From Sole-Creation to Co-Creation : Social Marketing Value Creation through Corporate-NPO Collaboration

Abstract: Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the structure of social marketing within a collaboration between non-profit organisations (NPOs) and business organisations as well as whether this collaboration facilitates the process of social marketing for the NPOs. For this purpose, Austin and Seitanidi´s (2012a, 2012b, 2014) Collaborative Value Creation (CVC) framework was applied to social marketing as value outcome by combining it with Andreasen and Kotler´s (2003) model of the social marketing process in NPOs. Method: A qualitative study was conducted based on secondary and primary data. Hereby, primary data was gathered from a total of seven NPOs and twelve respondents across Sweden by the use of face-to-face and phone interviews. Result & Conclusions: Two main findings were identified in this study. Firstly, within the process of social marketing in a corporate-NPO collaboration the NPOs predominantly plan and design the campaigns independently. Hereby, it is shown that the NPO´s organisational model of operation influences the collaboration structure. Secondly, it is demonstrated that the corporate-NPO collaboration facilitates the NPOs social marketing process. Suggestions for future research: Further investigations of NPOs could be undertaken by distinguishing between their organisational model and area of operation in order to complement the presented theoretical model of the social marketing process in the corporate-NPO collaboration. Additionally, the perspective of business organisations could be considered. Contribution of the thesis: The present study contributes to literature by providing a theoretical model based of the social marketing process in the corporate-NPO collaboration. It demonstrates that this collaboration facilitates the social marketing process of the NPOs.