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This paper aims to contribute to the concept of co-branding by recognising the role of consumer perception and the importance of the variety of contexts in which co-branding is perceived. This is done by studying the way in which two service brands cooperate. A framework based upon previous research is contextualised into 'service branding' and used to investigate the associations between Hong Kong and the Olympic Equestrian Games.

This paper aims to increase the understanding of networks within the service‐dominant logic (S‐D logic) and to demonstrate the importance of interaction between network actors as a driving force behind the co‐creation process.

The paper uses rich empirical data from a travel industry network consisting of in‐depth interviews and a survey of approximately 100 meetings professionals.

The paper conceptualizes the key actors involved in the co‐creation process as Brand Governor, Providers and Customers. In addition, it proposes an advancement of the service brand‐relationship‐value triangle introduced by Brodie et al. by linking the key processes and actors in the triangle. It is found that the network approach provides a deeper understanding of how actors integrate with one another and how this interaction leads to co‐created outcomes that can be translated into value.

Future research could employ empirical material from other studies to increase the reliability of the findings. In particular, the issues of trust and power among actors with regard to S‐D logic are highlighted.

The differences in power could be advantageous for the entire network because the actors are involved in exchange and constantly seeking balance between themselves.

The paper extends the current debate on S‐D logic, especially the co‐creation of value, by highlighting the importance of networks.

Confessions are said to be important for members’ tribal experiences and they are usually ascribed religious meanings in existing research on consumer tribes. This suggests that confessions have a regulative role for tribal life. By employing the Foucauldian notion of pastoral power, the present study explores confession practices and examines how control is manifested.

The study is based on a netnographic study and analysis of tribal members’ confessions across three online consumer tribes devoted to opera (Loggionisti, who are opera aficionados of the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy), sports (football and hockey fans of Djurgården, Sweden), and cars (Alfa Romeo owners).

We demonstrate how confessions align consumers with the common tribe ethos and how this constitutes members into various subject positions, which are fundamental social processes for reinforcing the tribe. More specifically, it demonstrates four types of subject positions: the ‘pastor’, ‘regular sheep’, ‘good sheep’ and ‘black sheep’, and how these subject positions regulate the actions of tribe members.

The present study theorizes how control is manifested and facilitated in consumer tribes. The study also explicates the confession and its role as a religious regulating practice fundamental for the life of a consumer tribe.

Community managers can recognize the different subject positions that emerge within a community and help facilitate the interactions among community members.

Previous studies are silent about how confessions reproduce control in consumer tribes. The present study highlights confession practices and the constitution of subject positions, which regulate as well as reinforce consumer tribes.

There are different streams of research in the service marketing literature concerning value co-creation. Most of the research focuses on value co-creation for the benefit of the customer. However, value is also co-created for the benefit of the provider, especially in a business-to-business context. The purpose of this research is to understand (1) how value is co-created in a sport business-to-business context (i.e. sailing) and (2) how the prevailing value co-creation approaches explain value co-creation processes differently in a sport business-to-business context.

The research was contextualised within the Auckland sailing cluster. Primary data were collected via 27 interviews, as well as observations at events. Secondary data include 13 documents of organisational information and archival data. Data were analysed deductively and interpreted using two different theoretical lenses: service-dominant logic (SDL) and service logic (SL).

The value co-creation analysis of the sailing cluster permitted theorising about relationships in sport management at different levels of aggregation and abstraction. Every actor is embedded in a wider sport eco-system triggered by sport activities and always has a dual role as provider and beneficiary. Actors that are in control of specific sport activities are pivotal actors and provide a value network for others.

This research suggests that SDL and SL approaches to value co-creation are complementary and that further research is necessary to integrate and operationalise these approaches.

It helps practitioners to better understand how value is co-created in sport business-to-business contexts.

This research shows the complementarity of two differing theoretical approaches to explain value co-creation in sport business-to-business settings.

Electronic Sports (eSports) is an emerging sector of the sports and entertainment industry experiencing an accelerated increase in consumer and sponsor demand. This paper aims to study selected cases of eSports service ecosystems, to identify similarities and differences and to understand the different roles, relationships and multiple interactions of actors involved in value co-creation processes.

This empirical paper follows the service-dominant logic to highlight value creation. Based on the sport value framework, an organizing logic for the actors in sports-related ecosystems to exchange service and co-create value, the authors apply the conceptualization of an eSports service ecosystem framework in which actors create value through their interactions. A case study approach was applied to qualitatively describe two cases of value co-creation by multiple actors during three eSports events. Case study 1a is the 2019 League of Legends World Championship Finals in Paris. Case study 1b is the 2020 League of Legends World Championship Finals in Shanghai. Case study 2 is the BLAST Premier Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Global Final 2020, which was entirely virtual.

The outcome is an empirically investigated conceptual framework of multiple actors co-creating value within a service ecosystem in eSports. The insights of the cases explain how actors interact with each other and co-create value during events in eSports ecosystems. The cases illustrate interactions in the context of eSports where the actors are connected within ecosystems. This enables further development of a value co-creation concept and a better understanding of value co-creation in eSports.

This study contributes to research by explicating a theoretically grounded framework for eSports service ecosystems based on empirical evidence. This research extends the scope of value co-creation beyond the firm–customer dyad to a service ecosystem in eSports, demonstrating the dynamic interactions of multiple actors.