Results and Discussion

We structure the results into descriptive and thematic analyses.

2.4.4.1.Descriptive analyses

The descriptive analysis is structured into the following topics: year of publication; journals; study location; research methods, and impact of the papers.

On what concerns year of publication, although the first paper that meets the inclusion criteria was published in 2009, the majority of researches were published after 2018 (Figure 2.4.1). This finding suggests a rising interest amongst scientists regarding the discussion of the topic of co-creation in HE in recent years, which may be due to increased awareness of the use of technological co-creation strategies in HE.

58 Figure 2.4.1. Distribution of articles by year of publication

The analysis additionally featured that student co-creation in HE research has been published in a wide variety of JCR-indexed educational journals with high impact factor such as Journal of Marketing for Higher Education (17 articles), Studies in Higher Education (6 articles), Higher Education (6 articles) that account for the highest number of papers. A variety of publication outlets focused on education and development are found.

Regarding study location, results show that the investigations focus on diverse countries, mostly the UK, the USA, Australia, and Malaysia. Most studies adopted a single-country focus (figure 2.4.2). This result shows to some extent the global appeal of the topic, however there is a need to diversify the national contexts where research is carried out and replicated.

Figure 2.4.2. Studies by country of publication

On what concerns the methodology used in the papers, 56% of papers were quantitative, followed by 28% of qualitative research approaches, and 16% used mixed methodologies. The data collection methods used in quantitative studies include questionnaires, as well as evaluation, academic and cognitive tests, while in qualitative studies the methods utilized include interviews, case studies, observations, and focus groups. This result shows that a variety of research designs has been used to study co-creation in HE (Figure2.4.3).

1 2 2 5

10 7

12

25

32

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

2009 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

0 5 10 15 20

Australia Norway 10 countries Africa Belgium Brazil Canada China Cyprus and… Egypt Finland Greece Hong Kong Hong Kong… India Indonesia Iran Ireland Italy lithuania Malaysia Mexico Netherlands Poland Portugal Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Thailand Tokyo Turkey UK Ukra

ine USA

59 Figure 2.4.3. Studies methodological choice

We analyzed the number of citations received to understand the impact of these publications, and illustrate the ten most-cited articles with their sources and their highlights in Table 2.4.1.

Authors Source title Cited

by Study highlights McCulloch (2009) Studies in Higher

Education ³⁴¹ In this report, students, lecturers, and those who assist with the learning process are considered partners in a cooperative endeavor focused on producing, disseminating and applying knowledge.

Radnor et al.,

(2014) Public

Management Review

183 It presents an example in the context of HE where the creation of a model brought staff and students together to concentrate on the design of student enrolment, which resulted in enhanced student experience and supported coproduction.

Duque (2013) Total Quality Management and Business Excellence

164 It presents a theoretical structure for analyzing student satisfaction, perceived learning outcomes, and dropout intentions, including energy dedicated to studying, active participation in student organizations, time spent on campus, and interaction with other students and faculty members.

Elsharnouby,

(2015) Journal of

Marketing for Higher Education

101 It explores what student satisfaction with university experience and analyzes the impact of overall satisfaction with the university experience on student co-creation behavior, in particular participation behavior and citizenship behavior.

Balaji and

Sadeque (2016) Journal of Business Research

94 It examines the role of university identification in university supportive behaviors, namely university affiliation, advocacy intentions, suggestions for further improvement, and participation in future activities.

Dollinger et al.

(2018) Journal of

Marketing for Higher Education

80 It presents the first conceptual model of value co-creation in HE, including critical components of value co-creation, co-production, and value-in-use, in addition to links to the benefits expected from value co-creation.

Aspara et al.

(2014) Consumption

Markets and Culture

69 It conducts a study on a university in the process of rebranding itself according to a new logic that is market-oriented and service-dominant.

Giner et al.,

(2016) Journal of

Computational and Applied Mathematics

52 It empirically measures the impact of co-creation on the core marketing outcomes of student satisfaction, and the resulting loyalty.

Foroudi et al.

(2019) Technological Forecasting and Social Change

40 It analyzes the weight of student value co-creation behavior in a university's image and reputation, the vital role of university websites in engaging student value co-creation behavior, and the relevance of identifying different types of customer value co-creation behavior.

Mostafa (2015) Journal of Marketing Education

39 It focuses on the concept of student social media engagement, and the nature of the nexus student social media engagement/perceived value.

Table 2.4.1. The five most-cited papers Source: own elaboration

This descriptive analysis highlights the profile of the papers studied regarding when, where and how

28%

16%

56%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Quantitative Mixed-Methodology Qualitative

60 the topic has been studied.

2.4.4.2.Thematic analysis

A thematic analysis was conducted to obtain a comprehensive view of the published works on the topic of student co-creation in the HE context. Using a deductive method, the selected articles were classified according to the following: (1) Co-creation strategies in HE: (2) Co-creation barriers and benefits for HEIs; and (3) Co-creation barriers and benefits for students. The result of this analysis is presented in the following sections.