1. Full name of PhD student: PHAM HUONG TRANG 2. Gender: Female
3. Date of birth: November 23, 1981 4. Place of birth: Hanoi
5. Decision on recognition of PhD students: 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 in training process (if any): extension of study period to December 2022
7. Thesis topic: Co-creating brand value of Vietnamese destinations
8. Major: Tourism 9. Code: 981010.01
10. Scientific advisor: Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Hong Long
11. Summary of new results of the thesis
Research objectives: The main objective of the study is to understand the process of tourists co-creating brand value of a tourist destination, thereby proposing managerial implications to increase the brand value of Vietnamese destinations. Specifically: (1) testing a model to measure the process of co-creating value for destination brand equity based on customers through inheriting the approaches of tourists co-creating value for brands, building destination brand equity developed by marketing scholars. (2) examining the impact of support and relationship quality on social commerce networks on this value co-creation process; examining the mediating role of co-creating value; 3) proposing managerial implications applicable to destination branding in Vietnam.
Research object: Study on tourists co-creating value on Vietnam tourism destination brand assets with the impact of support and relationship quality on social commerce networks. Research object: international tourists who have traveled to Vietnam in the last 5 years.
Research method:The thesis uses mixed research methods (qualitative and quantitative), according to each objective and each stage of research implementation. The research methods applied in the thesis: Inheritance method and theoretical synthesis method for systematic document review, Group interview method, Expert method, Questionnaire method, Structural Equation Modeling-SEM
Research contributions
Theoretical contributions
This topic examines the relationship between tourists' co-creation of value for Vietnam's destination brand equity. The topic will focus on the main topics of (1) a more comprehensive analysis of destination brand equity, especially assessing the process of tourists' participation in co-creation of value in building destination brand equity; (2) analyzing the role of social commerce networks in influencing the way tourists co-create value on destination brand equity. With the research context of Vietnam's destination, the contribution of the topic is to apply international theories and research to the context of Vietnam tourism. The new contributions of this topic are shown as follows
Firstly, based on the assessment of the research situation, it is shown that this is a new research direction both domestically and internationally. Due to the complexity of each tourist destination, brand equity is still considered a multidimensional concept when there is no consensus among scientists on how to measure effectiveness. Therefore, the study of the case of Vietnam is a new direction to clarify the differences in brand equity of each country in the context of fierce competition between destinations. Moreover, the topic does not repeat any existing research in Vietnam but opens a new research direction by combining interactive factors, co-creation of tourist value and the important role of social networks into the study of destination brand equity from the customer perspective.
Second, the thesis contributes a systematic review of existing literature on destination brand value co-creation, providing a deeper insight into how tourists perceive a destination as a brand, how they co-create value to destination brand assets.
Third, in terms of scientific significance, this thesis examines the literature on destination branding through the lens of service-oriented logic. More precisely, the theoretical framework of the brand equity model is extended to incorporate service-oriented logic theory in co-creating destination brand equity value. This is a new research direction that is gaining attention in the world, so the research results of the topic will contribute to the development of service-oriented logic theory for branding in the tourism industry.
Fourth, the thesis has inherited and tested the value co-creation measurement component and the destination brand equity measurement component from the customer perspective. These measurement variables can be applied to determine the role of tourists in co-creating value and brand equity for tourist destinations of any scale. In particular, the thesis also builds, tests and contributes to the value co-creation literature by becoming one of the first studies to test the role of social commerce platforms in the relationship of value co-creation and destination brand equity, specifically the support and quality of relationships on the social commerce platform. The research results help provide a deeper insight into social commerce as a new, effective platform for tourists' destination brand equity co-creation process.
Practical contributions
Providing pictures of the current state of brand equity and tourist value co-creation for Vietnam destinations.
The survey results on the level of co-creation of value and brand equity of Vietnam's destinations by tourists can serve as a basis for proposing solutions to increase the competitiveness of Vietnam's tourism in the coming years.
Confirming the important role of support and relationship quality on social commerce platforms for co-creation of value and destination brand equity.
This topic also suggests solutions to help Vietnam tourism build appropriate goals and strategies to promote customer participation in co-creating the value of Vietnam's destination brand assets, and also take advantage of social commerce platforms to increase interaction and information sharing of tourists about Vietnam's destination brand.
12. Further research directions:
This study focuses on examining the co-creation of tourist value with destination brand assets. Future studies can expand and examine other relevant subjects, such as from the perspectives of service providers, brand communities, and interactive platform providers.
The literature review for the thesis selected large data sources in the world with English-language studies published in journals in the ISI and SCOPUS systems. Given the limitations of the thesis, selecting large data sources that are recognized with a systematic review process and specific criteria will help ensure universality and higher reliability than the traditional approach. However, future research may approach other reputable data sources with more diverse languages, such as Japanese studies.
This study focuses on tourist value co-creation to destination brands. However, future research could examine value co-destruction on destination brand equity. Finally, future research could extend the research model, for example, by further exploring the moderating role of e-commerce in the value co-creation relationship on destination brand equity.
13. Publications related to the thesis:

Research projects under review:

1. Fullname: 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: