1. Full name of doctoral candidate: PHAM HUONG TRANG 2. Gender: Female
3. Date of birth: November 23, 1981 4. Place of birth: Hanoi
5. Decision to admit doctoral students: Decision No.Decision No. 3618/2018/QD-XHNV dated December 4, 2018, of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, valid from December 4, 2018, to December 4, 2021.
6. Changes to the training process (if any): extension of the study period until December 2022
7. Thesis title: Co-creating brand value for Vietnam as a tourist destination.
8. Major: Tourism 9. Code: 981010.01
10. Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Long
11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis
Research Objectives: The main objective of this research is to understand the process by which tourists co-create brand value for a tourist destination, thereby proposing management implications to help increase the brand value of Vietnam's tourist destinations. Specifically: (1) testing a model to measure the co-creation process of destination brand assets based on customers by inheriting the co-creation approaches of tourists towards brands and building destination brand assets developed by marketing scholars. (2) examining the impact of support and relationship quality on social commerce networks on this co-creation process; examining the mediating role of co-creation; 3) proposing management implications applicable to destination branding in Vietnam.
Research Subject: This study investigates how tourists co-create value on Vietnam's tourism destination brand assets, considering the impact of support and relationship quality on social commerce networks. Research Object: International tourists who have visited Vietnam in the last 5 years.
Research methodology:This thesis employs a mixed research methodology (both qualitative and quantitative), tailored to each objective and stage of the research. The research methods applied include: the method of inheriting and synthesizing theoretical knowledge for a systematic literature review, focus group interviews, expert opinion, questionnaires, and structural equation modeling (SEM).
Contributions of the research
Theoretical contributions
This study examines the relationship between tourists' co-creation of value and Vietnam's destination brand equity. The study will focus on the following key themes: (1) a more comprehensive analysis of destination brand equity, particularly an assessment of tourists' participation in co-creation of value in building destination brand equity; (2) an analysis of the role of social commerce networks in influencing how tourists co-create value on destination brand equity. With Vietnam as the research context, the study contributes to applying international theories and research to the Vietnamese tourism context. The novel contributions of this study are shown below.
Firstly, based on an assessment of the research situation, this is a new research direction both domestically and internationally. Due to the unique complexity of each tourist destination, brand equity is still considered a multidimensional concept, lacking consensus among scientists on how to measure its effectiveness. Therefore, research on the case of Vietnam is a new approach to further clarify the differences in brand equity of each country in the context of fierce competition among destinations. Furthermore, the topic does not repeat any existing research in Vietnam but opens up a new research direction by combining the interaction and co-creation of value by tourists and the important role of social media into the study of destination brand equity from the customer's perspective.
Secondly, the thesis contributes a systematic overview of existing literature on destination brand co-creation, providing a deeper insight into how tourists perceive a destination as a brand and how they co-create value for destination brand assets.
Thirdly, in terms of scientific significance, this thesis examines destination branding literature through the lens of service-oriented logic. More precisely, the theoretical framework of the brand asset model is expanded to incorporate service-oriented logic theory in co-creating destination brand asset value. This is a new research direction attracting attention worldwide, so the research results of this thesis will contribute to the development of service-oriented logic theory for branding in the tourism industry.
Fourth, the thesis inherited and tested the co-creation of value and destination brand equity measurement components from the customer's perspective. These measurement variables can be applied to determine the role of tourists in co-creation of value and brand equity for tourist destinations of any size. In particular, the thesis also builds, tests, and contributes to the co-creation of value literature by becoming one of the first studies to examine the role of social commerce platforms in the co-creation of value and destination brand equity relationship, specifically the support and quality of relationships on social commerce platforms. The research results provide a deeper insight into social commerce as a new and effective platform for tourists' co-creation of destination brand equity.
Practical contribution
Providing insights into the current state of brand equity and the co-creation of value by tourists for Vietnam as a destination.
The results of a survey on the level of co-creation of value and brand equity of Vietnam as a tourist destination can serve as a basis for developing solutions to enhance the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism in the coming years.
Confirming the crucial role of support and relationship quality on social commerce platforms in co-creating value and destination brand equity.
This topic also offers suggested solutions to help Vietnam's tourism industry build appropriate goals and strategies to promote customer participation and create brand equity for Vietnam as a destination, while also leveraging social commerce platforms to increase interaction and information sharing among tourists about Vietnam's destination brand.
12. Directions for further research:
This study focuses on examining the co-creation of tourist value with destination brand assets. Future studies could expand this to include other relevant stakeholders, such as service providers, brand communities, and companies providing interactive platforms.
The literature review for this thesis selects large datasets from around the world, focusing on English-language studies published in ISI and SCOPUS-indexed journals. Given the limitations of this thesis, selecting recognized large datasets with a systematic review process and specific criteria ensures greater universality and reliability compared to traditional approaches. However, future research may consider other reputable data sources in a wider variety of languages, such as studies from Japan.
This study focuses on how tourists co-create value for destination brands. However, future research could also examine value co-destruction of destination brand assets. Finally, future studies could expand the research model, for example, by further exploring the role of e-commerce regulators in the co-creation of value on destination brand assets.
13. Publications related to the dissertation:

These research papers are currently undergoing peer review:

1. Full name: PHAM HUONG TRANG 2. Gender: Female
3. Date of birth: November 23, 1981 4. Place of birth: Hanoi
5. Admission decision number: 3618/2018/QD-XHNV dated December 4, 2018 by VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Hanoi).
6. Changes in the academic process (if any): the extension of study time to December 2022
7. Thesis title: Value co-creation on Vietnam destination branding
8. Major: Tourism 9. Code: 981010.01
10. Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Pham Hong Long
11. Summary of the thesis's findings:
Research objectives: The main objective of the study is to understand how tourists co-create value on the brand equity of a tourist destination, thus, providing management implications that help enhance the brand value of Vietnamese destinations. specifically: (1) testing the model that captures the antecedent effect of the value co-creation process on destination brand equity; (2) examining the impact of social commerce support and relationship quality on the value co-creation activities as well as testing the mediation role of value co-creation; (3) promoting implications to enhance Vietnam destination branding.
Research subjects: Examining tourists' value co-creation on Vietnam customer-based destination brand equity with the impacts of social commerce support and relationship quality. The research subjects are international tourists who have visited in the last five years.
Research method: Mixed research methods, including quantitative and qualitative, were adopted in the thesis, respectively, for each stage with different research objectives. In detail, the thesis applies the following methods: Inheritance research method and Systematic review, Group interviews, Expert interviews, Questionnaires, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).
Contributions of research
Theoretical contributions
This topic examines the relationship between tourists' value co-creation on destination brand equity in Vietnam. The topic will focus on the key topics that are (1) a more comprehensive analysis of customer-based destination brand equity, especially to assess the process of tourists participating in the value creation on CBDBE; (2) analyze the role of social networks influencing how travelers co-create value on destination brand equity. The context of the study is Vietnam as a tourist destination; thus, the study's contribution is to apply international theories and research into the context of Vietnam's tourism. New contributions to this topic are shown later.
Firstly, this research topic is new, contemporary, and of high scientific significance based on evaluating literature in the fields. Firstly, this is new research both in Vietnam and abroad. As mentioned in the overview, due to the complexity of each tourist destination, brand equity is still considered a multi-dimensional concept when scientists have no agreement on measuring brand performance. The case study of Vietnam is a new way to further clarify the difference in brand equity of each country due to fierce competition among destinations. Moreover, this topic does not repeat any existing research in Vietnam. Still, it opens a new research direction by emphasizing interaction, value co-creation among tourists and the importance of social networks on customer-based destination brand equity in both quantitative and qualitative.
Second, the thesis contributes a systematic review of existing literature on value co-creation on destination branding. It provides a deeper understanding of how visitors perceive the destination as a brand and how they co-create value on destination brand equity.
Third, in terms of scientific significance, this study applies service-dominant logic to focus on the interaction between visitors during the journey to the destination and their interaction on social networks to create new value for destination brand equity. This is a new research direction, so the research results will contribute to developing service-dominant logic theory for tourism branding.
Fourthly, the thesis has inherited and tested the composition to measure value co-creation and customer-based brand equity. These measurement variables can be applied to determine the role of tourists in co-creating value and brand equity for tourist destinations of any size. In particular, the thesis was among the first studies to examine the role of social commerce in relationships that co-create value on destination brand equity, namely social commerce support and relationship quality. In other words, the research findings help provide a deeper understanding of social commerce as a new, effective platform for co-creating value on destination brand equity.
Managerial contributions
Provide pictures of the status of brand equity and value co-creation of visitors for Vietnamese destinations.
The questionnaire set about co-creating the value of travelers for Vietnam's customer-based destination brand equity; The questionnaire evaluating the level of interaction on social networks and the attitude of customer co-creation will help tourism managers approach tourists well for better brand equity for Vietnamese destinations.
Confirm the important role of social commerce support and relationship quality for co-creating value and destination brand equity.
This thesis also provides some implications that help Vietnam tourism develop appropriate marketing goals and strategies to promote customers' value co-creation on Vietnam's destination brand equity, also take advantage of the social commerce platform to enhance visitors' interactions, information sharing of about Vietnamese destination brands.
12. Further research directions:
This study examines visitors' value co-creation on destination brand equity; Later studies can expand to examine other stakeholders, for example, from service providers' perspectives, brand community, and interaction platforms.
The systematic review focused on the world's big data sources with published studies in English in the ISI and SCOPUS indexed journals. With the limits of the thesis, selecting recognized big data sources with a systematic review process will help ensure universality and high reliability compared to the traditional approach. However, future research may access other reputable data sources with different languages, such as studies of Japan.
This study focuses on how visitors co-create destination branding. However, future research may focus on the value of co-destruction. Finally, future studies can expand the research model, for example, by examining the moderating role of social commerce on the relationships of value co-creation on destination brand equity.
13. Published works related to the thesis:

.https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/m3publishing/vol16/iss9781955833004/1

The research is in the process of reviewing: