Resumo

The idea of value co-creation has become a perennial theme of study in recent management literature. However, the majority of the research has put a strong focus on explaining and exploring how value is co-created with two types of Stakeholders: customers and consumers. The present study understands that, since there is an already existing focus on the idea of the firm-consumer relationship for co-creation, it is necessary to deepen the understanding within the subject regarding the possibility of applying the concept to a multi-stakeholder scenario.

As a research problem, this article asks: how can the concept of value co-creation be embedded in studies related to the Stakeholder Theory? Then, this paper has two main objectives: the first one attempts to provide a theoretical framework of the studies on value co-creation as a concept in the management literature. The second one aims to identify interconnections between the Stakeholder Theory and the concept of value co-creation in order to propose new avenues of research.

Within the Stakeholder Theory, scholars have undertaken the task of understanding how value is created through the interaction and exchange among Stakeholders. The Stakeholder Theory argues that firm exists through interaction with its stakeholders and that business is about creating value with and for stakeholders. Firms that seek to serve the interests of a broad set of stakeholders will be able to create more value over time. Corroborating with this, the development and maintenance of favourable and productive stakeholder relationships are essential in creating value for an organization.

In the text, a systematic analysis of the studies was developed, shrinking value creation from the first developments of the theme, and based on the theoretical background, questions were presented aiming to encourage new research on the theme. As examples we have (1) Can the concept of value co-creation be applied to several types of Stakeholders? and (2) Can a firm better manage their Stakeholders and their interests by understanding the motivation behind the resource integration of Stakeholders that leads to value co-creation?

The research sought to contribute to filling a theoretical gap that has been discussed by authors such as Tantalo and Priem (2014), Freeman (2010, 2017), among others. It is hoped that the data presented revealing the growth trend of the topic of value co-creation in the fields of business and management, as well as the developed propositions, encourage new research on the theme of co-creation in stakeholder theory.

Freeman, R. E., Harrison, J. S., Wicks, A. C., Parmar, B. L., & De Colle, S. (2010). Stakeholder theory: The state of the art. Cambridge University Press. Freeman, R. E. (2017). Five challenges to stakeholder theory: A report on research in progress. In Stakeholder Management(pp. 1-20). Emerald Publishing Limited. Prahalad, C. K., & Ramaswamy, V. (2004). Co‐creation experiences: The next practice in value creation. Journal of interactive marketing, 18(3), 5-14. Tantalo, C., & Priem, R. L. (2016). Value creation through stakeholder synergy. Strategic Management Journal, 37(2), 314-329.