrial services comprise a set of actions or processes that create value for the customer in the B2B context. (Kowalkowski, 2006; Priya Datta & Roy, 2011).
Nevertheless, instead of just receiving value, customers can take a more active stance in B2B relationships so that they work together with their suppliers and other stakeholders to generate mutual benefits in a collaborative process called value co-creation. (Kohtamäki & Rajala, 2016; Oertzen, Odekerken-Schröder, Brax, & Mager, 2018; Ramaswamy, 2011). This process takes place within the business ecosystem (Kohtamäki & Rajala, 2016), in which co-creation actors (individuals/organizations) interact and exchange complementary resources with their business partners to ensure their mutual survival in the service market (Jaakkola & Hakanen, 2013; Lusch, Vargo, & Gustafsson, 2016).
Since companies are not self-sufficient, they need to establish partnerships with other organizations to access missing resources. (Mills et al., 2013; Schwetschke & Durugbo, 2018; Tsou et al., 2015). Therefore, the main benefit of co-creating value in the B2B context is access to complementary resources (Jaakkola & Hakanen, 2013).