| 1Summer 2020 | Search in ISI Web of Science | Search for articles citing Vargo and Lusch (2004)OR (2008) OR (2016) | Lead author | 3,927 unique hits |
| 2 | Complementary search in the five main academic databases | Search for articles that contain the WORD “Vargo” OR “Lusch” ANYWHERE in the article from ABI/INFORM Complete (ProQuest), Business Source Complete (EBSCO), Emerald, SAGE Journals, and ScienceDirect (Elsevier) using the delimiters described in Step 3 where possible | Lead author | Additional literature searches to ensure the review’s comprehensiveness7,755 hits altogether |
| 3 | Data inclusion/exclusion 1 | Exclusion of duplicatesExclusion of conference articlesExclusion of editorialsExclusion of book chaptersExclusion of articles in languages other than English | Lead author | 4,481 articles remain (exclusion of 3,274 articles in Step 3) |
| 4 | Data inclusion/exclusion 2 | Exclusion of non-SDL articles exclusion of articles by Vargo and/or Lusch | Lead author | Articles referring to, e.g. Lusch’s previous, non-SDL-oriented research and articles in which Lusch or Vargo refer to other Lusch and/or Vargo than the SDL originators 4,371 articles remain (exclusion of 110 articles in Step 4) |
| 5Year 2021 | Document retrieval | Retrieval of PDFs of the articles for screening | One student coder | |
| 6 | Data screening | Screening the articles to exclude those that do not contain instances of text referring to value co-creation | Authors and one student coder | Semantic expressions of the terms that manifest value co-creation, e.g. value, creation, co-production, value-in-use in their different forms 2,960 articles for analysis (exclusion of 1,411 articles in Step 6) |
| 7 | Constructing the review dataset | Creation of a Microsoft Excel document containing the article information: author(s), year of publication, article title, journal, journal AJG ranking, corresponding author affiliation, article citations (total/yearly) | Authors and one student coder | Academic Journal Guide (AJG) used to indicate the development of dominant discourses |
| 8Year 2022 | Creation of the coding scheme for the AC of value co-creation use (AC) | Argumentation of the rules according to which the article falls into any of the AC categories defined in Figure 1 | Authors | AC of value co-creation use:unclear collaboration on value propositionsDetermination of value-in-useSynthesis of collaboration on value propositions andDetermination of value-in-use |
| 9 | Test round of data coding | Coding of a random sample of 200 articles by two coders and comparison of their results (including articles from different journals, years, authors and topics) | Lead author and one student coder | Validation of the AC coding reliability and identification of a need to code the role of value co-creation in the articles |
| 10 | Creation of the coding scheme for the role of value co-creation in the articles | Argumentation of the rules according to which the article falls into any of the role categories defined based on Step 9 | Authors | Role of value co-creation in the article:Central focusBuilds perspectiveOnly mentioned |
| 11Year 2023 | First round of data coding for the AC and role of value co-creation | Manual search for instances of text in the articles that feature elements of value co-creation in its broad sense as comprising “service”; “co-production”; “interaction”; “value proposition”; “value”; “emergence”; “determination”; and “value-in-use” in their different variations | Six student coders and lead author | Manually one-by-one for each article by two independent coders, engaging six codersLead author control checks of student coder work |
| 12 | Development of second round coding scheme for additional coding | Coding for the appearance of value co-creation in different sections of the article, definitions given, number of paragraphs devoted to value co-creation in the article, type of article (qualitative/quantitative/conceptual) | Six student coders and lead author | Obtain elements to evaluate the conducted coding of AC and role of value co-creationLead author control checks of student coder work |
| 13 | Mismatch and inter-coder reliability analysis | Mismatch analysis to compare the coding results of the coders and calculation of inter-coder reliability | Authors | Identification of high inter-coder reliabilityAssessment of the nature of the mismatches |
| 14 | Third coder intervention for resolving conflicting codes between the coders | The third coder compares the coding by a pair of coders, identifies inconsistencies, resolves inconsistencies and then makes the final coding decision | Lead author and six student coders | Assurance of reliability of the coding process and conclusion of the final coding dataset for analysis2,960 articles analyzed |
| 15Year 2024 | Reporting the results | | Authors | |