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Abstract
Research question: According to an increasingly acknowledged view, customers co-create value with several other actors in the marketplace (e.g. firms and other customers) across multiple touchpoints prior to, during, and after the primary service encounter. This research focuses on professional team sports and examines one form of value co-creation that is particularly important in this context, i.e. customers' co-creation of value with other customers. The present research adds to our understanding of customer-to-customer value co-creation by identifying where (platforms) and how (practices) team sports customers create value with one another. Research methods: The study uses a multi-method qualitative research approach including in-depth interviews, naturalistic observation and netnography. The sampling frame consisted of three live venues (Germany), several virtual platforms (Germany and England), and a number of physical customer interaction sites such as sports bars and fan trains (Germany). Results and Findings: The study develops a typology of co-creation platforms that distinguishes between different spheres (customer sphere vs. joint sphere) and types (virtual vs. physical) of value co-creation platforms. In addition, the data reveal five customer-to-customer co-creation practices that occur across these platforms: associating and dissociating, engaging and sharing, competing, intensifying, and exchanging. Implications: Identifying and classifying customer-to-customer value co-creation platforms is an important first step toward developing approaches for team sports firms to become involved in and manage value co-creation among customers. In addition, knowledge of value co-creation practices will assist managers in shaping co-creation platforms in ways that facilitate the execution of value-creating practices.