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This paper aims to analyze the conditions for co-creation in a non-commercial context. The particular aim is to show how a co-creative activity is framed for the participants and the consequences of the frames for the values that are co-created in the process.

Goffman’s frame analysis is applied to investigate how co-creation is used as a marketing strategy where an art event is used as an engagement platform to involve citizens in creating visions for an urban renewal area. It is a qualitative study based on observations.

The taken-for-granted ideas of the active and creative consumer along with the focus in marketing research on the positive values achieved in a co-creative process are problematic in a public context. An unreflexive use of a co-creative strategy in a non-commercial setting and using art as an engagement platform, in combination with insufficient communication about the new framings, result in no-creation of value or even co-destruction of value.

Unclear definition of the situation for co-creation results in confusion about how to interact and how to create value. Such an outcome is highly problematic for a public organization. It is of major importance that citizens can identify and understand the type of activity. The authors argue that communication in well-defined phases of an event can facilitate desired acts of co-creation.

Value co-creation theory has been transferred between contexts, but there are few studies of what the transfer means in terms of consumer abilities to take part in the value creation process and its rules of engagement. This study demonstrates the difficulties of moving from theory to practice when the context changes from a commercial to a public participatory one. This opens for new research venues in value co-creation and marketing theory.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the marketing strategy in China of the furnishing retailer IKEA in the context of standardisation and adaptation of marketing activities. IKEA's strategy in China is compared to its corporate strategy throughout the rest of the world.

The four P classifications are used as a framework to compare the central marketing strategies of IKEA with marketing strategies used in China. The paper builds on both primary and secondary data. Interviews with senior managers at IKEA are conducted and studies on business and retailing in China are used.

The marketing strategies used by IKEA in China are found to be different from the standardised strategies it uses throughout the rest of the world. Several of the changed strategies are central to the business concept of IKEA.

The present paper shows the challenges for a standardised marketing concept and its implications.

The paper provides, in the context of the standardisation and adaptation of marketing activities, a more nuanced and up‐to‐date picture of the strategies used by IKEA compared to previous studies.

This paper aims to study the rationality of residential electricity customers' decision-making based on their behavior in liberalized electricity markets.

Finnish residential customers' saving opportunities from supplier switching are studied by using price data obtained from the Finnish Energy Market Authority. The saving opportunities are then compared with the switches accomplished. The paper also examines the dispersion of offer prices (the prices that are offered to customers who wish to switch away from the default contract) by comparing all the offers for one- and two-year contracts in the largest network area in Finland (2007-2010).

About 60-70 percent of residential customers are estimated to purchase electricity under a default contract from their local supplier. However, notable savings might be achieved by switching from default contracts to competitive contracts. The analysis shows that for the majority of customers, the offer prices were always cheaper than the default contract prices during the examined period. For customers with electric heating, the average saving opportunity (compared to the default price) was over 200 year in 2009 and 2010. The range of offer prices for contracts with similar terms has not decreased despite the regulator's efforts to facilitate supplier switching by providing a price comparison service. The discrepancy between saving opportunities and switching rates reflects the effects of the limits of consumer rationality in the retail electricity markets.

The paper presents a longitudinal study about the benefits of supplier switching and the development of offer price dispersion.