Do IMC and Ecological Knowledge Drive Value Co-Creation? The New Way to Loyalty in Hospitality

Mariia Bordian,Irene Gil-Saura

doi:10.3390/su131910785

Abstract

Despite co-creation being considered a valuable strategy for incremental changes towards more sustainable activities and consumers’ declared interest, hospitality businesses still did not experience the expected level of client engagement in their service interactions. Therefore, the primary purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of value co-creation and its antecedents and consequences within the hotel industry context through the lens of sustainability. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) and ecological knowledge are examined as factors that enhance value co-creation. Satisfaction is observed as a mediator of the relationship between value co-creation and customer loyalty. A closed-response, in-person structured survey was used to collect data from 303 guests of hotels located in Ukraine. The hypotheses were tested using the partial least squares method. The findings reveal that company IMC causes a higher impact on value co-creation. However, ecological knowledge does not seem to affect value co-creation. Furthermore, value co-creation shows a significant influence on customer satisfaction, and directly and indirectly affects loyalty through satisfaction. This study’s theoretical and practical implications are included to assist both scholars and practitioners in the hospitality industry in enriching their understanding of effective value co-creation and communication strategies related to sustainability to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Highlights

IntroductionIt is believed that value co-creation can cause better acceptance of company environmentally friendly practices by tourists through contribution and collaboration [1,6,7], creating competitive advantages and generating profitability [8,9]
= 0.144; Loyalty: The results show that the first hypothesis is accepted, as positive and significant relationship is found between hotel’s Integrated marketing communication (IMC) for sustainability and value co-creation (β = 0.440, p < 0.01; Hypothesis 1 (H1)), with t-value of 8.873
The findings derived from the present work aim to reduce the gaps identified in the literature in the area that explains antecedents and consequences of value co-creation in the hotel industry

Summary

Introduction

It is believed that value co-creation can cause better acceptance of company environmentally friendly practices by tourists through contribution and collaboration [1,6,7], creating competitive advantages and generating profitability [8,9]. According to [10], customer co-creation contributes to firm’s results, as it establishes stronger relationships and increases their involvement. As identified by various authors, effective marketing communication between service providers and their customers [9,14,15] and sufficient level of knowledge [9,12,16,17] are important antecedents for clients’ participation in the co-creation process [18].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion