C2C value creation : social anxiety and retail environment

Purpose – Most customers want to interact, whether on social networks or on company websites. This study aims to examine the relationship between customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction and value, considering the roles of social anxiety and the retail environment. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents three written-scenario experimental studies, where C2C interaction and the retail environment are manipulated, and social anxiety levels are measured. The settings and the measures are changed across the experiments to increase the results’ validity. Findings – A three-way interaction among C2C interaction, social anxiety and retail environment has impacts on experience value and other value-related variables (satisfaction and positive mood). In the offline retail environment, as social anxiety levels increase, the effects of C2C interaction on these variables become weaker. In the online retail environment, as social anxiety levels increase, these effects become stronger. Research limitations/implications – This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it investigates the downside of positive C2C interactions when considering social anxiety and the retail environment where they occur. Second, this paper amplifies the literature about value by extending it to other consumers who can affect the service experience. Finally, this study explores online C2C interaction in a retail environment, an aspect that has been neglected in the research about online interactions. Practical implications – This paper suggests strategies to manage C2C interaction for customers of varying levels of social anxiety in offline and online retail environments to maximise value for them. Originality/value – This paper challenges the widespread idea that a positive C2C interaction always leads to value. By considering social anxiety and the retail environment in C2C literature, this paper explains why and when it is a false notion

C2C value creation: social anxiety and retail environment

Purpose: Most customers want to interact, whether on social networks or on company websites. This study examines the relationship between customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction and value, considering the roles of social anxiety and the retail environment.Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents three written-scenario experimental studies, where C2C interaction and the retail environment are manipulated, and social anxiety levels are measured. The settings and the measures are changed across the experiments to increase the results’ validity.Findings: A three-way interaction among C2C interaction, social anxiety and retail environment has impacts on experience value and other value-related variables (satisfaction and positive mood). In the offline retail environment, as social anxiety levels increase, the effects of C2C interaction on these variables become weaker. In the online retail environment, as social anxiety levels increase, these effects become stronger.Research limitations/implications: This article contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it investigates the downside of positive C2C interactions when considering social anxiety and the retail environment where they occur. Second, this paper amplifies the literature about value by extending it to other consumers who can affect the service experience. Finally, this study explores online C2C interaction in a retail environment, an aspect that has been neglected in the research about online interactions.Practical implications: This paper suggests strategies to manage C2C interaction for customers of varying levels of social anxiety in offline and online retail environments in order to maximise value for them.Originality/value: This paper challenges the widespread idea that a positive C2C interaction always leads to value. By considering social anxiety and the retail environment in C2C literature, this paper explains why and when it is a false notion.</p

Customer experience: fundamental premises and implications for research

Customer experience is a key marketing concept, yet the growing number of studies focused on this topic has led to considerable fragmentation and theoretical confusion. To move the field forward, this article develops a set of fundamental premises that reconcile contradictions in research on customer experience and provide integrative guideposts for future research. A systematic review of 136 articles identifies eight literature fields that address customer experience. The article then compares the phenomena and metatheoretical assumptions prevalent in each field to establish a dual classification of research traditions that study customer experience as responses to either (1) managerial stimuli or (2) consumption processes. By analyzing the compatibility of these research traditions through a metatheoretical lens, this investigation derives four fundamental premises of customer experience that are generalizable across settings and contexts. These premises advance the conceptual development of customer experience by defining its core conceptual domain and providing guidelines for further research.</p

A relação entre os elementos da cocriação (DART) e confiança no contexto de serviços

O objetivo deste artigo é testar empiricamente se os elementos da cocriação – diálogo, acesso, avaliação de risco e transparência – se relacionam com a confiança no contexto de serviços. Para isso, uma survey foi conduzida, em que as variáveis foram mensuradas e, após, analisadas por meio de modelagem de equações estruturais. Os resultados indicam que diálogo e transparência têm um relacionamento positivo e significante com a confiança, enquanto que este relacionamento não foi encontrado para acesso e avaliação de risco. A maior contribuição deste artigo reside na identificação de novos antecedentes da confiança, o que é muito importante no contexto de serviços

A light in the dark: The benefits of co-production in service failures

Co-production is increasingly common but, at the same time, services failures are inevitable. Considering that previous studies are controversial about the effects of failed co-produced services, the goal of this research is to investigate the influence of co-production on causal locus attribution, in addition to emotional and attitudinal outcomes. Two experimental studies show that co-production reduces the self-serving bias, a result that brings implications for the services literature and practice. In addition to the positive effects of co-production, evidenced by previous studies, this research shows that companies and customers can benefit from co-production even when failures occur.</p

A relação entre os elementos da cocriação, satisfação e confiança no contexto de serviços

New perspectives have emerged in marketing, based, for example, in the co-creation (Vargo & Lusch, 2004). This article aims to analyze the relationship between the elements of co-creation - dialogue, access, risk assessment and transparency -, satisfaction and trust in services with credence qualities (medical services) versus services with experience qualities (hairdresser services). To this end, we conducted a survey (n = 230) and moderated mediation analyses to analysis to investigate satisfaction as a mediator of the relationship between the elements of co-creation and trust, and the moderating role of the type of service. The findings show that satisfaction mediates the relationship between dialogue, access and transparency with trust, and these relationships are stronger for the medical service (credential service) than hairdresser service (experimental service). Thus, this paper contributes to the marketing literature by proposing new antecedents of trust for services with credence qualities, and empirically tests the co-creation through its elements.</p

Não curti! Fatores de insatisfação relacionados a empresas ou marcas presentes nas redes sociais

The aim of this study is to identify the factors of dissatisfaction related to companies or brands in socialnetworks and their consequences. To this end, 40 interviews were conducted and classified according to thecritical incident technique in the following categories, regarding factors of dissatisfaction: informationoverload, false advertising, failure to communicate with the company / customer return, the inadequacy tothe customer profile and invasion of privacy. The consequences were classified into the following categories:irritation and boredom, abandonment, loss of trust, intention to claim, intention of word of mouth, andacceptance. Some propositions derived from these categories are presented. Finally, in concluding remarks,theoretical and managerial implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are presented.</p

Pricing strategy in multi-channel retailing and fairness perception: An examination of boundary conditions

This article aims to examine the boundary conditions that influence the relationship between pricing strategy in multi-channel retailing and fairness perception, since past research has found controversial results concerning this subject. In experiments 1 and 2, we show that differential pricing is perceived as fairer for products in comparison to services. In experiment 3, we show that when the price difference is justified by an explanation based on costs, it is perceived as fairer than an explanation based on channel benefits. These studies help to elucidate the controversial relationship between price strategy and perceived fairness, addressing boundary conditions that have not been tested before. We suggest that product retailers should consider differential pricing strategy, since many benefits have been reported in the literature, such as higher profitability. However, service managers should be careful about using this strategy, because fairness perception influences returning intentions. Additionally, whenever possible, the price difference should be justified by an explanation based on costs.</p

Recovery journey

I shared the results and implications of my empirical data of my thesis, related to the journey of recovering alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous journal: Revista Brasileira de Alcoólicos Anônimos (Brazilian Journal of Alcoholics Anonymous).</p