Introducing a Model of Value Co-Creation with Customers in the Tourism Industry

Value co-creation is a new form of business strategy that emphasizes continuous creation and recognition of the shared values of organizations and their customers. This strategy is the result of effective interaction between them. The purpose of this study is to present a comprehensive and native model of this new phenomenon in the tourism industry of Iran.

This study is an applied and descriptive research which was done qualititatively by grounded theory. The participants of this study consists of 15 tourism experts who were selected by purposefully and judgmentally using snowball method. Data were collected through semi-structured and in-depth interviews.

After performing three coding steps on the data collected, a paradigmatic model of the strategy has been produced through grounded theory. This model consists of some causes and antecedents, organizational and national contextual factors, facilitating and limiting intervening factors, organizational and national developing strategies, and finally organizational and national consequences of developing of this strategy.

Implementing value co-creation strategy in tourism industry of Iran can make more effective utilizing of customers' abilities and capabilities to achieve competitive advantage, enhance organizational brand and achieve its constructive economic, cultural, social, political and environmental consequences.