"Is this relevant for you?" Understanding Value Co-Creation in Data-Driven Personalized Advertising: How Consumers' Privacy and Personalization Orientations Influence Co-creation and Agency in Personalized Advertising

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how consumers understand and participate in the co-creation of personalized advertising within data-driven ecosystems. While personalization can offer relevance and convenience, it also raises concerns related to data privacy and consumer agency. Using a qualitative, abductive research design, the study draws on nine semi-structured interviews with participants who have educational and/or professional backgrounds in fields relevant to the topic, such as marketing, e-commerce or data privacy. This approach enabled an exploration of how consumers navigate data practices, interpret personalization and experience tensions between value and risk. Findings show that unclear data practices and limited perceived control and/or trust can disrupt reciprocal value co-creation, resulting in ambivalence, contextual engagement or resistance toward personalized advertising. Consumers' privacy-personalization orientations were found to be dynamic and context-dependent, shaping both their sense of agency and their willingness to share data, engage and co-create within advertising ecosystems. The study contributes by first extending value co-creation theory, secondly by introducing privacy-personalization orientations as distinct yet interconnected dimensions, and lastly by identifying conditions that can enable more empowering and mutually beneficial personalization and data-collection practices, leading to more sustainable value co-creation for consumers and firms.