Value Co-Creation in Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer Service Relationships

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationships among value co-creation, switching costs (SC), and customer share (CS) in both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) relationships. In spite of increasing attention to value co-creation in the Service Dominant Logic, there are only a limited number of empirical studies on this concept. Furthermore, few researchers have investigated the inter-relationship among value co-creation, SC, and CS in a single framework for both B2B and B2C relationships, although many enterprises serve both types of customers. The conceptual framework is developed primarily based on relationship marketing and services marketing. This study evaluates six hypotheses, analyzing survey data from 209 enterprises and 337 individuals by structural equation modeling (SEM). Further, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is conducted to confirm the convergent validity and discriminant validity. In conclusion, the positive impact of execution of value co-creation (EVC) activities on SC and CS is supported with appropriate statistical evidence in both B2B and B2C relationships. Also, the causal relationship between values in relational exchanges (VRE) and CS is confirmed with adequate empirical findings for both relationships. These results suggest to marketing managers that service firms may achieve larger CS by executing value co-creation activities and providing VRE for customers.     

New Perspectives on Customer Relationships: How Relational Models Influence Customer Experience and How They Are Activated

Abstract

Much research has been conducted into the determinants of customer experience. However, these studies do not include relationship norms as a possible determinant of customer experience. Nevertheless, there are strong indications that the relationship norms used by a customer are an important factor in customer behavior and customer experience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of relational models on customer experience and to explain possible differences in presence of relational models. This paper describes the results of two studies. The first study focuses on the effects of relational models on customer experience. This first study shows that the type of relationship has a strong influence on customer experience in terms of consumption emotions, customer satisfaction, and recommendation intention. Knowing that differences in the presence of relational models have a strong influence on customer experience, a second study focuses on finding a possible explanation for the differences in the presence of relational models. We hypothesize that differences in the presence of relational models can be explained by how organizations approach their customers and how customers perceive the organization. Especially, the perceived organizational involvement and freedom of choice as perceived by the customer play an important role. The second study, therefore, focuses on the influence of perceived organizational involvement and freedom of choice on relational models. The study shows that organizational involvement and freedom of choice have a significant impact on the activation of relational models. The findings are interesting for organizations that want to improve customer experience.     

The Role of Retail Equity,Value and Relational Benefits in Building B2B Relationships in Retailing

Abstract

The present paper aims to examine if variables widely studied in B2C contribute to building strong relationships in B2B markets. Moreover, it analyzes the existence of differences across retailers related to percentage of purchases from the main supplier. Through a personal survey to retail store managers regarding their relationships with their main suppliers, a structural equation model is estimated through PLS to test the hypothesized relations between retail equity, value, relational benefits, trust, and commitment. A multi-group analysis is performed to test the moderating role of the percentage of purchases from the main supplier. Three types of relational benefits identified have unequal influence on relationship value. In particular, special treatment benefits and social benefits, together with retail equity, emerge as the main drivers of value in the relationship between retailers and their main suppliers. The percentage of purchases from the main supplier plays a moderating role in some of these relations. This research provides evidence in the sense that, in the relations held by retailers with their main suppliers, retail equity contributes to relationship value creation. Relational benefits are relevant in building B2B relations since special treatment and social benefits have a positive influence on value that is positively related to trust and commitment. To build strong relations with their customers, suppliers of retailers should mainly concentrate their efforts on building brand equity and providing evidence of the existence of special treatment benefits beyond the service delivered, in view of its ultimate influence on customer trust and commitment.     

Core service versus relational benefits: what matters most?

Services literature has extensively examined the effects of core service and relational benefits on behavioral outcomes arguing that both components, studied separately, contribute significantly to customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, an integrative examination of the relative importance of both core service and relational benefits is missing. This study examines the combined impact of an extended typology of core service and relational benefits on satisfaction and relational outcomes. One qualitative and one quantitative study are conducted within a banking context. Findings confirm a more extensive typology of relational benefits and reveal that competence (part of the trust benefit) and convenience significantly affect satisfaction; however, when core service is introduced to the model, the effect of relational benefits ceases to be significant. Several future research opportunities for an integrated service benefits approach are identified; and implications for managers on how to allocate their efforts across the various types of service benefits are discussed.     

The role of customer gratitude in making relationship marketing investments successful

This paper recognises that customer loyalty is important for many competitive organisations, and that retail firms make investments to build and maintain loyal relationships with their existing and potential customers (e.g. loyalty programs). However, there has been little focus on the mechanisms by which these relationship investments operate to achieve customer loyalty. This paper examines one mechanism, namely customer gratitude, which works to make a firm’s relationship marketing investment a success or a failure. Using data from 1600 undergraduate students, this study empirically confirms the mediating role of customer gratitude between the customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customers’ perceptions of the value of the relationship with the firm. Further, a significant moderating effect of perceived benevolence on the relationship between customers’ perceptions a firm’s relationship marketing investments and customer gratitude was identified. For theorists, this customer gratitude model offers a better psychological explanation of how relationship marketing investments operate to improve the value that customers place on their relationships with retailers. Our research suggests that managers should invest resources to stimulate customer gratitude in order to build strong customer–seller relationships.     

Relational benefits,their consequences,and customer membership types

The purpose of this research is to develop and test a theoretical model in which customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between a firm's relational benefits efforts (i.e. psychological, social, and special treatment benefits) and customer voluntary performance behaviors. Through a review of literature, a conceptual model was developed and then tested utilizing data collected from 522 hotel restaurant patrons. The results indicated that customer relational benefits influence customer voluntary behaviors, the impact of which is mediated by customer satisfaction. More importantly, it was found that the relationships among relational benefits, customer satisfaction, and customer voluntary performance differ depending on whether the surveyed customers had paid or free memberships with the companies in question. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed in the latter part of this article.     

Comparing advertising effectiveness in South-American and North-American contexts: testing Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural dimensions in the higher education sector

ABSTRACT

This research compares the effectiveness of advertising and relational marketing in two countries characterized by varying levels of both Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural dimensions – Peru (high-power distance, high collectivism, survival and traditional values) and Canada (low-power distance, high individualism, self-expression and secular-rational values). Survey data from a high credence service sector (higher education) in both countries is used for the analysis. The results indicate that advertising and relational marketing have direct effects on choice in Peru, but do not have significant direct effects on choice in Canada. Advertising does, however, affect positively perceptual outcome measures (perceived marketing effectiveness) in Canada. Additionally, we find that advertising and relational marketing have an indirect impact on choice and perceived marketing effectiveness through the mediation of perceived informativeness and influencers in both countries. These results point to the need to account for mechanisms and mediating variables when building theoretical frameworks in cross-country studies.     

Examining the Relationship Marketing,Marketing Productivity Paradigm

Abstract

The authors examine the relationship marketing research literature and identify three schools of thought regarding relationship marketing. The Inter-organizational, customer relationship, and customer valuation research perspectives are described and representative studies are discussed. The predominant conceptual approaches to marketing productivity in the research literature are identified and described. The shareholder value model of Srivastava, Shervani, and Fahey (1998) is selected as the most useful conceptual framework linking relationship marketing and marketing productivity. The linking constructs of customer equity and brand equity are identified as the critical conceptual connections between relationship marketing and marketing productivity. A research agenda is suggested, covering both conceptual and operational issues for further development of both relationship marketing and marketing productivity.     

Customer benefits and value creation in streaming services marketing: a managerial cognitive capability approach

Customer value analysis and management is a key theoretical and empirical issue in marketing management and strategic management. However, little is known about the influence of customer benefit on customer value from the microfoundations of the dynamic capabilities perspective. Currently, a boom in online video and music streaming services is changing the entertainment industry structure. Thus, marketing managers in the fast‐growing streaming services industry should have dynamic managerial capabilities to anticipate other service elements that customers consider valuable. Based on managerial cognitive dynamic capabilities, this research explored the influences of customer‐perceived functional benefit, experiential benefit, financial benefit, and psychosocial benefit on perceived instrumental and terminal values. General linear model (GLM) and fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were conducted to gain a more nuanced understanding of how different customers’ perceived benefits have different impacts on perceived value. The findings illuminate complex benefit configurations that drive perceived instrumental and terminal values and contribute to the development of value creation and its drivers. The proposed framework can help managers develop managerial cognitive dynamic capabilities by increasing their understanding of the impact of different perceived benefits on value creation for different types of customers.     

Measuring the antecedents of e-loyalty and the effect of switching costs on website

This paper deals with the process by which electronic customer loyalty (e-loyalty) is formed. The twofold aim is to analyse e-loyalty, describing its development in terms of how it is influenced by several determinants and to study potential barriers to switching which significantly affect the repeat purchase decision. In particular, an integrating theoretical framework is proposed to determine the e-loyalty dependency of electronic service quality and perceived value, and how this last relationship can be moderated by switching costs. Results offer evidence for the important role of customer's perceptions of e-service quality and value in e-loyalty. Proposals are made of how companies that are online can use this knowledge to build marketing strategies.     

Perceived benefits of loyalty programs: Scale development and implications for relational strategies

Positive outcomes of loyalty programs are clear for firms, yet little research examines customer perceptions. To address this gap, this article investigates various perceived benefits of loyalty programs using a multi-benefit framework based on utilitarian, hedonic, and relationship literature. Two quantitative studies, involving 658 French members of loyalty programs, provide a 16-item scale that measures five types of perceived benefits: monetary savings, exploration, entertainment, recognition, and social benefits. The five dimensions have different impacts on satisfaction with the program, loyalty to the program, and perceived relationship investment of the firm. This article offers a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings for relationship marketing strategies.     

It's a secret: Marketing value and the denial of availability

Marketing thrives on secrets, yet surprisingly little formal attention has been paid to how the marketing of secrecy and the secrecy of marketing can play a significant role in contemporary organizations. We draw upon the fields of organizational studies, psychology, and marketing to develop a typology of secrets that reflects their marketing value and their knowledge value. Marketing secrets can have value to the firm (strategic value), to the customer (marketing value), or to both parties. Based on these two dimensions, we identify four different types of marketing secrets: (1) appealing secrets have high strategic value, as well as high marketing value; (2) mythical secrets mean little to the firm but a lot to the customer; (3) plain secrets are critical to the firm but are irrelevant to customers; and (4) weak secrets have neither strategic value nor marketing value. Our typology enables academics to formulate research questions regarding secrecy in marketing, and serves as a guide for practitioners in the construction of strategies that can exploit the strategic value of secrets by ‘romancing’ them, and increase their knowledge value by ‘educating’ the secrets.     

The Effects of Relationship Marketing on Share of Business: A Synthesis and Comparison of Models

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The article synthesizes the extensive empirical work on relationship marketing (RM) and compares the various conceptualizations to give a better understanding of the relational factors (i.e., characteristics of the business relationship) that improve a seller’s objective performance (i.e., share of business) in a business-to-business (B2B) services context. These conceptualizations, taken from the literature, link relational antecedents (i.e., communication, domain expertise, relational value, and mutual goals) to relational mediators (i.e., trust, satisfaction, commitment, relationship quality) to explore how they in turn affect a seller’s share of business.

Methodology/approach: All 4 models derived from the literature review were assessed using a dataset drawn from a survey of 948 client firm representatives of a Portuguese hotel chain in a B2B services context.

Findings: The best of the models in terms of model fit and prediction of share of business shows that only customer commitment directly drives a seller’s share of business, and simultaneous interrelated changes in customer trust and satisfaction, as well as customer perceptions of relational value, drive customer commitment, and so exert indirect effects on performance. The model that proposes that a seller’s performance is strengthened by simultaneous interrelated improvements in customer trust, satisfaction, and commitment (i.e., with these three mediators being conceptualized as a single, combined, higher-order mediator, termed relationship quality [RQ]) shows inferior fit. No combination of mediators (satisfaction, trust, or commitment) improves the seller’s objective performance over and above their individual effects (i.e., there are no synergistic effects).

Research implications: The literature review suggested four ways of modeling RM antecedents, mediators, and their effect on performance. Complex second-order constructs such as RQ lack explanatory power when predicting outcomes and mask the effects of individual relational mediators. Correct conceptualization is important, as conclusions vary drastically even with the same set of relational mediators and same dataset.

Practical implications: B2B service providers’ investments in RM will lead to improved share of business only if customer commitment is high or there is at least the potential to improve it. This requires an understanding of how valuable

the customer believes the relationship to be, and how the customer rates the relationship with the firm in terms of satisfaction and trust. A customer segmentation approach to relationship building and maintenance is advocated and detailed suggestions are put forward.

Originality/value/contribution: Apart from the work by Palmatier, the relationships between RM antecedents and mediators have not yet been examined simultaneously and findings are fragmented. The article provides a synthesis of this expansive literature. It contrasts different interplays between RM mediators, including their interrelationships as a higher-order construct, and explores possible synergy effects. Unlike previous work, this study focused on an objective measure of seller performance (i.e., share of business), whereas previous studies have tended to examine subjective measures, especially within the B2B context. Furthermore, four full models were assessed here, each of which included the antecedents to RM mediators and their links to objective performance.     

Value Creation and Category Management through Retailer–Supplier Relationships

Abstract

This article discusses category management interactions in supplier–retailer relationships based on conceptual insights about value in business markets. Much category management literature has studied supplier–retailer relationships, but despite value creation being central to category management the conceptual approach is often the power-trust controversy. Based on value concept, category management and supplier–retailer relationship literature this study develops a model and hypotheses of retailer perceived benefits and sacrifices from category management collaboration. The article proposes that closer supplier-retailer interactions through the category management process hold the potential for increased value creation through application of complementary information resources, an improved coordination of tactical efforts, and an alignment of category aims and strategies explicitly linked to retailers' value systems. Further, the perceived necessity of trust in these relationships meshes with retailers' perceived sacrifices regarding negotiation power and full control of category marketing variables, thus establishing a trade-off for retailers between benefits and sacrifices.     

A Customer Value Perspective in the Nonprofit Marketing Context: Expanding the Means-End Chain for Multiple Stakeholders

ABSTRACT

Very little of the current research on nonprofit marketing adopts a customer value perspective. This paper will (1) briefly outline the special customer value challenges faced by nonprofit organizations, such as multiple stakeholders and a lack of marketing orientation; (2) describe the innovative customer value approach developed by Woodruff and Gardial (1996); and (3) offer a model applying the Wood-ruff/Gardial approach in the NPO context, including research propositions.     

Consumer response to marketing channels: A demand-based approach

Abstract

Marketing channels have faced rapid structural and functional transformations during the last few decades. While a large body of research has been devoted to understanding the supply-side aspects of marketing channels, much less research has taken the demand-side perspective to study consumer perception of channel position and functions. This article extends the channel literature to a broader domain and develops a consumer-based theoretical framework reflecting factors that influence consumer perception of and reaction to channel strategies and decisions. The authors conceptualize that consumers’ perceived channel value is a critical factor in determining their loyalty behavior. Seven important channel features are identified that would positively influence the perceived channel value. The relationship between perceived channel value and channel preference is strongly dependent on the level of customer value co-creation. The article concludes with research implications and suggestions of avenues for future research.     

参与强度与顾客体验间的调节机制研究——基于集体参与视角

顾客参与企业的产品或服务的生产已经成为近年来学者们的关注热点,虽然目前从个体视角对顾客参与共同生产的研究成果颇丰,但仍然缺少集体层面的研究,特别是涉及顾客参与强度的研究并不多。文章从集体参与的视角探讨顾客参与强度对顾客体验的影响,并研究了关系价值和感知胜任力两个变量对顾客参与强度与顾客体验关系的影响。研究结果发现顾客参与强度会对顾客体验产生消极影响,而关系价值和感知胜任力能够弱化这种消极影响。     

Service value revisited: Specifying a higher-order, formative measure

Recent marketing literature pays particular attention to customer value because of the potential impact on customer behavior and, ultimately, firm performance. Whereas some studies conceptualize customer value in a unidimensional manner, more recent approaches take a multidimensional approach, generally conceptualizing value as composed of various benefits and sacrifices. However, nearly all of these studies consider value components in a reflective manner, which is not only problematic but in many cases conceptually incorrect. In addition, recent customer value research includes service components to define and operationalize the construct. This study suggests that customer value in service contexts, or service value, represents a higher-order, formative construct with benefit and sacrifice components. Specifically, the authors propose a formative model of service value with four components: service quality, service equity, confidence benefits, and perceived sacrifice. A multiple-industry study substantiates the contention that this higher-order, formative approach best models value. The results theoretically and empirically support the conceptualization of service value with formative components, and the measure is robust and works well across multiple service contexts.     

Perceived product necessity,perceived value,customer satisfaction and affective attitude: an integrative model

ABSTRACT

Inter-relationships among perceived product necessity, perceived value, customer satisfaction and affective attitude are examined in Harare, Zimbabwe using structural equation modelling. The study provides evidence that perceived product necessity, perceived value and customer satisfaction each positively influences affective attitude. The findings also show that perceived product necessity has a positive effect on perceived value while perceived value has a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Lastly, the study reveals that perceived product necessity does not influence customer satisfaction. The research has implications for theory, managers and future researchers.     

Effects of Extrinsic Attributes on Perceived Quality,Customer Value,and Behavioral Intentions in B2B Settings: A Comparison Across Goods and Service Industries

ABSTRACT

The traditional formulation of customer value is a trade off of benefits and sacrifices, with intrinsic quality typically being the primary benefit, and price typically being the primary sacrifice. While additional sacrifices have been proposed in the literature (e.g., time and effort), we explore three additional benefits, the extrinsic attributes of industry leadership, innovation, and customer focus and their effects on a hierarchical quality-value-intention system. Data gathered from two distinct business-to-business domains, one goods and one services, showed that extrinsic attributes impacted elements of the quality-value-intention system. It was also found that quality and customer focus (an extrinsic attribute) differed in their effects across goods and services contexts. Managerial implications are discussed for creating customer perceived value in goods and services industries.