Value Co-creation and Customer-driven Innovationin Social Networking Systems Garyfallos Fragidis Technological Education Institute of Serres, Greece Ioannis Ignatiadis and Chris Wills Kingston University, UK

1. Value Co-creation and
Customer-driven Innovation
in Social Networking Systems
Garyfallos Fragidis
Technological Education Institute of Serres,
Greece
Ioannis Ignatiadis and Chris Wills
Kingston University, UK

2. ► Fundamental questions:
● What is Service Science?
• It initiated as an effort for the development of scientific
methods in services1.
● What is it for?
• It aims at the acceleration of innovations and the
augmentation of value in the service sector1.
● How can it be achieved?
• By applying the existing scientific approaches, methods,
and tools
• By developing new ones.
1 Chesbrough,
H., Spohrer, J.: A research manifesto for services sciences.
Communications of the ACM, vol. 49, no. 7, pp. 35-40 (2006).

3. ► Fundamental questions:
● What is Service?
• An activity that somebody does for the benefit of somebody
else
• The co-creation of value between the provider and the
customer
● What is so different about Services?
• The co-creation of value
• The role of the customer as contributor in value creation
• Value creation is interactional
• Value is idiosyncratically determined by the customer

4. Is value co-creation possible?
► From the customer point of view co-creation
is the major pattern people use in their everyday
lives
services self actions
value value
provider value co-creation creation customer
reception

5. Types of value co-creation
► Co-production
● The participation of the customer in the production process, when
the customer performs some activities that normally are performed
by the provider (e.g. self service, etc.).
► Customization
● It refers to changing some characteristics of the service, so that
make it fit or bring it closer to the preferences of the customer (e.g.
vegetarian meals or business class services in flights)
● Customization activities can be performed by the provider or the
customer (or a third entity on his behalf), before, during or after the
service provision.
► Integration
● It refers to synthesizing service elements from a network of
organizations and peers and adding proprietary activities, if
necessary, to create individualized solutions.
● It is required because of the complexity of people’s needs.
● It provides the general context for value co-creating systems

6. Our approach on Service Science
► Service Science is about value co-creation service
systems
● It aims at the development of new scientific approaches,
methods, and tools that are based on value co-creation and
enhance the key characteristics of services.
● Such an approach ...
• adopts a different perspective (customer-oriented)
• proliferates the ways and opportunities for value creation
• provides ample room for innovations
• prepares for a paradigm shift in business thinking
► Service is any item or action someone can offer which
could meet the needs of himself or somebody else.
● Marketable or non-marketable
► Value is determined contextually and idiosycratically
● Value co-creation is a an everyday practice and a social process
● Value co-creation takes place in networks of businesses & peers

7. State of the art in value
co-creating systems
► There is limited significant research output
● Lack of interdisciplinarity
● Emphasis on B2B relationships
● Emphasis on technologies (even if we do not have
business model)
● Misunderstanding between information/software
services (e.g. SOA and Web Services) and real
world services

8. Web 2.0 as a value
co-creation environment
► Where is the success of Web 2.0 attributed?
● Companies or users?
● Technologies or uses?
● Why did Twitter or Facebook succeed?
● What does iPhone provide?
► Web 2.0 proves that there are both business
models and technologies for the development
of value co-creation systems
► The key requirement is a shift in the mindset
on how we do business and we create value.

9. Value co-creation in social networks
► Networks of businesses, other organizations and
other people (peers, relatives or friends) that co-
create value
● They provide a space for open innovation that is driven by people’s
needs and actions.
● They can be based on the successful example of online social
networks
► Key functional characteristics:
● Support all types of value co-creation (co-production,
customisation, integration)
● Provide front-end and back-end services
● Individual users: use existing services or create new ones to meet
their needs or provide service to their peers or the community
● Business users: they make their services available in the platform
for selling, marketing or collaboration with others
● The exploitation of user feedback, as well as user-generated
activities (e.g. proposing new uses, introducing new services or
improving the existing ones)

10. An online social network
for career improvement (1)
► An online social network that enables a user to provide an
integrated view of her academic, professional and personal
profile to prospective employers.
● Great variety of evidence and data relating to her personal,
educational and professional achievements (e.g. academic
degrees, other certified or uncertified qualifications, business
experience, etc.)
● Great variety of format (e.g. digital artefacts like videos and
photographs evidencing her achievements or her personality (e.g.
on Flickr or YouTube), a blog where she posts ideas and views that
could interest prospective employers, etc.)
● Great variety of places where this data are sitting
► Co-creation of value
● The user receives services from external providers, creates and
adds her services and integrates all of them together in a personal
way to develop a unique solution that meets the needs and
preferences of her.

11. A social network
for career improvement (2)
► Types of services provided
● E-portfolio services (editing a portfolio of qualifications and
achievements and aggregating credentials and data from
different places, e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.).
● Job preference services (e.g. type of work, location,
conditions, etc.).
● Job search services (searching for hiring ads and collecting
information, either from external places or within the
platform, through the similar services created by other
users).
● Consultation services (e.g. what is career of other people
with the same profile).
● Job reviewing services (providing comments and reviews on
jobs she was hired or interviewed in the past).
● Peer communication services.
● Communication services with employers.

12. Conclusion
► The concept of co-creation of value provides a good
basis for the development of Service Science
● It provides the framework for innovations in services
● It provides a guideline for what are we looking for
● It provides ample opportunities for innovations
► We proposed an approach for Service Science
● Service Science is about value co-creation service systems
● Service is any item or action someone can offer which could meet
the needs of himself or somebody else.
● Value is determined contextually and idiosycratically and value co-
creation takes place in networks of businesses & peers
► We suggest focusing on the users and the uses
provide opportunities for innovations.

13. Questions & comments
Thank you!
Gary Fragidis
Technological Education Institute of Serres
62124 Serres, Greece
E-mail: garyf@teiser.gr
tel.: +30 23 21049310