Consumer Value Co-Creation in Online Business: The Case of Global Travel Services

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the application of value co-creation approach in online travel service based on service-dominant logic. Drawing on recent works, the research indicates travellers as co-creators of value and emphasizes the development of customer–supplier interaction. The paper presents three case studies to analyse global travel service suppliers’ (service providers) behaviour: CouchSurfing International, Inc.; TripAdvisor LLC, AirBnbINc. Case studies analysis is followed by netnographic research of 22 different discussions (1243 records) in online forums related to selected service suppliers. The research findings suggest that value co-creation approach can be effectively used to analyse processes in global online travel service section. The originality of the paper lies in exploring the contribution of co-creation approach which allowed to identify the patterns of actions and behaviour of the online travel service providers and their consumers. As an additional value of the research, it was found that the online travel service providers integrate customer-to-customer interactions as a value co-creation in their platforms using consumers’ resources such as time, knowledge and experience.

Sources of value co-destruction: Uber customer perspectives

“…Another contribution of this study is the use of netnography and a grounded theory research design to uncover the antecedents of value co-destruction, which helped the researcher to gain more understanding of the topic. Few studies have used netnography (Smaliukiene et al, 2015) or grounded theory in sharing economy studies Jiménez-Barreto, 2018a, 2018b), and such an approach should therefore set a new standard for research conducted in this field. From a managerial perspective, Uber's management should invest more in resources to minimise the negative experiences of its customers (both domestic customers and tourists) by clearly defining the drivers' tasks and responsibilities.…”

Co-Production Behaviors of Travel Agencies Customers: A Research on Local Cultural Tourists Visiting Istanbul*

“…When considered in terms of demand; the changes in the consumption culture, changing sociodemographic characteristics of the customers, and the differentiating and personalizing requests due to the increasing level of welfare necessitated the co-production (Etgar, 2008;Binkhorst and DenDekker, 2009;Shaw et al 2011;Grissemann and Stokburger-Sauer, 2012;Cabiddu et al 2013;Schmidt-Rauch and Schwabe, 2014). Together with these, the general assumption in many researches is that the developments in the technological instruments and internet technology are the underlying reasons for the systematical developments observed in the customer participation in production (Wang and Fesenmaier, 2004;Li and Petrick, 2008;Salvado et al, 2011;Grissemann and Stokburger-Sauer, 2012;Reay and Seddighi, 2012;Schmidt-Rauch and Schwabe, 2014;Flores and Vasquez-Parraga, 2015;Smaliukiene et al, 2015). This assumption is explained in the researches as follows: The transition from the mechanical platform to digital platform with the developments in technology brought along drastic changes on the supply and demand side of the production and these changes affected the human, product, and business structures and the business processes.…”

“…The function of co-production strategy in understanding the market in the tourism sector, determining the requests of the customers that are differentiating and getting more and more difficult to predict, personalizing the services within this framework, and increasing the competitive power of the businesses has attracted the attention of the researchers to this issue. Therefore, in the literature, the functions of the co-production in the travel agencies have been considered within different frameworks in terms of supply and demand (Wang and Fesenmaier, 2004;Prebensen and Foss, 2011;Salvado et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011;Grissemann and Stokburger-Sauer, 2012;Bertella, 2014;Schmidt-Rauch and Schwabe, 2014;Prebensen et al, 2015;Smaliukiene et al, 2015;Tseng and Chiang, 2016;Arıca and Kozak, 2018). In the researches, the effect of the customer participation in production on the provided and perceived service outputs has been frequently examined (Wang and Fesenmaier 2004;Prebensen and Foss, 2011;Salvado et al, 2011;Wanget al.2011;Grissemann and Stokburger-Sauer, 2012;Prebensen and Dahl, 2013;Tseng and Chiang 2016).…”

Exploring the Role of NVivo Software in Marketing Research

“…To explain the role addressed by qualitative methods in contributing to the reflexive interrogation and scoping of data in digital societies, we focus our attention on online brand communities (Kamboj and Rahman, 2017). The spread of technologies has encouraged online communities to engage better with customers and foster interactions among them (Smaliukiene et al, 2015). Online communities are crucial drivers of customer engagement (Cabiddu et al, 2014;Gummerus et al, 2012;Van Laer et al, 2013) since customers interact with each other to share their experiences, passions, impressions, etc.…”