Customer Engagement

Contemporary issues and challenges

Roderick J. Brodie, Linda D. Hollebeek, Jodie Conduit, Roderick J. Brodie, Linda D. Hollebeek, Jodie Conduit

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317533153
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

How customers and consumer behavior have been changing due to technology and other forces is of prime interest. This book addresses the central questions regarding new emerging consumer behavior; how does social media affect this behavior; how and at what points do emotions affect consumer decisions; and what triggers this is: How should engagement be conceptualized, defined and measured? How do social media and other marketing activities create engagement?

The book draws on the rich, extensive knowledge of the authors who are pioneers in the field. The book's editors have identified the weakness in the current knowledge and aim to address this gap by touching on significant conceptual and empirical contributions to this emerging literature stream, providing readers with a comprehensive contemporary perspective of customer engagement. The book also endeavors to develop a richer narrative around the notion of social media and customer engagement, and the non-monetary notion of social media within new media-based social networks.

Part I Engagement conceptualisations

1 Customer engagement behaviours and value co-creation

Matthew Alexander and Elina Jaakkola

DOI: 10.4324/9781315725185-2

Introduction

Contemporary markets are increasingly interconnected, with actors no longer seen as part of linear value chains, but existing in networks of service systems where interaction, collaboration and experience sharing take place (Jaakkola, Helkkula and Aarikka-Stenroos, 2015; Lusch and Vargo, 2014; Chen, Drennan and Andrews, 2012). In such markets, traditional boundaries between the roles of ‘customer’ and ‘provider’ are losing clarity, highlighted by the emergence of concepts such as prosumers and post-consumers (Carù and Cova, 2015; Cova and Dalli, 2009). Customers are not satisfied with the limited role of a buyer, receiver and user of a firm’s offering at the end of the value chain, but proactively engage in crafting the offering according to their personal needs and wants, and seek to also engage other stakeholders (such as other consumers, communities, firms or government organisations) in the service system to contribute their resources towards common aims (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014). Examples include customers rating products and services in various online marketplaces, co-creating experiences in brand communities, co-designing and innovating products and services, and arranging boycotts against firms and products perceived as doing harm (e.g. Carù and Cova, 2015; Fournier and Avery, 2011; Füller, 2010; Libai et al., 2010). To capture the various customer activities and behaviours beyond the traditional role of a buyer and user that affect the firm, an overarching concept customer engagement (CE) has been introduced (Brodie, Hollebeek, Jurić, and Ilić, 2011; Van Doorn et al., 2010).

Emergent CE research has reported that various customer engagement behaviours (CEBs) have implications for value creation by the active customers themselves, the focal firm and also other stakeholders in the service system (Brodie, Ilic, Juric, and Hollebeek, 2013; Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014). Value creation occurs through the integration of resources in interaction between actors (Grönroos and Voima, 2012; Lusch and Vargo, 2014), and due to its dynamic and interdependent, networked nature, value creation is best understood at the level of service systems, rather than individual (e.g. the firm) or dyadic actors (e.g. firm–customer) (Lusch and Vargo, 2014). Nevertheless, extant studies have predominantly focused on the value outcomes of a particular type of CEB, such as customers influencing others through word-of-mouth, or outcomes for particular actors, such as the firm or the customer (e.g. Adjei, Noble, and Noble, 2010; Schau, Muñiz Jr, and Arnould, 2009) Furthermore, the value implications of CE have mainly been viewed in certain isolated settings such as brand communities (Brodie et al., 2013) or with the perspective of how firms could manage it (Verleye, Gemmel, and Rangarajan, 2013). Therefore, a holistic understanding of the broad spectrum of CEBs and their implications for different stakeholders has been missing, and the ‘big picture’ of how CE relates to value co-creation on a service system level is only just emerging (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014).

This chapter examines how different CEBs contribute to value creation by the focal customer, the focal firm and other stakeholders within service systems. Drawing on a broad range of literature, the chapter outlines the various direct and indirect value outcomes emerging through four types of CEB identified by Jaakkola and Alexander (2014), and proposes a general framework for the value co-creation, which is triggered and affected by CEB. Thereby this chapter integrates currently fragmented research findings on CEB-affected value co-creation and facilitates future research on this topic.

This chapter is organised as follows. The next section provides definitions for CE and CEB and discusses the conceptual scope of CEB. Then we elaborate on four different types of CEBs. The subsequent section elaborates on the role that CEB plays in value co-creation on the service system level, followed by conclusions and implications for practitioners and researchers.

Customer engagement behaviour as a concept

Brodie et al. (2011) view CE as a psychological state, which results from interactive experiences between a customer and a focal agent or object (an organisation or brand, e.g. see Hollebeek, 2011). This chapter focuses on the behavioural manifestations of CE through which ‘customers make voluntary resource contributions that have a brand or firm focus but go beyond what is fundamental to transactions, occur in interactions between the focal object and/or other actors, and result from motivational drivers’ (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014, p. 248). Given the various roles customers may play in the marketplace, it is essential to differentiate CEB from other similar, yet for our purposes distinctly different, concepts (e.g. co-creation) to highlight that CEBs are conceptually distinct from these.

Service marketing and management research has long acknowledged that in the service context, customers may engage in customer participation or co-production, which refers to the extent to which a customer is directly participating in the delivery or production of a product or service (Bendapudi and Leone, 2003). Critically we see co-production as in-built in many service encounters, such as airlines offering online check-in only. As a result, co-production is rarely voluntary or of an extra-role nature, but a core element in the service transaction. Even in circumstances where customers can choose whether to co-produce or not, the interaction is firm-driven and associated with the output of the firm (Vargo, 2008). We also differentiate CEB from scripted forms of behaviour within a service encounter (such as compliance with airport security or following instructions when purchasing furniture in an IKEA store). These behaviours are closely aligned with research into the service encounter (e.g. Bitner, 1992) where it is recognised that customers adopt specific roles (Solomon, Surprenant, Czepiel, and Gutman, 1985). While customers do have control over their behaviour in these situations, their activities are often associated with specified roles and scripts which are, again, firm-driven. CEB can also be differentiated from other voluntary or extra-role behaviours, such as customer voluntary performance or customer citizenship behaviours (Ahearne, Bhattacharya, and Gruen, 2005; Bettencourt, 1997; Rosenbaum and Massiah, 2007). The various concepts discussed above centre on customer provision of enhanced contributions occurring largely within the service encounter and being more or less driven or controlled by the firm. CEB, although centred on a focal object, such as a firm or a brand, are exogenous customer actions, driven by customers’ own motivations, rather than those of the firm, and typically extend beyond transactions/purchase (Brodie et al., 2011; Van Doorn et al., 2010).

Brodie et al. (2011) view CE to exist within a nomological network, that is, with specific antecedents (such as involvement or rapport) and consequences (such as commitment or loyalty), and several studies have explored customer motivations for engaging in behaviours beyond transactions. Some authors see traditional marketing concepts, such as satisfaction, commitment and trust playing a role alongside customer goals and resources (Brodie et al., 2011; Van Doorn et al., 2010). Other research suggests that customers engage with an expectation of benefits from the engagement (Füller, 2010; Nambisan and Baron, 2009). Finally, there is also a sense that the firm can play some kind of facilitative role with the provision of appropriate platforms (e.g. firm-hosted social networking sites) for engagement behaviour to occur with appropriate rewards for customers (see Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014; Kumar et al., 2010).

Given CEBs take place beyond transactions (Van Doorn et al., 2010), as well as the customer–firm dyad, a discussion of value creation at a systemic level is appropriate, yet explored only recently (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014). Recent developments in Service-Dominant logic and beyond see resource integration as a key feature of marketing interactions (Grönroos and Voima, 2012; Lusch and Vargo, 2014). Resources exchanged are affected by their compatibility with personal value processes and customer context (Vargo and Lusch, 2008). Of particular relevance to CE is a reduction in the importance of the transaction around the array of resources that can be transferred between actors within service systems (Chandler and Vargo, 2011; Edvardsson, Tronvoll, and Gruber, 2011). These service systems are configurations of value creation comprising a range of parties and their own networks that can collectively influence and enable value co-creation (Edvardsson et al., 2011). Extant literature offers many examples where customer actions influence value creation beyond the customer–firm dyad and where benefits can be shared with customers’ own networks and beyond to other relevant stakeholders (Nambisan and Baron, 2009; Schau et al., 2009). The following section introduces four distinct types of CEB identified by Jaakkola and Alexander (2014), and examines the value outcomes of such CEBs.

Types of customer engagement behaviours

Initial research on CEB discussed two types of CEB: first, customer participation in innovation and new product development, and second, the role of customers in inducing other potential users to interact with a brand via referral programs, word-of-mouth and other types of customer-to-customer interaction (Kumar et al., 2010; Brodie et al., 2013). Jaakkola and Alexander (2014) classify these first two types, respectively, as co-developing behaviour and influencing behaviour. In their empirical study of community adoption of railway stations a further two behaviours – augmenting and mobilising behaviours – were identified. Research has demonstrated that the different forms of CEBs can take place in online settings, such as brand communities, social media and blogs (Brodie et al., 2011), and also in offline environments (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014). The role of these four types of CEB in value co-creation will be explored in more detail in the following sections.

Co-developing behaviour

Co-developer behaviour can be defined as ‘customer contributions of resources such as knowledge, skills, and time, to facilitate the focal firm’s development of its offering’ (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014; p. 255). Involving customers as co-developers of the firm’s offering is well-established as an important factor contributing to successful product and service development (e.g. Carbonell, Rodríguez, and Pujari, 2009). Co-developing behaviours may include providing ideas for new products, participating in design contests and development competitions, and serving in customer panels or as members in the innovation team (e.g. Edvardsson, Kristensson, Magnusson, and Sundström, 2012; Nambisan and Baron, 2009). For example, the online forum ‘My Starbucks Idea’ ...