Reyes gobernando por Derecho Divino

Based on previous discussion on the development of different views of value, S-D logic asserts that value means value-in-use (Vargo & Lusch, 2008b). This is indicated by one of Vargo and Lusch’s (2004) fundamental premises that the customer is always a co- creator of value, and value cannot be achieved until the customer use the resources. Value-in-use thus means that value is co-created or emerges during usage. In the usage process, customer as the user is in charge (Grönroos, 2011). Furthermore, scholars suggest that the usage process can be more descriptively and precisely considered as an experience and value-in-use is therefore experientially determined (Prahalad &

Ramaswamy, 2004a; 2004b; Vargo & Lusch, 2006; Ballantyne and Varey , 2006; Vargo & Lusch, 2008a; Grönroos 2008; Grönroos, 2011; Grönroos & Ravald, 2011; Heinonen, Strandvik, MIckelsson, Edvardsson, Sundström, & Andersson, 2010; Helkkula, Kelleher, & Pihlström, 2012; Strandvik, holmlund, & Edvardsson, 2012). Evidence exists about the experiential nature of value before the S-D logic. Abbott (1956, p. 39f) states that “what people really desire are not products but satisfying experiences”. People demand products because they demand the experience-bringing values which they hope the products will

deliver (Abbott, 1956). Similarly, Holbrook (1994, p. 27) marks that “Value is an interactive relativistic preference experience”, and Mattsson (1991, p. 42) argues that “value experiences are the ultimate effects of consumption...product value patterns are the effects of an ongoing evaluative act by a customer on being exposed to a product.”

More recently, Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004b) indicate that firms are shifting their focuses from staging experience for customers (e.g., Disney, Ritz Carlton) to encouraging customers to co-create experience with them through high-quality service interactions. The authors further argue that value-in-use extracted from the service

process takes the form of experience, which is uniquely co-created by each customer with service providers. The quality of the experience thus depends on the degree and nature of co-creation (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004b).

Therefore, while the G-D logic assumes value can be only derived from tangible goods and products, the S-D logic considers value to be co-created from service and experience (Vargo & Lusch, 2006). Vargo and Lusch (2008a) acknowledge that “experience” may be a more contemporarily specific and descriptive concept for value- in-use. They consequently argue that value is phenomenologically determined as well as uniquely and contextually interpreted. Specifically, their tenth fundamental premise states “Value is always uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary” (p. 9). Grönroos (2011) consideres the term “phenomenologically” to be vague and revisits this fundamental premise. He revises this premise into that: (1) Value is accumulating throughout the customer’s co-creating process; (2) Value is always uniquely and both experientially and contextually perceived and determined by the customer. The

and Varey (2006) in that co-creation is a “generator of service experience and value-in- use” (p. 336). Grönroos (2008) further notes that “value creation cannot mean anything other than the customer’s, or any other user’s experiential perception of the value-in-use that emerges from usage or possession of resources, or even from mental states.” (p. 282). He sheds light on an argument that the psychological experience co-created by the

customer is as important as physical experience (Grönroos, 2008; Grönroos, 2011). Moreover, Grönroos and Ravald (2011) explain the role of service provider as a value facilitator, who directly influences the customer’s experience and therefore his or her value creation.

Following previous researchers’ conceptualization, Helkkula et al. (2012) firstly attempts to systematically characterize “value in the experience”. Four theoretical

propositions are suggested to describe value in the experience: (1) value in the experience is individually intrasubjective and socially intersubjective; (2) Value in the experience can be both lived and imaginary; (3) Value in the experience is constructed based on previous, current, and imaginary future experiences and is temporal in nature; (4) Value in the experience emerges from individually determined social context. Based on the above synthesis and previous discussions on value and value co-creation, it can be concluded that value emerges from and is determined by the customer’s subjective experience. Such experience is not directly delivered by the firm, but interactively co- created by the customer with service providers and other actors, and experientially determined by the customer. Therefore, co-creation experience is the value generator and co-creation needs to be experientially investigated.

Co-creation experience is conceptually distinct from value co-creation. Unlike value co-creation, which focuses on discussing the actual co-creative behavior, co- creation experience emphasizes the psychological feelings customers derived from the co-creative behaviors. As Pine and Gilmore (1999) indicted in its seminal article of “experience economy”, some of the fastest growing sectors such tourism and hospitality concentrate on the consumption of experiences rather than the actual behavior.

Experience is described as a distinct sort of economic offering which is contextual, subjective and unique for each individual (Pine & Gilmore, 1998; 1999). Co-creation experience describes customer’s subjective feelings whereas value co-creation relates to how value is co-created in terms of different forms of activities (Yi & Gong, 2013). Meanwhile, More and more researchers in S-D logic and value co-creation has called for the need to develop co-creation experience rather than co-creation behavior (Leclercq et al., 2016).