Co-creation of value in smart ecosystems: past trends and future
directions in tourism literature
Estrella Díaz and Águeda Esteban
Department of Business Administration, Marketing, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain
Christina Koutra
Department of Business Administration, Management, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Sofia Almeida
Faculty of Tourism and Communication, Universidade Europeia, Lisboa, Portugal and Centro de Estudos Geograficos, Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do
Territorio, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal, and
Rocío Carranza
Faculty of Management and Communication, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain
Abstract
Purpose–This study aims to present a general approach for understanding and analyzing the thematic evolution of the concept of co-creation in smart environments within the tourism context.
Design/methodology/approach–This study performs a co-word analysis with a longitudinal framework that produces strategic diagrams to categorize the detected themes and concepts related to co-creation.
Findings – By combining the performance analysis of science mapping, the following clusters are distinguished: information technology, social media and behavior; tourism organizations, management and innovation; co-creation, technology and sharing economy; co-production and hospitality; and Smart tourism, destinations, sustainability and residents.
Originality/value–This study provides a valuable tool for tourism scholars and managers to effectively analyze the importance of different themes linked to co-creation in the concept of the smart environment. This research outlines the evolving issues in and around the touchpoints and associated emerging research topics for future research.
Keywords Co-creation, Smart ecosystems, Tourism, Bibliometrics, Clusters Paper typeResearch paper
智慧生态系统价值共创：旅游文献的过去趋势和未来方向
摘要
研究目的
– 本研究旨在提出一种通用方法,用于理解和分析旅游背景下智能环境中共同创造概念的 主题演变。This research is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 795428.
Co-creation of value in smart ecosystems
Received 6 May 2021 Revised 24 December 2021 10 June 2022 Accepted 9 October 2022
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
© Emerald Publishing Limited 1757-9880 DOI10.1108/JHTT-04-2021-0122
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1757-9880.htm
研究设计
/方法
/途径
–本研究使用纵向框架进行共词分析,该框架生成战略图表,以对检测到的与共 同创造相关的主题和概念进行分类。研究发现
– 通过结合科学制图的绩效分析, 区分以下集群:（1）信息技术、社交媒体和行为; (2）旅 游组织、管理与创新;（3）共创、科技、共享经济; (4)联合制作和招待; (5)智慧旅游、目的地、可持 续性和居民。研究原创性
/价值
–这项研究为旅游学者和管理者提供了一个有价值的工具,可以有效地分析与智能 环境概念中的共同创造相关的不同主题的重要性。本研究概述了接触点内部和周围不断发展的问题 以及未来研究的相关新兴研究主题。关键词
共创,智能生态系统,旅游,文献计量学,集群 文章类型 研究型论文1. Introduction
Smart technologies have unprecedented impacts at the macro and micro social levels, creating disruptions in the industry structure and resulting in a range of service innovations (Leeet al., 2021). These tools are characterized by aggregation of information, ubiquitous mobile connectivity and real-time synchronization (Kooet al., 2021). Furthermore, these technologies may support tourism service providers and destinations in developing interactive, personalized and dynamic tourism experiences (Bethuneet al., 2022). In recent years, the incorporation of smart technologies has piqued the interest of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries (Lee, 2022). However, not all organizations have implemented these technologies efficiently, as many of the services provided require sophisticated reactions to customer needs (Hsu and Tseng, 2022).
The so-called“smart tourism ecosystem”is a term associated with smart technologies in the tourism context. Gretzel et al.(2015) define a smart tourism ecosystem as a digital environment where organizations and consumers use smart technologies to create, manage and offer smart services and/or tourism experiences and are characterized by an intensive exchange of information and joint creation of value.
Several studies have investigated the influence of a smart approach to tourism value co- creation, as technologies have been recognized to have a positive influence on the co-creation of tourism experiences (Buhalis and Sinarta, 2019). Co-creation is the practice of providing accessible resources to help customers create their own experiences by collaborating with the service provider (Leiet al., 2020). The benefits of co-creation of value and experiences are related to organizations’and consumers’ability to collaborate to increase their satisfaction and expectations (Ratheret al., 2022).
The growing interest in value co-creation utilizing smart technologies in travel, tourism and hospitality necessitates not only the need for reviewing current research but also identifies avenues for future research in thisfield. Accordingly, the objective of this study is twofold. First, it aims to provide a comprehensive literature review on the concept of value co-creation and the way it is used in smart environments within the tourism context. Second, this study charts the gradual advancement of the field over the years and identifies directions for future research. This study provides a valuable tool for tourism scholars and managers to effectively analyze the importance of different themes linked to value co- creation in the context of smart environments. A thorough understanding of what research has been conducted so far could help them to identify research gaps and design plans.
2. Co-creation of value, technology and tourism
In the past decade, research on the co-creation of value has emerged as a means of creating value for customers and organizations (Songet al., 2022). This term suggests that everyone participating in the interaction should be able to benefit from it (Sthapit and Björk, 2020).
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According toVargo and Lusch (2008), co-creation of value is defined as the integration of resources among the supplier and the client. Throughout the literature reviewed, different researchers have provided definitions of value co-creation (Table 1).
In the tourismfield, research on value co-creation has not been extensively developed, but it also encompasses more qualitative and theoretical studies. Both empirical and theoretical studies confirm the importance of value co-creation within tourism (Giuseppeet al., 2022;
Buzova et al., 2022). Researchers have studied value co-creation through different lenses/
perspectives, such as understanding the impact of co-creation on customer experience and behavior (Zhanget al., 2018), factors affecting customer participation in value co-creation (Ma et al., 2017), how customers create value together with companies (Camilleri and Neuhofer, 2017), or the analysis of value co-creation from the supplier’s perspective (Leeet al., 2017).
Studies have examined the co-creation of value from various disciplines (Fontet al., 2021). Specifically, service-dominant logic suggests that customers are co-producers of a service while their experience and knowledge influence the value proposition (Lusch and Vargo, 2014). To offer a broad umbrella to conceptualize the emerging processes of value co- creation in the age of service, service-dominant logic provides a global mindset for companies by developing a vision of ecosystems in the service setting (Canoet al., 2020).
Vargo and Lusch (2011)define service ecosystems as relatively autonomous, self-adjusting systems of actors that integrate resources and are connected by shared institutional logic and the creation of mutual value through the exchange of services. Poleseet al. (2018) propose a circular approach to explore the ecosystems of smart services that arise from integrating the information technology (IT) approach with the service system and the social approach to the ecosystem. This unification produces a comprehensive framework to point out the main dimensions that practitioners should evaluate to manage value co-creation.
Smart technologies’unique characteristics have greatly expanded the opportunities for co-creation in tourism together with the experiences among those organizations and individuals involved in the service encounter (Casaiset al., 2020). Thus, the concept of a smart tourism ecosystem emerged in thefield of tourism.
3. Methodology
This study aims to define value co-creation and associated concepts in the contemporary age within smart touristic environments with a bibliometric methodology to examine the
Table 1.
Definitions of value co-creation
Author Definition
Zwass (2010) The participation of consumers and producers in the creation of value in the marketplace. Other actors involved in the value co-creation process include stakeholders, partners and influencers
Grönroos (2012) A joint collaborative activity by parties involved in direct interactions, aiming to contribute to the value that emerges for one or both parties Navarroet al.(2014) Processor actions of both customers and sellers in reciprocal
knowledge exchange
Rihovaet al.(2015) The tourist’s co-creation practices and experience that takes place in his or her social context
Mathiset al.(2016) The process through which customers and organizations collaborate to create experiences
Vargo and Lusch (2016) The actions of multiple actors, who are often unaware of each other, contributing to each other’s wellbeing
Leiet al.(2020) The practice of providing accessible resources to help customers create
their own experiences by collaborating with the service provider
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different publications linked to three elements: value co-creation, technology and tourism.
Bibliometric analysis, defined as the quantitative study of literature to examine the evolutionary development of science, technology and scholarship, reveals the structures and knowledge bases within a specificfield by analyzing observable and objective citation data (Chen et al., 2022). With the development of citation databases, advanced statistical techniques and software programs that enable scientific mapping and visualization, bibliometric analysis has received attention as a methodology to assess the evolution of specific disciplines and research topics. Bibliometric tools used in this research are citation and co-citation analyses, as well as keyword co-occurrence because of their usefulness in exploring the structure, dynamics and evolution of paradigms.
On the one hand, the analysis of citations provides information about a group of articles’ relative influence (Farajiet al., 2022). On the other hand, co-occurrence analysis during a long enough time span provides precise directions about the body of knowledge of a domain of literature and reveals key trends and philosophies, along with their connections. Finally, according toKim and So (2022), the co-occurrence of keywords or queries produces a cluster of topics and their associations, representing the landscape of a domain. The following process has been used in this research:
data collection and citation analysis;
document co-citation analysis and group identification; and
co-occurrence analysis of terms and descriptions of each group between 2009 and 2021.
4. Analysis and results
4.1 Data collection and citation analysis
The set of articles obtained was extracted from the analysis of different databases (Web of Science, Scopus and ResearchGate) by conducting a search of papers issued in the 12-year period 2009–2021. In the present study, the search query was based on three search criteria linked by the Boolean operator“AND.”Thefirst criterion focused on retrieving documents on value co-creation. The different queries or keywords were separated by the Boolean operator“OR”in thisfirst scenario (“value co-creation”OR“value cocreation”). The second criterion included in the search focused on the smart environment, thus queries related to technology were included (smart technolog* OR smart environment OR technolog* OR digital OR internet OR Information and Communication Technology). The asterisk and quotation marks were used in the analysis to increase the completeness and precision of the search. Finally, the third scenario included queries linked to the industry or context of this study (touris* OR tourism OR travel OR tourist OR hospitality OR destination). Once the papers were screened, and manuscripts unrelated to the domain were deleted, these queries retrieved 140 publications.
Top scientific articles during the considered period were identified through a preliminary analysis of the number of citations.Figure 1reveals that the number of published articles on value co-creation, technology and tourism has increased steadily since 2009, with an increase of published papers since 2018. Citations have also increased in recent years, particularly from 2013 onward (Figure 1).
Figure 2displays a more detailed review of the papers examined, highlighting several significant findings. Five leading journals have published most of the papers in value co-creation, technology and tourism: International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,International Journal of Hospitality Management, Sustainability, Journal of
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Business Research and Journal of Destination Marketing and Management. These journals contained over 28% of the papers.
4.2 Document co-citation and cluster profiling
The next stage of the investigation was to identify the main issues linked to value co-creation in virtual environments within the tourism context. The procedure used was a document citation analysis conducted for the article references that were cited in the set of articles. The purpose was to detect the clusters and analyze the main issues and conceptual bases.
This study employed VOSviewer 1.6.17 to gather and process the literature’s co-citation structure on the topics analyzed. This tool combines clustering and mapping techniques by deploying multi-dimensional weighted scaling (MDS). According toVan Eck and Waltman (2010), the main benefit of this technique is that it surmounts the tendency of MDS to arrange the salient elements centrally and the less salient ones edgewise. This software builds a two-dimensional map, where items are organized to ensure that the spacing of any two elements reflects their association solidity. Thus, the items are positioned at distinct ranges: either near one another when strongly associated or far away from one another when tenuously associated (Figure 3). According to estimates, each author has to have at leastfive citations. A total of 344 authors were selected according to this restriction.
Each point on the map depicts an item from the set co-cited by at least another two items in the whole dataset. The diameter of the circles represents the total co-citations that the item received for that article.Table 2 displays the authors with the highest number of co-citations. It is not surprising thatVargo and Lusch (2008)published the articles with the highest number of co-citations (a total of 161). Papers in proximity to each other share a close value of co-citations. Thus, the map portrays the co-citational configuration value co-creation in the smart environment within the tourism industry literature. The articles that occupy a pivotal location are linked to numerous papers and can be viewed as crucial in this field’s research. While the axes’location is arbitrary, the content of the papers and their placement on the map indicate the bidimensional division of the intellectual nucleus of the
Figure 1.
Number of publications and citations (2009–2021)
2 2 2 1 3 3 4 7 9 20 25 25
37
105 64 60 106 189 307 271
542 645
1746 1927 2474
3328
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Publicaons Citaons
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Figure 2.
Scientific journals where articles examined were published
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Internaonal Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Internaonal Journal of Hospitality Management Sustainability Journal of Business Research Journal of Desnaon Markeng & Management
Current Issues in Tourism Journal of Service Management Journal of Travel Research Electronic Markets Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research Journal of Tourism Futures Handbook of Managing and Markeng Tourism Experiences (Book)
Annals of Tourism Research European Journal of Management and Business Economics European Journal of Tourism Research Informaon Technology & Tourism Internaonal Journal of Culture Tourism and Hospitality Research Internaonal Journal of Tourism Cies Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology Journal of Hospitality Markeng & Management Journal of Travel & Tourism Markeng Journal of Vacaon Markeng TEMA-Journal of Land Use Mobility and Environment Tourism Analysis Tourism Management Tourism Management Perspecves Tourism Review Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes Academia Journal of Tourism Culture and Territorial Development ANATOLIA-Internaonal Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research Asia Pacific Journal of Markeng and Logiscs Asian Journal of Technology Innovaon Cogent Business & Management Computer Supported Cooperave Work Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management EuroMed Journal of Business European Journal of Tourism Hospitality and Recreaon Internaonal Entrepreneurship and Management Journal Internaonal Journal of Built Environment and Sustainability Internaonal Journal of Cognive Research in Science Engineering and…
Internaonal Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing Internaonal Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Internaonal Journal of Informaon Management Internaonal Journal of Quality and Service Sciences Internaonal Journal of Retail & Distribuon Management Internaonal Journal of Sports Markeng and Sponsorship Internaonal Journal of Tourism Research Internaonal Journal of Wine Business Research IPSI-BGD Transacons on Internet Research Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management Journal of Markeng Management Journal of Place Management and Development Journal of Service Theory and Pracce Knowledge-Based Systems Management Decision Mulmedia Tools and applicaons Online Informaon Review Open Tourism: Open Innovaon, Crowdsourcing and Co-Creaon…
PLOS One Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Scienfic World Journal Sensors Service Industries Journal Services in Family Forestry South African Journal of Business Management Technological and Economic Development of Economy Technological Forecasng and Social Change Technology Innovaon Management Review Tourism Economics Tourism, Territory and Sustainable Development: Theorecal…
Vine Journal of Informaon and Knowledge Management Systems
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domain. The object of analysis is identified by thefirst dimension (the horizontal axis).
Accordingly, the authors in the right-hand square are mainly focused on value co-creation (e.g. Prahalad, Morosan or Cabiddu), whereas those in the left-hand square concentrate on technology and tourism (e.g. Buhalis, Gretzel or Neuhofer).
The level of analysis is depicted by the second dimension (the vertical axis). The papers in the upper part of the map have a micro-perspective, mainly analyzing the service- dominant logic and service innovation (e.g. Vargo, Lusch or Ramaswamy). In contrast, those in the lower part of the map have a macro-perspective, including studies on cities, destinations, consumers and experiences (e.g. Prebensen, Rihova or Gursoy).
This approach pinpointed four clusters, each of which included a group of items (authors) with a matching co-citation pattern. These clusters indicate the likelihood of the authors sharing a similar theme or background knowledge.
4.3 Keyword co-occurrence analysis
The third phase of the investigation involved defining the clusters obtained from the different concepts with which value co-creation, technologies and tourism are related (Figure 3). To address this aim, we examined the number of query co-occurrences in the documents,filtered them and presented them visually on a map based on their relevance and relationship. The authors selectedfive as the minimum number of occurrences of a keyword.
Of the 895 keywords obtained, 64 meet the threshold.
Figure 3.
Map of literature on value co-creation on the smart environment applied to the tourism industry (authors and number of co-citations)
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The analysis of queries’co-occurrence results in a network of topics and their relationships, which represents the intellectual landscape in a discipline (Kim and So, 2022). InFigure 4, the relevance of each element is indicated by the dimension of the circle, and the network relationships reveal the most strongly connected elements. The colors and location of the circles are employed to group the elements. The space interval within two nodes is conversely proportional to the number of co-occurrences among the queries. Therefore, smaller distances indicate a higher co-occurrence among the queries. In the present analysis, the authors have tried to show with greater disaggregation the different thematic areas to which the concepts of value co-creation, technology and tourism have been linked. Each of thefive clusters obtained from the literature analysis is described below:
4.3.1 Cluster 1. Information technology, social media and behavior.The studies analyzed emphasize the combination of areas suchas customer engagement, customer participation and user-generated content. The study byCheunget al.(2021)contributes to the tourism marketing literature by empirically examining the impacts of two forms of user-generated content on tourists’perceived values and their behavioral responses. Many studies have been conducted on user behavior’s influencing factors invirtual communities(such as co- creation and participants’ value-in-use). For example,Chen et al. (2021)enrich research methods related to user participation mechanisms and provide a reference for the virtual tourism community’s theoretical research and management practice. Previously, Zhang et al.(2015)highlighted the importance of engaging customers through online co-innovation Table 2.
Number of citations using the co-citation unit of analysis
Author Citations
Vargo, S.L. 161
Buhalis, D. 119
Gretzel, U. 77
Prahalad, C.K. 75
Neuhofer. B. 70
Sigala, M. 55
Gronroos, C. 52
Morosan, C. 52
Wang, D. 45
Tussyadiah, I.P. 45
Lusch, R.F. 44
Prebensen, N.K. 43
Ramaswamy, V. 32
Edvardsson, B. 31
Cabiddu, F. 30
Payne, A.F. 30
Kamboj, S. 30
Fornell, C. 30
Xiang, Z. 28
Bitner. M.J. 26
Hair, J.F. 26
Shaw, G. 25
Chathoth, P.K. 24
Grissemann, U.S. 23
Zeithaml, V.A. 23
Vargo Stephen, L. 22
Holbrook, M.B. 22
Fuller, J. 21
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communities (OCCs). These OCCs advance customers’active participation in thefirm’s co- creation and co-innovation processes.
While value co-creation can be conducted through a variety of methods, mobile commerce and mobile technology offer unique opportunities to lay the foundation for value co-creation in tourism organizations (e.g. hotels), which in turn can bring substantial benefits for all stakeholders in this process (Morosan and DeFranco, 2019). According to the literature, the future of co-creation and smart ecosystems in tourism and within the IT theme is the use of artificial intelligence (Lalicic and Weismayer, 2021), self-service technologies (Kelly and Lawlor, 2021) and social media (Adamıs and Pınarbası, 2022) in a tourism context.
4.3.2 Cluster 2. Tourism organizations, management and innovation. This segment includes research focused on how an organization can use co-creation to improve tourists’ experiences. This cluster has pivoted mainly around three main thematic pillars. Thefirst pillar is linked tomanagement and tourism intermediation(van Rielet al., 2021). Research on business ecosystems has developed a substantial level of ambiguity and multiple facets (Tham and Huang, 2019). Based on technology literature, Rezac (2020) proposes six recommendations to further develop the Internet of Things (IoT)-driven digital business ecosystem. Furthermore, the integration of technology into business strategy increases the
Figure 4.
Cluster with the main themes associated with value co-creation in smart environments within the tourism industry
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complexity of marketing communication activities and drives the need for a tool to describe marketing attribution methods (Buhalis and Volchek, 2021). In addition, research within this cluster contributes to knowledge by suggesting ways to improve the management of stakeholder relationships and their involvement in value co-creation (Vrontiset al., 2020).
The second pillar within this group is customer-linked research. One of the most representative queries within this pillar is customer engagement/participation (Chathoth et al., 2016;Lazziet al., 2020).
Finally, the third pillar is related to innovation, which is positioned as one of the main future trends in the analysis of value co-creation in smart environments (Chenet al., 2017;
Kandampullyet al., 2016;Kuoet al., 2017). The latest trends within a different perspective in the analysis of innovation are provided by Barileet al. (2020). They link innovation to sustainable innovation, identifying the main strategic drivers to foster value co-creation and sustainable innovation in service ecosystems. In this vein,Van Rielet al.(2021)reveal that innovations in the social and environmental dimensions drive customer loyalty to brands.
Research linked to each of these areas provides a compelling argument for the future of co- creation and smart ecosystems in tourism.
4.3.3 Cluster 3. Co-creation, technology and sharing economy.The topic of technology has also been recurrent in this cluster, highlighted by articles exploring the customer perspective and perception of self-service technologies, user-generated content, robots (Milmanet al., 2020), artificial intelligence (Neuhoferet al., 2021) and/or smart experiences (Leung and Loo, 2021). Although the value co-creation concept has captured much attention, especially in the tourism and hospitality fields, very few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the complexity of the value co-creation process experience within online review platforms.Lamet al.(2020)fill this research gap by proposing user-generated platforms as a contributor to the online co-creation process. Theirfindings offer insights regarding the impact of user-generated platforms on destination image and satisfaction. In addition, the concept of“sharing economy”appears in several studies (Geigeret al., 2018;
Guttentag and Smith, 2021;Krauset al., 2020). However, it is expected to be used more extensively in future studies.
4.3.4 Cluster 4. Co-production and hospitality. This cluster has strong connections to other groups. This group includes articles dealing with co-production/interaction, participation/involvement (Kamboj and Gupta, 2020) and service experience/innovation (Buhalis et al., 2019). The thematic area of co-production/interaction has been present in various clusters, but it is more significant in this group. Morosan and DeFranco (2019) analyze this theme in relation to its relevance with the use of interactive technologies, recognizing the importance of consumers’co-creation of value using interactive technologies, and especially offering an insight into the way interactive technologies should be marketed by hotels. In another study,Eletxigerraet al.(2021)proposed an integral model of co-creation processes: before, during and after a trip; and the way customer value is affected. Managers could foster tourism co-creation by applying customer education strategies, stimulating high- contact activities with the community and using virtual tools to intensify thoughts and memories of past and future travel experiences. Most of the papers included in this group analyze the hospitality context. Hao and Chon (2022) provide practical evidence for hospitality professionals to consider touchless service in creating memorable experiences, improving customer satisfaction, building trust and adding value to hospitality brands.
Some authors have dealt with innovation in relation to sustainability (Van Rielet al., 2019). However, other studies have analyzed service innovation in relation to technology.
For example, technological disruptions such as the IoT and autonomous devices, enhanced analytical capabilities (artificial intelligence) or contactless services are creating smart
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environments that are transforming industry structures, processes and practices. In this regard, some authors have examined critical technological advances using a value co- creation lens to provide insights into service innovations that affect ecosystems (Buhalis et al., 2019). Finally, the emergence of smart environments aims at redefining how customers navigate their experiences. At a conceptual level, this requires a complete rethinking of how stakeholders should leverage technologies and engage with and redesign services to remain competitive.
4.3.5 Cluster 5. Smart tourism, destinations, sustainability and residents.This cluster has been well researched and cited. The research areas that it mostly focuses on are destination, destination experiences and dimensions.The studies focused on destinations are related to destination management organizations or tourism organizations.
However, other studies have discussed this context from the tourists’ point of view (Kamboj and Joshi, 2021). Finally, the attitude of residents has also been assessed in other studiesDe Luciaet al.(2021),Pencarelli (2020)as a driver of regional development and the impact of digital technologies. Another relevant topic is experience. This theme has been closely associated with the use of technology in most of the studies analyzed, and it is critical to facilitate the process of value co-creation experience (Urquhart, 2019).
Finally, the term“smart tourism”is perceived as one of the themes that will experience more attention, development and volume of publications in the future. Accordingly,Liburd et al.(2017)investigate how smart tourism can be developed by focusing on tourism co- design as a development process driven by learning and experimentation. Furthermore, Wanget al.(2020)propose a framework for the performance evaluation of smart tourism initiatives implemented in tourist attractions, which is based on the theoretical foundations of service-dominant logic.
5. Discussion and conclusions 5.1 Conclusions
This study is thefirst to examine the literature on value co-creation in smart environments within the tourismfield. It aims to analyze the thematic evolution and contribute to the conceptual and empirical understanding of value co-creation in an environment of smart technologies within the tourism field. Considering this purpose, the findings indicate a significant increase in the number of articles published in the last few years, whereas the number of citations in these areas is lower than in otherfields. Interestingly, there is an increase in tourism, technology and value co-creation research as well as an increase in the number of citations. Additionally, this study also provides an overview of the existing literature on the topic by identifyingfive clusters:
(1) IT, social media and behavior;
(2) tourism organizations, management and innovation;
(3) co-creation, technology and sharing economy;
(4) co-production and hospitality; and
(5) smart tourism, destinations, sustainability and residents.
The insights provided will enable researchers to offer different recommendations and roadmaps to tourism companies to increase value co-creation and the use of smart technologies for their consumers.
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5.2 Theoretical implications
The research expands the knowledge base of value co-creation and sparks debate among academics by suggesting new insights in the literature in the period examined and envisioning future research topics. In particular, the analysis of smart technologies and their influence on consumers, organizations and stakeholders is of vital importance. Furthermore,
Table 3.
Future directions of co-creation and smart ecosystems in tourism
Theme Future directions
Technology
The impact of technology on value cocreation practices
How to adopt e-marketing systems to facilitate market orientation applied to value co-creation Explorations of the techno-based strategies adopted by organizations for co-creating experiences How smart technologies disrupt industry structures and stimulates value co-creation
Online communities
Research on virtual tourism communities
Online co-innovation communities (OCCs) to create service innovations
Key components of the co-innovation of service through online communities in the hospitality industry Customer engagement/participation
Studies on the mechanism of user participation in virtual communities Factors that impact on the user participation mechanism
The management of relations with stakeholders and their involvement in the value co-creation Service innovation
Co-creation activities aiming to co-develop new services by tourists and e-travel companies Factors influencing successful service innovation
Positive and negative influences of customer value co-creation on new service evaluation in the tourism sector
The identification of strategic drivers to foster value co-creation and sustainable innovation in service ecosystems
User/tourist experience
Understanding of the effects that customer co-creations have on the tourism experience Innovation in tourism and its contribution to the co-creation of personalized tourism experience The technology-empowered tourism marketing approach and the role of marketers in tourism
experience co-creation
Customer experience, smart services and co-creation into a conceptualization of the smart service experience
The understanding of online experiential value co-creation
Marketing strategies to maximize customer value and experience using co-creation in smart environments
Smart tourism
Innovative and participatory smart tourism tools
The challenges of tourism destinations and tourism ecosystems in the smart perspective Exploring the core components of smartness and smart tourism destination
Smart service ecosystem: managing and optimizing value co-creation and sustainability in the long run
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despite their relevance, the concepts of engagement and experience will continue to be relevant in future studies. Specifically, these terms will be analyzed in the hospitality, accommodation and destination contexts.
5.3 Practical implications
The present study has several important managerial implications. First, this work seeks to establish a detailed understanding of the concepts of value co-creation, smart environments and tourism. Value co-creation is a crucial factor in distinguishing and improving the competitiveness of tourist services offered by destinations and tourism organizations (Gretzel, 2022). Thefindings of this study demonstrate the relevance of value co-creation in developing destinations, thereby encouraging tourism-related enterprises and policymakers to formulate destination management strategies to improve local distinctiveness. In this context, practitioners must align the value co-creation by developing the capacity to select the actors or stakeholders who provide adequate assets and build lasting rapport that leads to mutually beneficial scenarios, thereby achieving an equitable allocation of economic and social value between the stakeholders.
With the growing use of smart technologies applied to destinations and organizations, this study seeks to establish a detailed understanding of the concept of value co-creation that can assist managers in creating a strategy by conceiving tourism value co-creation as part of the strategic intervention for their organizations or destinations. In addition, this study can also serve as a guide to identify sources that can provide them with important practical insights into this concept (Aziset al., 2020).
5.4 Limitations and future research
Despite the accuracy, relevance and breadth of this study, there are some limitations that should be acknowledged. First, the use of keywords may not be exempt from bias. Further research could include other keywords to analyze different concepts related to value co-creation, the smart environment and tourism. Second, the bibliometric analysis is based on studies that have been published and cited. Given the nascent stage and the continuing rapid expansion of thisfield, it is quite evident that there will be many more influential papers in this area. Therefore, future research should continue to conduct these bibliometric studies on value co-creation. Finally, a literature review through bibliometric analysis can be carried out using different software (i.e. Science Mapping Analysis Tool) to examine the scope from different perspectives. The overall analysis reveals emerging trends in the literature on value co-creation in smart environments and their application in the tourism field, which is presented inTable 3.
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