Commentary The value of value in CCT

It is well known that markets are value creating economic, social and cultural systems. In mar-keting, Sydney Levy originally proposed symbolic value as the notion underlying consumption activity. This was followed by Kotler’s elaboration of customer value or customer satisfaction as the basis and justification for marketing. We have also seen the emergence of exchange value and use value in the works of Bagozzi and Holbrook respectively as the corner stone of all marketing and consumption activities. More recently, with the emergence of brand marketing globally, Peñaloza and Venkatesh introduced the notion of sign value, asserting that the market economy is tending toward a sign economy. Thus markets are viewed as social/cultural constructions and what is created is a system of meanings, especially in the global and cross-cultural environments. It is in the broad context of established works and more specifically in the context of consumer culture that we comment on Karababa and Kjeldgaard’s article in this issue that takes the value discourse one step further by enunciating a cultural paradigm. They present a comprehensive analysis that includes ‘‘exchange value,’ ’ ‘‘perceived value,’ ’ ‘‘value as cognitive evaluation,’ ’ ‘‘social values and value systems,’ ’ ‘‘value as co-created,’ ’ ‘‘aesthetic value,’ ’ and ‘‘identity and linking value.’ ’ We believe that Karababa/Kjeldgaard’s framework is a good start and is indeed a contribution to the growing literature on market value. Keywords Sign value, use value, exchange value It is well known that markets are value-creating economic, social, and cultural systems. Much for-mal writing has appeared in marketing and in other fields since Adam Smith (1776[1982]) theo-rized value in terms of effort, usefulness, money, and trade. Marx (1974[1865]) expanded on the labor theory of value as his foundational critique of capitalism, equating a firm’s profits with Corresponding author