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Public defence: Yaozhi Zhang

Yaozhi Zhang will defend his PhD degree in Marketing Management. The topic of the thesis is about how marketing is changing in line with digital developments, and how these changes can deliver more value to customers.

09 Jan

Practical information

  • Date: 9 January 2026
  • Time: 10.00 - 15.00
  • Location: Drammen, Auditorium A5508 and Zoom
  • Download calendar file
  • Organizer: USN School of Business

    • Link to digital participation (Zoom)
    Meeting ID: 611 8273 0235
    Password: 090126

     

    Program 

    Kl 10.00. Trial lecture: Digital transformation and value co-creation from multiple service Industry perspectives: alternative theoretical viewpoints

    Kl 12.00. Public defence: «Digital Transformation of Marketing: A Customer-centric Value Co-creation Perspective »

    Assessment committee 

    • First opponent: Professor Ragnhild Silkoset, BI Norwegian Business School
    • Second opponent: Senior Lecturer Erose Sthapit, Manchester Metropolitan University
    • Administrator: Associate Professor Kristin Bentsen, USN School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway

    Supervisors

    • Principal Supervisor:  Professor Nina Katrine Prebensen, USN School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway
    • Co-supervisor: Professor Ingunn Elvekrok, USN School of Business, University of South-Eastern Norway
Any questions?

Yaozhi Zhang is defending his thesis for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway.

The doctoral work has been carried out at the USN School of Business in the program Management.

You are invited to follow the trial lecture and the public defence.

Summary

Digital technologies are transforming marketing practices, bringing both opportunities and challenges. In this context, this thesis adopts a value co-creation perspective to examine how digital technologies can be effectively leveraged to generate customer value.

The dissertation presents four key findings.

First, it identifies that customer value enabled by digital technologies is multidimensional, encompassing both cognitive (functional, economic) and affective (eBilde av Yaozhi_Zhangmotional, experiential) dimensions.

Second, it shows that such multidimensional value can be co-created through customer interactions with various actors within a broader value ecosystem, including both human participants and emerging digital entities such as generative AI.

Third, it reveals that enhancing the operant resources of value co-creators, particularly their credibility traits, can significantly foster customer value co-creation behaviors.

Finally, it demonstrates that socio-psychological dynamics, including processing fluency and social presence, can moderate the process of value co-creation mediated by digital technologies and therefore warrant careful management.

Overall, this thesis provides critical validation, extension, and refinement of existing theories on value co-creation in the digital marketing context. Practically, it offers actionable insights for digital marketers on how emerging technologies can be strategically applied to foster more meaningful and effective customer value creation.