Working consumers: Co-creation of brand identity,consumer identity and brand community identity

The creation of identity, in terms of both consumer identity and brand identity, is a core topic in marketing theory. Based on participant ethnography of Yes Edinburgh North & Leith, part of Yes Scotland, the national referendum campaign supporting Scottish independence, this paper explores identity co-creation among three entities: the brand, the individual consumer, and the brand community. The findings suggest that the interactions among these entities co-create their identity, primarily through the actions of highly motivated working consumers. This paper identifies the main dialectic relationships and shows how the effects move beyond the dyads to affect the other entities, including the symbols used in the process of co-creation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for brands, individual consumers, and brand communities.     

Exploring value co-creation in Fan Fests: the role of fans

Abstract

Fan Fests have recently provided various opportunities for host cities, organizers, sponsors and fans, manifesting a modern intersected third place service setting (other than a stadium) where varied stakeholders can co-create value and sport experience and consumption can take different forms and shapes. Yet, although Fan Fests are becoming integral parts of mega-events, research has fallen short of capturing the unique nature of such value co-creation ecosystem, and the role of fans in such value co-creation environment. This paper takes up this challenge and explores the still evolving nature of the Fan Fest, using a primarily consumer and participant focused approach in order to explore the experiences of a Fan Fest and address questions of event construction, participation, organization and consumption. Drawing on SDL and Consumer Culture Theory perspectives we situate the role of fans in value co-creation in Fan Fests and provide implications for management and future research.     

Blurring B2C and B2B boundaries: corporate brand value co-creation in B2B2C markets

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to explore how corporate brands co-create value with their multiple stakeholders in a B2B2C marketplace. Main data sources stem from in-depth interviews with top managers of a technology corporation in the financial sector. Findings depict a model that conceptualises the successful value co-creation process as the careful management of six specific drivers, namely: interdependency, direct approach, trust, strategic alignment, adaptive modus operandi, and knowledge sharing. Hence, the study offers new food for thought for scholars and practitioners who wish to improve their knowledge and understanding on brand value co-creation and corporate marketing.     

Do ethics drive value co-creation on digital sharing economy platforms?

PurposeSharing economy is surging and so are the consumers’ ethical concerns regarding such platforms. The current study examines the antecedents of consumers’ intention to co-create value that include consumers’ ethical perceptions constructs (i.e. privacy, security, fulfillment/reliability, shared value, service recover, and non-deception) and relationship quality constructs (trust, satisfaction, commitment), focusing on the digital sharing economy platforms.MethodologySurvey method was applied to gather data from n=348 consumers at digital sharing economy platforms. Structural equation modelling technique through Amos version 24. was employed in order to further analyze the data.FindingsResults reveal that consumers’ ethical perceptions as a second order construct comprising of privacy, security, fulfillment/reliability, service recovery, and shared value does not influence consumers’ intention to co-create value. However, relationship quality as a second order construct including commitment trust and satisfaction influences consumers’ intention to co-create value. Furthermore, relationship quality serves as strong full mediator between consumers’ ethical perceptions and their intention to co-create value.OriginalityThe studies on drawing relationships between value co-creation and relationship quality constructs have been popular yet to the authors’ surprise; seldom any studies have been conducted in examining the role of ethical perceptions in the settings of digital sharing economy platforms. Therefore, the current study closes this gap.     

Motives and barriers affecting consumers’ co-creation in the physical store

ABSTRACT

The rise of e-commerce has caused a dramatic shift in consumer behaviour, putting pressure on physical stores to offer a more personalised and service-oriented offering. This paper investigates one strategy retailers might apply in this context: in-store consumer co-creation. Research has predominantly focused on online-based consumer co-creation in new product and service development. We argue that with increased focus on digitalisation and consumer experiences in physical retail, this type of co-creation will increasingly take place in-store. Following a pre-study with practitioners, our main study uses 20 scenario-based semi-structured interviews, where we identify eight consumer motives and seven barriers that underlie consumers’ willingness and reluctance to create and select new products in-store, respectively. Some motives, such as ethical, self-efficacy, and concerted are reported as barriers when reverted, due to consumers’ concerns regarding data privacy, low levels of perceived self-efficacy and assumptions that the technology might be flawed. Other motives largely overlap existing research on motives for co-creation whereas other barriers predominantly pertain to the underlying technology and the physical setting of co-creation in-store. The findings further indicate that consumers co-create differently online versus in-store. In-store seems particularly suitable for more marketing related aspects of co-creation, with a stronger emphasis on playfulness and purchase intentions. Practical implications for retailers are therefore discussed.     

How do consumers co-create their experiences? An exploration in the heritage sector

Abstract

Whilst the body of work around co-creation has grown, co-creation continues to be considered from a value perspective with key questions, such as what is actually being co-created, remaining unanswered. This article moves beyond value to experiences and explores co-creation of the consumption experience. The research examines the manifestations and antecedents of co-creation of the consumption experience from a consumer angle and presents a co-creation framework. Customer critic analysis with consumers from two exemplar heritage organisations is used to investigate co-creation. The findings illuminate three facets of co-creation: co-production, engagement, and personalisation. This paper addresses a gap in Service-Dominant Logic theory, arts/heritage, and broader marketing literature by distinguishing between co-creation of value and co-creation of the consumption experience and proposing a definitive conceptualisation of the latter. The proposed model progresses the co-creation discussion to an empirical level and provides a foundation for future research.     

Celebrities as human brands: An inquiry on stakeholder-actor co-creation of brand identities

This paper examines the co-creation of human brands exemplified by celebrities in a stakeholder-actor approach. Combining theoretical frameworks of brand identity co-creation and stakeholder paradigms, demonstrates how human brand identities co-create by multiple stakeholder-actors who have resources and incentives in the activities that make up an enterprise of a human brand, including the celebrities themselves, consumer-fans, and business entities. By utilizing observational, archival netnographic data from popular social media platforms, four exemplars of celebrity identities demonstrate the co-creation of human brands. Findings illustrate key stakeholder-actors' participation in the co-creation process as well as sociocultural codes, including social construction and negotiation of identities, parasocialization, influence projection, legitimization, and utilization of human brand identities. These human brand identity dynamics advance a stakeholder-actor paradigm of brand co-creation that adapts to the predominant consumer culture and human ideals that surround the celebrity. Results inform implications and future research on celebrity brand marketing management and co-creation.     

Role conflict and changing heritage practice: ancestral tourism in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Developing mutually beneficial outcomes in service encounters can be challenging due to resource asymmetry within co-created experiences. Such encounters can result in role conflict for service providers. Limited attention has been paid to the effect on service providers of highly collaborative exchanges which require specific customisation. An example of this is ancestral tourism, a dimension of heritage consumption, in which visitors actively participate in the co-creation of experience at museums, archives and related heritage sites. These institutions, previously seen as repositories of historical information, now act as conduits for visitors to investigate their ancestral past. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between changing professional discourse in the cultural heritage sector, specifically ancestral tourism, and role conflict amongst staff. Through interviews conducted with professionals, the extent and outcomes of role conflict in complex and collaborative exchanges are explored.     

The rise of smart consumers: role of smart servicescape and smart consumer experience co-creation

ABSTRACT

Rapid technological advancements have led to the emergence of smart services and smart consumers. This study focuses on smart consumers who voluntarily engage in value creation activities, in order to conceptualise smart experience co-creation (SEC) and the smart servicescape. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework, a model is proposed and tested around the impacts of smart servicescape dimensions (aesthetics, superior functionality, social presence, perceived interactivity and perceived personalisation) on smart consumer experience co-creation. SEC is conceptualised as a second-order construct consisting of cognitive, hedonic, social/personal, and pragmatic/economic first-order dimensions. Results show that the technological environmental cues of the smart servicescape (S) collectively influence smart experience co-creation (O), and this co-created experience eventually influences consumers’ service brand equity and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions (R). A major novelty of this study lies in uncovering the relationship between experience co-creation and service brand equity. Findings have theoretical and managerial implications for smart services.     

Heritage site management: from dark tourism to transformative service experience?

This paper investigates the managerial perspectives of dark heritage sites and considers how visitors can benefit from and ideally be transformed by the overall experience. Initially the paper provides a review of dark tourism literature and considers the relevance of the servicescape concept for this context. An in-depth case-based method was used to investigate site managers’ perspectives and key issues related to visitor's experience and engagement. Heritage sites no longer want to be seen as dark places and are striving to become sites of sensitive heritage where the focus is on visitor and social engagement. The contribution of this study to services theory is in its illumination of the integrative role of socially symbolic dimensions for heritage sites. The role of the servicescape is central to the co-creation of individual, personal socially symbolic experiences and to the longer-term societal mission of social change and global citizenships.     

Unlocking the magic in successful tourism destination marketing: the role of sensing capability

ABSTRACT

Tourism destinations are facing an increasingly competitive environment, and the need to offer a compelling visitor experience is intense. However, destinations are hindered by the fragmented nature of their governance structure, with a disparate group of actors from service providers to local government agencies involved. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the tourism destination can respond effectively to changing market trends and develop a shared vision for the destination among the various actors. The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm perspective is adopted to identify the role of network management capabilities, which facilitate the coordination of actors needed to ensure destination efficacy, thereby addressing a lack of scholarly attention to marketing capability in the tourism destination. The empirical context is set in Killarney, Ireland’s most enduring and popular tourism destination. The findings point to the presence of a dynamic destination sensing capability in Killarney, which is driving a market-sensing capability and orchestration capability. This investigation provides important insight into how a successful tourism destination is able to sustain the magical ingredient of tourist engagement over two centuries.     

Co-creation of value at the bottom of the pyramid: Analysing Bangladeshi farmers' use of mobile telephony

Existing literature offers scant evidence of how BoP (bottom of the pyramid) consumers with limited product knowledge and interaction with product designers and marketers can co-create value. The current paper addresses this issue by analysing Bangladeshi farmers' use of mobile telephony. The findings suggest the value-in-use is facilitated or inhibited by product features, socio-economic practices, individuals' capabilities and the appropriation of mobile telephony. The paper demonstrates how BoP customers can co-create value with or without direct support from marketers and offers a theoretical framework for the co-creation of value and contributes to the current understanding of BoP market dynamics.     

共创信号、产品创新感知与品牌认同——基于共创观察者的研究

互联网的发展使得企业日益与消费者共创品牌.目前仅有个别学者关注品牌共创的观察者,并往往基于观察者与参与顾客的相似性来探究共创的信号效应.而观察者亦会从其他两个方面对共创信号进行解读:共创过程中参与顾客的自主性及其完成共创任务的胜任性.通过问卷调查、结构方程模型及Bootstrap法中介效应检验发现:观察者对参与顾客的相似性感知、自主性感知和胜任性感知正向影响其产品创新感知;相似性感知和产品创新感知正向影响观察者的品牌认同;产品创新感知具有中介作用.     

Co-Creating Value in a Retail Market Setting

It is usually assumed that the co-creation of value requires a close relationship between producers and customers. Typically, this is easier in a business-to-business context, where the numbers of customers and suppliers are relatively low and the capabilities and needs of each partner can readily be assessed. On the other hand, it could be assumed that the co-creation of value in a business-to-consumer context is likely to be more difficult, given the larger numbers of customers and more frequent, short-term, discrete transactions. This article investigates whether it is possible to co-create valuable consumer experiences in a mass market setting by examining the customer relationship strategies of eight Norwegian seafood retailers. The results show that considerable effort from both retailers and consumers are devoted to co-create valuable consumer experiences. We also reveal a repertoire of strategies to engage customers in the co-creation process. Findings are discussed and implications highlighted.     

旅游环境中民族文化的生态适应性变化研究——以张家界郝坪、包谷山土家族为例

旅游开发作为民族地区政府主导的经济行为,它所造成的社会影响与移民、传媒、族际交流等因素有着本质区别。选取了分别处于旅游影响辐射地带和核心区的两个村庄,采用实证研究法,以风俗礼仪、工艺传承、宗教节庆为测量指标,观测旅游环境中民族文化的变化特征,发现民族文化持有者群体在不同程度表现出实践行为和精神认同的分裂,在旅游业起步、发展阶段的背弃和成熟阶段的回归,集中体现了民族旅游区的文化嬗变是一个通过文化元素的生态制衡和文化主体的自觉选择,最终达成生态适应的过程。     

Marketing of Australia to Malaysian Consumers

Abstract

In many contexts, tourism is a potentially major economic contributor. Promotion is particularly important in international tourism in order to realize its potential and strategic positioning in an effective way. The benefits inherent in the consumption of international tourism services are primarily experiential. Not only does a tourist engage in personal leisure pursuits but also shapes the consumer behaviour of others at the vacation destination (Padgett and Douglas, 1997). Before the actual consumption, the tourist consumer envisions these experiences reasoned upon positive emotions that the destination evokes in his or her mind. Because behaviour is often the result of such perceptions (Lindquist, 1974-1975), the traveller's choice of a given destination depends largely on the favourableness of his or her image of that destination (Goodrich, 1978; Woodside and Lysonski, 1989; Chon, 1991; Baloglu and McCleary, 1999). While manufacturing distributes products to markets, tourism moves markets to destinations (Gunn, 1988). These characteristics of business phenomenon present special challenges and require careful promotional responses. Our study examines the image of Australia as a tourist destination in Malaysia.     

An examination of the emotions that follow a failure of co-creation

Service research has contributed to our understanding of the externally-directed emotions that customers experience, such as anger. However, there is limited knowledge about the self-directed emotions that customers experience, such as shame and guilt. This knowledge is specifically lacking within the context of failure of co-created products and services. Our mixed-method research delineates the self-directed emotions that arise when co-created products and services fail. We found that failure of co-created products differ from general situations of failure in that externally-directed emotions attain latency and customers experience self-directed emotions such as guilt, shame, and self-pity. We also found that the self-directed emotions are driven by (a), sadness, and (b), the nature of the causal attributions that the customers ascribe to the failure. This effect was moderated by the degree of co-creation. After analyzing our findings, we discuss the theoretical and practical relevance of the study.     

Measurement of Tourism Market Potential of Croatia by Use of Delphi Qualitative Research Technique

Abstract

The Delphi survey as an effective qualitative marketing research tool was designed to project the future Croatian tourism scenario from 2001 through the year 2020. It is predicted that Croatian tourism industry will grow and prosper substantially over the next decade due to increased tourist demand for non-traditional holiday destinations. There will also be a high demand for activity-based tourism and eco-tourism. Although the tourism demand projections predict positive trends in the coming term, it is subject to a host of uncontrollable factors which make long-term projections difficult and cumbersome. In view of the developments and changes, tourism industry operators and public sector planners need scientifically accepted projection bases for tourism investment and effective operational tourism decisions. In this vein, this research qualitatively forecasts the tourism market potential and identifies the most significant future trends in Croatian tourism and hospitality.     

Value Co-Creation Processes—Early Stages of Value Chains Involving High-Tech Business Markets: Samsung–Qualcomm Semiconductor Foundry Businesses

Purpose: This research aimed to identify both the specialized resources and competences for value co-creation when the value co-creation phenomenon is extended to the early stage of the value chain. Further, it proposes a framework that can analyze the value co-creation process in the high-tech business-to-business (B-to-B) market.

Methodology/approach: The research methodology was based on building a theory from a case study. The qualitative data was coded based on the grounded theory coding after collecting data from multiple sources.

Findings: Four critical resource types (financial resources, knowledge resources, efficiency resources, and intellectual resources) and five competence types (relational capability, collaboration capability, strategic capability, innovation capability, and managing capability) were constructed as the principal factors for value co-creation at the early stage in the value chain within the high-tech B-to-B market. Among the four resources and five competences, intellectual resource and strategic capability associated with value co-creation were unique findings in our case research.

Research implications: Our results provided new insights, which the value co-creation can be extended to the early stages in the value chain, such as the research and development (R&D) stage, in the high-tech B-to-B market, whereas extant value research was more focused on the late stages of the value chain. The reciprocal value co-creation process, which used four resources and five competences of both the supplier and customer, was proposed as an integrated framework to co-create value at the early stage of the value chain within the high-tech B-to-B market.

Practical implications: A supplier’s R&D, marketing, manufacturing, planning departments and the customer can utilize the defined resources as well as competences at different stages of the value chain in order to co-create value and improve their performance. In particular, the marketing department of the supplier needs to turn their eyes to the early stages in the value chain so as to seek a value co-creation strategy.

Originality/value/contribution: A value co-creation strategy was sought from a different perspective, extending from a late stage to an early stage in the value chain of the high-tech B-to-B market. The integrated research framework, combining resources and competences of the supplier and customer, was established to analyze the value co-creation phenomenon.     

Exploring Foreign Tourists’ Image of Tanzania: A Factorial Analysis Approach

Abstract

In the last decade, the economy of African continent and Tanzania in particular has witnessed a business boom of the tourism sector. While the sector has continued to grow and become a dependable source of direct and indirect employment to youths in urban and rural areas, the sector has been awash with challenges. These challenges include terrorism attacks, energy crises and poor infrastructure. However, the impact of these challenges on the image of Tanzania as a tourist destination has not received the deserved attention. This study explores the perception of visitors towards Tanzania as a tourist destination after they have completed their tourist visit. This study employs factor analysis technique to explore country destination image. Questionnaires were administered to visitors at some of the tourists’ hotels and Julius Kamabarage Nyerere International Airport (as a major exit point) in the country. Frontline employees, various tourist sites and access to services emerged to be strong tourist destination image factors. This implies that the efforts of marketing tourism destination should focus on promoting all the sites the country has.