Online consumption communities: An introduction

Online consumption communities play a significant role in the life of many consumers. These communities remove temporal and spacial boundaries, allowing consumers to convene online to connect over a shared consumption interest anytime and from anywhere. The objective of this special issue is to advance our understanding of online consumption communities and stimulate future research in this exciting research domain. Eight papers are included that present cutting-edge research exploring three issues: (1) governance and conflict management in online consumption communities, (2) implications of community membership for individual and societal well-being, and (3) drivers of community success under different ownership structures. In this introductory editorial, each of the papers and its contribution is briefly overviewed

Measuring the deliverable and impressible dimensions of service experience

Service innovation has become a priority within the field of innovation management and is increasingly focused on creating memorable experiences that can result in customer loyalty. Studies of experience design suggest individual service elements to be managed when staging an experience, whereas conceptual models in the literature emphasize the holistic way in which an experience is perceived. In short, service experience is greater than the sum of its parts. Therefore, successful innovation management requires the ability to understand and measure the mechanisms by which service innovations impact customers' experiences. Our research addresses this need by identifying dimensions of service experience and developing a tool for their measurement. Using a three stage process of systematic literature review, rigorous scale development and reduction, and validation, we identify six dimensions of the service experience and develop scales to measure each one. This results in a model of service innovation that highlights the levers through which a company's service innovation efforts can result in memorable experiences and ultimately new service success

Entertainment events in shopping malls – profiling passive versus active participation behaviors

This paper presents an empirical framework for operationalizing passive versus active participation in the context of shopping mall entertainment events (e.g. school holiday events and fashion shows) and assesses the framework’s utility for segmenting and profiling shopping mall entertainment audiences. Exploratory factor analysis of data collected at shopping mall events revealed two distinct dimensions, “relax and be entertained” and “socialize and explore” reflecting passive and active participation respectively. Based on nine activities operationalizing passive versus active participation, two distinct audience segments reporting different levels of immediate and future shopping behaviors were identified. The “Engage Me” segment (active-dominant audience) was more likely to stay longer at the mall, purchase food and non-food items, share the event experience with others, and attend similar entertainment events in the future than the “Entertain Me” segment (passive-dominant audience). The activities operationalizing passive versus active participation were tested with 280 participants at two family-oriented shopping mall entertainment events. This paper extends the knowledge in the retail event marketing literature whereby it confirms passive versus active participation levels at retailing events, and verifies that passive and active participation levels can be measured and differentiated operationally. The findings provide insights on the utility of shopper participation level as a meaningful segmentation variable, pertinent to both the marketing and management of shopper experiences within a retailing entertainment event. Managerial implications and limitations of this paper are discussed

Conflict Culture and Conflict Management in Consumption Communities

This study explores conflict culture as a distinct and influential element of a consumption community’s broader culture, and explores how communities initiate, perform, manage, and resolve intra-community conflicts. A four-year interpretive study of the Premium Cola consumption community reveals two sets of formal and informal elements of conflict culture; explains how community members perform routine, and manage transgressive conflicts; shows how members garner positive and negative practical, identity, and relationship value from these two types of conflict; and documents how a community’s conflict culture develops through inventing new conflict behaviors to resolve transgressive conflicts. The study thus contributes new theoretical insights to the literature on social conflict in online consumption communities, discusses managerial implications, and initiates a discussion about conflict culture

Exploring consumptive moments of value-creating practice in online community

Conceptual blind spots persist when it comes to understanding the value of consumptive dimensions of participation, such as lurking, in online community. This article uses a practice-theoretical lens to conceptualize the consumptive moments of online community practices and explores how they shape different value outcomes. Building on a mixed-method investigation through two studies within an online gardening community, findings reveal two specific consumptive moments, direct and vicarious, and their differential role in the creation of community engagement and vitality. These findings suggest that lurking is not adequately described as a unidimensional construct, but is best understood as vicarious consumptive moments of specific online community practices with distinctive value outcomes. Implications for research on online consumption community are discussed

The impact of generation Y’s customer experience on emotions: online banking sector

Recently, banking sector focused on attracting Generation Y (individuals born between 1980 and 2000) because they have emerged as a huge force with growing spending power which will unavoidably rival with Baby Boomers’ market dominance. They try to attract them through a unique customer experience, especially the ability of differentiation. Using the Mehrabian & Russell’s model of stimulus (S) - organism (O) - response (R), this study developed the Generation Y customer experience framework that intends to explain their consumer emotional responses toward customer experience attributes in a bank through three aspects: pleasure, dominance, and arousal toward online banks. Empirical evidence, based on data from a survey suggests that the overall customer experience attributes in the bank had a positive relation with emotional responses in different ways. “Value for money”, “Getting things right the first time” and “Put the consumer first” emerged as the most important attributes for Generation Y in experiencing a bank.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Influencia percibida sobre comportamiento del contenido generado en las redes sociales: una aplicación empírica en el sector hotelero

ABSTRACT: This study develops an integrative model to explain the influence on behavior, as perceived by users, of the content posted by other users on social network sites. In particular, empirical research was carried out in the hotel sector, where social network sites are widely used by individuals in the pre-purchase stage (i.e. information search and choice). The results, obtained from a sample of 776 social network users in Spain and Portugal, indicated that the influence on behavior, as perceived by the individuals, of the content about hotels published by other users on the main social network site used by those individuals, is determined by the information value, the source credibility, and the interaction between both variables, but not by the similarity between the user and the generators of content on the social network sites.RESUMEN: Este estudio desarrolla un modelo integrador para explicar la influencia sobre el comportamiento, tal y como la percibe el usuario, del contenido publicado por otros usuarios en las redes sociales. En particular, la investigación empírica se llevó a cabo en el sector hotelero, donde las redes sociales son ampliamente utilizadas por los individuos en la etapa de pre-compra (esto es, búsqueda de información y elección). Los resultados, obtenidos de una muestra de 776 usuarios de redes sociales en España y Portugal, indicaron que la influencia percibida sobre el comportamiento, tal y como la percibe el individuo, del contenido sobre hoteles publicados por otros usuarios en la principal red social utilizada por ese individuo, está determinada por el valor de la información, la credibilidad de la fuente y la interacción entre ambas variables, pero no por la similaridad entre el usuario y los creadores de contenidos en las redes sociales

Decomposing the effect of supplier development on relationship benefits: The role of relational capital

Buyers invest considerably in developing their suppliers, yet the performance effects of such investments are not universal. Drawing on social capital theory, this research investigates whether the relationship between supplier development and relationship benefits may be facilitated by the generation of relational capital. The authors examine mediating and moderating roles of relational capital in the relationship between two aspects of supplier development (capability development, supplier governance) and two dimensions of relationship benefits (supplier benefits, buyer benefits), using survey data collected from 185 suppliers of a large manufacturing firm. Investment in supplier development does not automatically result in benefits for the supplier or reciprocated benefits for the buyer. Rather, relational capital "bridges" supplier development and relationship benefits. Without relational capital, benefits from capability development do not accrue, and the impact of a supplier governance regime can be even detrimental. In conditions of high relational capital, capability development results in lower perceived buyer benefits. The results can help managers ensure that the benefits from their supplier development efforts fully materialize