An update on customer value: state of the art, revised typology, and research agenda

To automate or not to automate? A contingency approach to service automation

Purpose

Following a contingency approach, this paper aims to understand when service automation can enhance or destroy value for customers in the frontline by (1) providing a comprehensive overview of factors that influence the value co-creation/co-destruction potential of service automation and (2) zooming in on the combination of service contexts and service tasks to develop research propositions.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a grounded theory approach based on qualitative data from multiple methods (i.e. a diary study with follow-up interviews, a consultation of academic experts and a storyboard study) as well as a systematic literature review to develop (1) a Framework of Automated Service Interactions (FASI) and (2) a contingency model for service tasks/contexts.

Findings

This paper presents a framework which gives an overview of factors influencing the value co-creation/co-destruction potential of service automation. The framework discerns between three types of factors: service design (i.e. controllable and manageable by the organization), static contingency (i.e. uncontrollable and fixed) and dynamic contingency (i.e. uncontrollable and flexible). Furthermore, the paper presents a contingency model based on the combination of service contexts and service tasks which results in seven research propositions.

Originality/value

This paper brings structure in the fragmented field of service automation. It integrates and summarizes insights regarding service automation and sheds more light on when service automation has the potential to create or destroy value in the organizational frontline.

Antecedents and consequences of brand experience in virtual sports brand communities: A value co-creation perspective

The influence mechanism for brand experience in virtual sports brand communities is the subject of many studies, but these studies do not feature a holistic consideration of antecedents and consequences, and the moderating role of brand attachment is unclear. Drawing on the value co-creation theory, this study determines the impact of brand experience and its mechanism using the data from 508 virtual sports brand communities. The empirical test results show that value co-creation (i.e., corporate-initiated value co-creation and customer-initiated value co-creation) has a positive effect on the brand experience and that the brand experience has a positive effect on the purchase intention. Brand attachment does not have a moderating role between brand experience and purchase intention so as the degree of brand attachment increases, the brand experience does not increase the purchase intention through a brand attachment. This study determines the antecedents and consequences of brand experience in virtual sports brand communities from a value co-creation perspective, to determine the impact and mechanisms of virtual sports brand communities to guide the marketing practices of virtual sports brand communities.

Value co-creation through social media: a multistakeholder, communication perspective

Purpose

Despite an increasing body of research on value co-creation through social media, service organizations still face difficulties in leveraging the potential of social media communication to facilitate value co-creation with multiple stakeholders. This article addresses this challenge by adopting a multistakeholder, communication perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

This article uses a conceptual approach and builds upon concepts widely recognized in the public relations (PR) literature to assess communication in multistakeholder social media-mediated exchanges.

Findings

This article discusses the role of social media communication in enabling value co-creation as well as the communicative challenges that come along with it. Moreover, applying PR academic insights to the service innovation and service recovery research fields, it advances theoretical propositions that predict how service organizations can successfully build upon the social media communication fundamentals – namely dialogue, engagement, social presence and conversational human voice – to trigger value co-creation with and among multiple stakeholders.

Originality/value

This article introduces selected relevant theoretical concepts from the PR field and develops novel theoretical propositions that are likely to make unique contributions to the service management field. The article also advances future research avenues that will help service and communication scholars together move the field forward.

Rethinking nonprofit service disintermediation through service communication interactions

Purpose

A significant management issue for nonprofit organisations (NPOs) is the disconnect between services beneficiaries and the funders of those services. Individual donors and fundraisers provide the resources to enable other people (or animals) to be supported. The purpose of this paper is to address this service management challenge through new types of customer service interactions that bring together service donors and service recipients through innovative digital communication.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a review, and illustrated by recent examples of innovative best practice, the authors develop a new conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between customer participation and service brand communication.

Findings

The paper starts by identifying the problem of “nonprofit service disintermediation”. The paper also outlines the inadequacies of popular frameworks of communication, widely taught in business schools, to understand the new reality of customer-service organisation engagement in the digital age. Through adopting a customer engagement lens, the paper develops a new conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between customer participation and service brand communication.

Research limitations/implications

Given the authors’ focus on the intersection between new communication opportunities and customer service interactions, this paper adds novel insight to theory and raises important implications for management.

Originality/value

The paper explores how, through these new communication interactions, engagement with, and loyalty to, the brand is built over time in a fluid and dynamic way. It identifies a disintermediated relationship, distinct to other service contexts, but significant in terms of value and social impact.

Transformative value positioning for service brands: key principles and challenges

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to integrate insights from service, branding and communication research to present key principles of a successful transformative value positioning for service brands.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service, branding and communication literature.

Findings

The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, this paper explains why positioning a service brand is different from positioning a product brand and why this is especially challenging in case of transformative value. Second, an organizing framework is used to theorize that a successful transformative value positioning is based on the organizational DNA; is consistently implemented in actions, communications, employee behavior, and servicescapes; and inspires customer engagement. Based on this framework, this paper formulates key principles of a successful transformative value positioning for service brands. Third, this paper provides a research agenda to guide and stimulate future research.

Practical implications

The key principles provide guidelines for managers striving for a transformative value positioning. Not adhering to these guidelines could have severe implications for service brands in terms of washing perceptions ultimately deteriorating the brand image.

Originality/value

This paper combines insights from service, branding and communication research to provide a comprehensive and balanced perspective on a successful transformative value positioning for service brands.

Communication in service ecosystems through value propositions: dilemmas and future research avenues

Purpose

This paper aims to provide insight into communication strategies that may enable service ecosystem actors to co-create economic, social and/or environmental value.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve this end, the authors rely upon the literature on value propositions, which represent strategic tools for communicating about the value package (i.e. the benefits that actors can offer to one another along with its costs). This literature stream – in combination with the communication literature – allows the authors to unravel five dilemmas that service ecosystem actors face when communicating about the value package with one another.

Findings

To co-create value in service ecosystems with the help of value propositions, actors need to reflect upon (1) whether to involve third parties when sending messages about their value package (cf. sender), (2) what information to share about their value package (cf. message), (3) whether to invest resources in face-to-face communication when conveying messages about the value package (cf. channel), (4) whether to reach out to a broad audience with value package messages (cf. receiver) and (5) whether to engage in institutional work through communication in response to various interpretations of messages about the value package (cf. effect).

Originality/value

This research advances the literature on value co-creation in service ecosystems by relying upon communication theory to unravel the dilemmas that come along with using and/or creating value propositions as strategic tools for communication.

I am. Therefore, I will? Predicting customers' willingness to co-create using five-factor theory

Purpose

Customers' participation in co-creation is a prerequisite for co-creation success. To identify customer co-creators, research has shown a recent interest in the role of personality traits as predictors of customers' engagement in co-creation. However, the empirical results regarding the direction and significance of these relationships have been inconclusive. This study builds on the five-factor theory (FFT) of personality to enhance one's understanding of the nomological network that determines the relationship between personality traits and customers' willingness to co-create (WCC).

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a large-scale empirical study on technology-based services (TBSs) in healthcare (n = 563), the authors empirically investigate the role of the five-factor model (FFM), innate innovativeness (INI) and enduring involvement (EI) in predicting customers' WCC using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

The authors’ empirical findings show that depending on the configurational setting of the personality traits tied to the FFM, INI and EI evolve as mediators in determining customers' WCC.

Originality/value

This study is the first to introduce the FFT of personality into co-creation research. The results of this paper shed light on the relationships between personality traits, characteristic adaptations and customers' WCC.

Designing Dynamic Interventions to Improve Adherence in Pediatric Long-Term Treatment - The Role of Perceived Value of the Physician by Primary Caregivers

Primary Caregivers are the fulcrum in the physician-caregiver-child triad. Existing literature discusses static multi-component interventions in detail. In long-term treatments, dynamic intervention design is needed as the environment and situations of the families are dynamic. The objectives of this study are (a) to identify the components of the primary caregiver's perception of the physician's value with reference to the effectiveness of consultation and relationships with the former and with the child; (b) to establish the role of this perception in designing dynamic interventions, and (c) to describe the perception's potential influence on adherence. A PRISMA, chronological, and morphological analysis of the literature is carried out about caregivers' adherence in the pediatric long-term treatment context. We define communication and consultation as the functional, whereas relationship as the emotional component of the caregiver's perception of the physician. We propose a theoretical model that incorporates intervention as an integral component of care. Adherence happens as a response to changing situations and hence fluctuates. Hence, a dynamic intervention design to benefit the child should be incorporated into care through the caregiver-physician bridge. Future research should explore how intervention needs change and the driving reasons for understanding the static and dynamic components of interventions.

Accompanying Patients Aged 65 or Over: How Companions' Health Literacy Affects Value Co-Creation During Medical Encounters

Objectives: The recent health crisis has led to a tightening of visitor policies during medical consultations. This work studies the relationship between the companion's health literacy (functional, interactive, and critical) and the companion's co-creation of value (co-production and value in use). Methods: Six hypotheses are tested by means of a sample of companions of chronically ill patients over the age of 65, using structural equation modeling. Results: Functional literacy does not predict the co-creation of value through either of its dimensions (co-production and value in use). Interactive literacy has a positive influence on co-production and a negative influence on value in use. Critical literacy only positively influences value in use. Discussion: Merely understanding the health information is not sufficient for the companion to be recognized as a collaborator or "ally" of the doctor. It is necessary to encourage the companion's communication and critical evaluation skills.

A Textual and Visual Analysis of the Intrinsic Value Dimensions of Romania: Towards a Sustainable Destination Brand

This work examines the projected image of Romania as an emerging tourism destination. Computed content-analysis was applied to the photos, text and video materials promoted online in Romania’s last international tourism campaign. The conceptual framework used corresponds to intrinsic values (play, aesthetics, ethics and spirituality), from Holbrook’s typology of value. Being more difficult to apprehend and therefore studied less, intrinsic values allow a more sophisticated approach to value creation. The purpose here is to identify the main attributes that are promoted about Romania by destination marketing organizations. The content analysis of text (last international promotion campaign Explore the Carpathian Garden) and visual data (27 photos from the official Facebook webpage and 7 TV videos) allow to depict an experiential view of Romania’s image: natural resources (coded as aesthetics with 29% of references), epistemic value of discovery (play 25.8%), authentic and historical traditions (ethics 25.8%) and wellness and therapeutic activities (spirituality, 19.3%). Destination marketing organizations have the potential to develop some distinctive aspects such as authenticity (as an ethical value dimension) and play (as an active, self-oriented value). Findings also highlight that a complimentary approach using textual and visual data might be a suitable option to research destination brand image.

Transformative value and the role of involvement in gamification and serious games for well-being

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the use of gamification and serious games as transformative technologies that encourage health and well-being behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transformative value that can be created by gamified apps and serious games and the role involvement plays between transformative value and desired outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

Four gamified apps/serious games were examined in the study, with data collected from N = 497 participants. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results revealed that gamified apps and serious games can create three transformative value dimensions – knowledge, distraction, and simulation – which can have direct and indirect effects on desired outcomes. Examination of competing models revealed involvement plays a mediating rather than a moderating role for gamification and serious games for well-being.

Originality/value

This research contributes greater understanding of how technology can be leveraged to deliver transformative gamification services. It demonstrates the multiple transformative value dimensions that can be created by gamified apps and serious games, which assist the performance of well-being behaviors and which have yet to be theorized or empirically examined. The study also establishes the mediating rather than the moderating role of involvement in gamification and serious games, as called for in the literature.