Prof. Lorena Blasco-Arcas (University of Zaragoza)

Programm

• Datum: 12.05.2015
  Zeit: 16:30
  Ort: Ludwigstr. 28, RG, Raum 328
  Titel: "Fostering the co-creation experience and customer engagement in transactional contexts"
   

In recent years, the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has been providing new means for customers to have an active role in their relationships with firms. The role and implications of ICTs in service has been identified as a top research priority, stressing the importance of IT-related service in creating virtual experiences (Breidbach et al., 2013; Ostrom et al., 2010). ICTs have favored the emergence of more sophisticated online platforms that include a variety of cues that offer customers greater interaction possibilities and foster their collaboration (Fiore et al., 2005; Varadarajan et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2007). These connection or engagement platforms have been described as (virtual and physical) focal touch points that allow individuals to integrate resources and co-create value (Breidbach et al., 2013; Ramaswamy, 2009b; Sawhney et al., 2005). They promote value creation through relationships, facilitate user-generated contents and enrich the purchase experience, encouraging a more social usage of technology and determining customers’ decisions (Kim et al., 2009; Malthouse and Hofacker, 2010; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). Two aspects that have been considered important to characterize the engagement platform are visualization and dialogue (Ramaswamy and Gouillart, 2010). However, despite the importance of these platforms to understand customer engagement development and co-creation, little research has analyzed the influence of their characteristics or cues. This research elaborates on the concept of engagement platforms as the main locus of value co-creation, addressing calls from the literature for more research on the IT-related service area and, specifically, on the interactions that these kind of platforms favor (Brodie et al., 2011; Huang and Rust, 2013; Ramaswamy, 2011). While the importance of the engagement platform -either virtual or physical- in co-creation of value processes has been acknowledged, several authors have highlighted the importance of studying the nature and the characteristics of these platforms to promote multi-sided interactions and collaboration among individuals and with the firm.

Focusing on this, the aim of this research is to explore the role of these platforms to foster the co-creation experience and customer engagement in interactive media. In doing so, we address both intrinsic (consumer-related) and extrinsic (platform-related) factors. Moreover, we explore the role of the purchase on co-creation of value processes, analyzing a transactional in nature process from a perspective that goes beyond the mere transactional exchange. This research considers the purchase as a context to favor customer-firm and customer-customer collaboration and thus, fostering superior value creation for all the involved actors. We develop two studies to address the co-creation experience in interactive media. The first study uses the concept of engagement platform to address the influence of its cues (i.e. personalization and C2C interactions-related cues) on the co-creation experience and customer engagement. The second study aims to explore the antecedents and consequences of the co-creation experience in interactive media, proposing a causal model that considers on the one hand emotions as key antecedent, and, on the other, transactional (i.e. purchase intentions) and non-transactional responses (i.e. intentions to co-create, customer engagement and brand image) as potential consequences.
The empirical results show the importance of the purchase experience not only as a transactional stage but also from a social and co-creation perspective, demonstrating the importance of personalization-related cues and C2C interactions-cues on the co-creation experience and customer engagement during the purchase. Moreover, we also corroborate the importance of the three emotional dimensions (pleasure-arousal-dominance) on the co-creation experience, and customer engagement as a key variable to foster further intentions to co-create. Both variables (co-creation and engagement) also influence purchase intentions and brand image.Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.