Co-creating the collective service experience

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify which consumption practices lead to the co-creation of collective service experiences and to outline a conceptual framework for their understanding. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a multiple case vignette approach combining examples from leisure industries described as perfect contexts to study collective experiences. Four case vignettes were selected according to community forms and types as defined by consumer culture literature. Findings – The study identifies and delineates the neglected phenomenon of the co-creation of collective service experiences and related practices. It highlights the ambivalence of these practices in terms of the co-creation or co-destruction of the experience and indicates their relative unmanageability. Research limitations/implications – The cases largely rest on symbolic service experiences, which are a small set of the total universe of consumer experiences. Practical implications – Companies should replace their efforts in organizing consumer practices with monitoring mechanisms and react to collective consumer actions, pursuing a co-evolutionary perspective when they do not have a dominant and permanent role in the relationship with their consumers. Originality/value – The paper gives voice to an understudied collective phenomenon in service management and provides the building blocks for its conceptualization.

Creating a stir: the role of word of mouth in reputation management in the context of festivals

“…Despite the fact that the research data in this study is limited to three festivals in one city in on the co-creation of collective service experiences (Carù & Cova, 2015), we advocate further investigation into audiences as mediators of WOM in the collective experience that is the festival, to enhance scholarly and practical understanding of the practices and implications of WOM.…”

Bonding and spreading

“…In that sense, strong, intimate relationships with core consumers on social media sites both assist the spread of content and improve actual sales. Instead of focusing on controlling consumer experiences, firms should therefore make use of social media spaces, where they can support consumers' collective activities of (Caru and Cova, 2015).…”

“…Moreover, cultural consumer research has pointed out that consumption experiences consist of the various activities of consumers that affect pre-consumption, postconsumption, and other activities (Caru and Cova, 2015).…”

“…Such a collective sensibility, in turn, allows non-traditional producers such as consumers and fans to become important actors in the market system and enables them to create meanings from their consumption and share them with others (Arviddson and Peitersen, 2013;Caru and Cova, 2015;Muniz and Schua, 2011).…”

“…Our study also indicates that the process of cultural creation and the practices of business and marketing in cultural industries are organised by encouraging constant interactions with passionate fans not taken seriously in the past, and developing close connections with them. Managing interaction is a core aspect of co-creation, since interactions allow communication with others that influence consumption experiences, which eventually enable the co-creation of experience (Caru and Cova, 2015;Grönroos, 2011). as YouTube (Burgess and Green, 2009).…”