Customer Value Creation Research Articles

Superior Strategy Capabilities and Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A theoretical Paper

The global business ecosystem continues to be dogged with volatility and organizations are struggling to overcome the heightened competition due to inability to match up to the increasing demands. However, the articulation of the unique capabilities necessary for creation of superior value for customers and a prerequisite for the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) continue to be unsettled. It is against this puzzle that this study aimed to establish the sources of SCA in a dynamic and turbulent business environment. The specific objectives that guided the study were to establish the influence of superior strategic capabilities that included knowledge management, organizational innovation, social capital integration and organizational agility, on SCA. The study was underpinned on the resource-based view, and dynamic capabilities. The study was a theoretical review that critically analysed past theoretical and empirical literature on the subject. Though the extant literature was mixed, the study concluded that knowledge management capabilities, organizational innovation capabilities, social capital integration capabilities and organizational agility capabilities are essentially instrumental towards sustainable competitive advantage. The study recommends that top management team in organizations should continually nurture knowledge management capabilities such as knowledge acquisition, knowledge codification, and knowledge utilization so as to enhance value creation. In addition, senior management should continually support acquisition and development of new resources, and create structures that enhance partnership and interaction between employees within and across departments.

The role of customer orientation in creating customer value in fast-food restaurants

PurposeScholars and professionals are interested in studying customer value in fast-food restaurants. Previous research on the customer value of fast-food restaurants mainly measured the dimensions and relationships of the customer value. However, the research has not examined a method for identifying sources of customer value in fast-food restaurants. Therefore, this study used customer orientation to find customer needs and generate customer value in fast-food restaurants.Design/methodology/approachThis study presents a conceptual framework with six constructs. A questionnaire was used to gather empirical data from fast-food restaurant customers in Greater Cairo, Egypt. The suggested framework was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity analysis, standardized path coefficients and regression-based moderation analysis.FindingsThis study found that proactive customer orientation has a substantial direct and positive impact on customer perceived value. Customer perceived value is also positively influenced by responsive and proactive customer orientations, with customer desired value change intensity acting as a moderator. Customer perceived value substantially impacts customer satisfaction, and the latter substantially affects behavioural intention.Practical implicationsThis study offers several suggestions for managers of fast-food restaurants on how to employ customer orientation to find current, latent and future customer desires to provide customer value.Originality/valueThis is the first research in the hospitality industry to demonstrate how responsive and proactive customer orientation may be used to recognize customer needs and provide the desired customer value.

Consumer attributions for corporate social responsibility: causes and consequences

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the complex relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) dimensions and customer loyalty. In particular, this study suggested an intervening process through customer perceived value, which makes banking customers more loyal.Design/methodology/approachUsing a randomised sample of 261 respondents from the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, this study empirically investigates the role of CSR in enhancing customer value and loyalty. The collected data, the study model and hypotheses were assessed by partial least squares structural equation modelling.FindingsAccording to the results, CSR practices that are both strategic and stakeholder-driven have a positive effect on customer loyalty in the banking industry. Further, customer perceived-value positively impacts customer loyalty. Besides, customer perceived-value mediates the association between CSR practices and customer loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to the banking industry. Thus, future studies can replicate the same research in different sectors like retail, tourism and hospitality, insurance and microcredit institutions, garments, textiles, etc.Practical implicationsThis study suggests specific dimensions of CSR that need to be emphasised while the banking industry designs its loyalty programs.Originality/valueThe notion of customer value has been suggested as a mediating mechanism between diversified CSR perspectives and customer loyalty. Thus, this study proposes a comprehensive framework for enhancing customer loyalty to banks via CSR practices and customer value creation.

Towards a holistic customer value approach in managing public health care services: a developers' view

PurposeRecent literature within public service logic has called for more explicit conceptualisation of customer value in public services. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how the customer value approach can be applied in the management of public health care services.Design/methodology/approachThis study is a qualitative case study of management of public health care services in Finland. The authors interviewed 17 regional health care service developers and analyzed the interview data using thematic analysis.FindingsThe study suggests five propositions for applying customer value approach from the marketing literature in public health care service management. The study enables a deeper understanding of customer value creation in this context and improvement of public health care services.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the public management research in general and public service logic research in particular by suggesting what constitutes customer value in public health care services.

Creating Value for Clients using a Holistic Approach in Banking Marketing

This paper investigates how marketing mix strategies' design affects customer value creation. The paper presents the results of empirical research conducted through a questionnaire that aims to show and determine which elements are key in choosing a bank, the extent to which branches and digital services are used, which affects customer satisfaction, loyalty, and customer experience for quality assessment and what are the reasons why clients would leave the current bank and choose a competing bank. The research results indicate that the availability of products and services is important to clients with support that increases the user experience, the application of innovative technologies in creating new offers, and friendly, educated, and friendly staff and channels. Respondents state the reasons for changing the bank: lack of branches, unfriendly or unprofessional staff, unsatisfactory quality of service, excessive fees, and more.

Integrating Digital Transformation and Servitization into Digital Servitization: A Case Study on Domino's

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to suggest a digital servitization model which can be implemented by the restaurant industry and to explore the opportunities and challenges of digital servitization.
 Design/methodology/approach: The case study analysis method was applied for this research.
 Findings: This study reveals that pizza firms can gain competitive advantages and create value by implementing the digital servitization business model. In addition, firms can understand the opportunities and challenges of digital servitization and prepare themselves before implementing the business model.
 Research limitations/implications: Digital servitization model was proposed to analyze a single pizza company but a comparative study with other firms can be conducted to identify differences and create a common strategy.
 Originality/value: Firms commonly use an integrated digital transformation and servitization model to create customer value, but few case studies on integrated case models are available. This study investigates this research gap using a case study. The findings of this study have meaningful implications for restaurant managers to implement a digital servitization strategy.

Exploring the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Marketing Dimensions, Brand Equity and SME Growth

This study was conducted to test the linkages among the dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing, brand equity and business growth in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Required data were gathered using the quantitative research approach. Particularly, the primary data were obtained through a structured survey from several owners and managers in SMEs. The obtained data were then analysed through SPSS and Partial-Least Square (PLS-SEM) approach to calculate the validity and reliability of the measurement items and also to verify the association among entrepreneurial marketing dimensions, brand equity and SME growth. The results showed that brand equity has a positive association with SME growth. The outcomes further indicated that customer intensity, value creation, innovativeness, resource leveraging, proactiveness and opportunity focus have positive effects on brand equity. However, the effect of risk taking on brand equity was found insignificant. This article addresses existing research gaps in the literature with regard to the linkages between entrepreneurial marketing dimensions, brand equity and SME growth.

Customer Value Creation—A Case Study of Indian Health Insurance Industry from Value Net Perspective

In the current era of digital business ecosystem, firms have been looking for fresh perspectives to frame its business strategies and create value for customers. Competitive advantage can be generated only when the value created by a firm for its customers exceeds the cost of creating such value. Creating value for customers in health insurance has been a strategic priority for insurance firms. Indian health insurance firms are competing in the area of launching new products which are technology driven and are striving to provide more value to the society through their services. This study explored the value creation process in the health insurance industry. Using case study research with health insurance industry as unit of analysis, this study explored the interactions between stakeholders within the boundaries of the health insurance ecosystem. The role of the stakeholders was explicated using the value net framework which categorised them into customers, competitors/substitutes and suppliers. A value creation framework based on stakeholder collaboration was proposed for the health insurance industry which would further enhance the competitive advantage of health insurance firms in India.

The effect of inside sales and hybrid sales structures on customer value creation

As business-to-business (B2B) sales become digital and multichannel, firms develop inside sales (IS) channels to serve customers and combine such channels with outside sales (OS) and distributor channels in new sales structures. Although IS may offer gains, extant research lacks empirical evidence on their effectiveness in customer value creation when used independently – discrete structures – and in combination with OS and distributors – hybrid structures. This study aims to assess the value creation performance of IS in discrete and hybrid structures. Results from regression estimations of 13,210 B2B customers over two years in a single-firm research design unveil how IS increase value creation when used independently; yet, using IS together with OS or distributors in hybrid structures, decreases performance. IS are more effective in historically less valuable customers and less complex sales processes. This study advances knowledge on multichannel IS structures’ effectiveness in value creation, helping sales managers allocating resources across channels.

지속적인 고객가치 창출을 위한 통합 지원서비스 모델 프레임윅 개발

The purpose of this study is to use relevant cases to develop an integrated support service model for continuous customer value creation. An integrated support service model framework and specific activities were suggested in this study. This model was developed as a three-step process: activities before the point of sale (before service provision, pre-sale), during the point of sale (during service provision, on-sale), and after the point of sale (after service provision, post-sale). The following processes are suggested, each of which has sub-steps. Pre-sale activities include service warranties. On-sale activities are broken into service failure prevention and recovery management, customer experience management, and personalized service management activities. Post-sale activities include service management after the point of sale. In particular, service failure prevention and recovery management are necessary for all three steps. According to the findings of this study, the proposed model that categorizes the services needed from before to after sales by procedures and integrating components would be applied in the service sectors.

Influence of Social Capital Integration Capabilities on Sustainable Competitive Advantage Among Private Hospitals in Kenya

Healthcare ecosystem continues to be influenced by volatility and hospitals are struggling to overcome the heightened competition due to inability to match up to the increasing demands. However, the articulation of the unique capabilities necessary for creation of superior value for customers and a prerequisite for the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage continue to be unsettled. This study aimed to establish the influence of social capital integration capabilities on sustainable competitive advantage among private hospitals in Kenya. Positivism research philosophy guided the study and a descriptive correlational research design was used. The study population consisted of 690 managers from the 46 level 5 private hospitals across Kenya. Stratified simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 253 managers from the population. A structured questionnaire was applied to collect data. The study used structural equation modelling for analysing the data. Findings indicated that the private hospitals had social capital integration capabilities in all the three dimensions of cognitive capital (M = 4.24, SD = 0.425), relational capital (M=4.13, SD = 0.481) and structural capital (M = 4.03, SD = 0.501). The study findings determined that social capital integration capabilities had a significant positive influence on sustainable competitive advantage of private hospitals in Kenya (β = 0.651, CR = 4.453, p < 0.05). The study has practical implications for top management team in private hospitals in Kenya to continually encourage good working relationship between management and other employees and enhance partnership and interactions between employees within or across different departments.

What comprises a successful key account manager? Differences in the drivers of sales performance between key account managers and regular salespeople

Although drivers of the performance of key account management programs have been of great interest to research and practice, research on drivers of sales performance at the individual level of key account managers is scarce. Based on survey data and objective performance data of 1205 key account managers and 5818 salespeople, this study identifies drivers of key account manager's sales performance and differences between the drivers of key account manager's and regular salespeople's sales performance. Most importantly, key account manager's project management skills, use of internal experts, creation and communication of customer value, and their need for achievement reflect positive drivers of sales performance whereas key account manager's use of digital tools diminishes their sales performance. Furthermore, the use of internal experts reflects a more important determinant of sales performance for key account managers than for regular salespeople, whereas project management skills are more strongly related to regular salespeople's sales performance than to key account manager's sales performance. This study provides important implications for the recruitment and training of key account managers.

Value Creation Measurement and Management in Times of Radical Social and Technological Change

This article tries to deepen our knowledge on the nature of value creation and management in times of turbulent environments both for business management and academic research. The current uncertainties in our economy—coming from exogenous shocks (e.g., financial crises, political standoffs [US–China], pandemic and Ukrainian war) or from demand for more sustainable activities—affect existing companies and provide opportunities for new ventures. Both type of firms need to think of innovative and out-of-the-box ideas to keep generating value for all stakeholders, and particularly to their customers. The nuanced understanding of the factors describing the current economic situation and their effect on value creation and management affects management by, for example, efficient use of resources, and assists in strategy formulation and decision-making. Customer value creation is a dual concept: creating value for customers (value-to-customer [V2C]) as well as extracting some of that customer value at the same time to create value for the firm (value-to-firm [V2F]). While this might be known, it is rarely implemented. In order to deliver V2C, firms should look at the customer journey from a customers’ point of view rather than a firms’ point of view. Only then, the real revenue potential can be realized when thinking about monetizing the customer interface and, hence, developing the customer relationship options beyond the current business. Even if it exists for a long time already, customer lifetime value (CLV) und customer equity (CE) are the right techniques to measure and manage value in such times. Besides, in today’s environment, the gap between CLV and CE and shareholder value needs to be closed. Existing customer-based corporate valuation studies do exactly so and, more importantly, will become even more important in the future due to new business models.

A Theory of Marketing’s Contribution to Customers’ Perceived Value

The way customers perceive value is fundamental to business survival and success and is central to marketing theory and practice. Perceived value as an overarching concept describes the contribution of marketing as a key driver in a firm’s success. Though perceived value has gained the attention of academics and practitioners in recent years, the conceptual roots have diverged in different directions. This article synthesizes the concept of customers’ perceive value and presents a theory of marketing’s role in it. This study develops a new theoretical framework of how marketing drives perceived value of customers by reducing and eliminating marketplace imperfections that are always present in oligopolistic markets. This study develops a new theoretical framework of how marketing drives perceived value of customers. We first consider the constituents of customer value—the types of costs and benefits that determine customer’s utility from a purchase, and how marketing can influence these costs and benefits. We then draw upon economics and marketing theories to argue that irrespective of the conceptual lens one adopts, marketing’s primary function is to contribute to perceived value for firms’ customers, which in turn allows marketing to capture value. This article presents four distinct propositions, which articulate how marketing creates value for customers by reducing different types of marketplace imperfections. This article contributes to theory buildings in marketing literature. Laying out theoretical arguments to establish the existence of a marketing-value relationship is critical to validate the relevance and importance of marketing within the firm. The propositions presented in this article can be further used to investigate marketing challenges and questions. From a managerial perspective, it is critical to understand the role of the marketing function in influencing customer value as well. Improved empirical understanding of marketing’s role will enable CEOs to better leverage their firms’ marketing to achieve strategic priorities. Furthermore, by identifying specific marketing activities that create value for customer in different circumstances, managers can more effectively build and leverage their marketing and allocate resources more judiciously. This article synthesizes key developments in the area of customers’ perceived value and presents four novel propositions on marketing’s role in creating customer value.

An Examination of Entrepreneurial Marketing Dimensions and Firm Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises

The purpose of this study was to test the impact of entrepreneurial marketing dimensions on firm performance in small and medium enterprises. Required data was gathered using the quantitative research approach. Particularly, the primary data was obtained through a structured survey from 153 SMEs operating in Saudi Arabia. The obtained data was then analyzed through SPSS and partial least square (PLS-SEM) approach to calculate the validity and reliability for the measurement items, and also to verify the impact of entrepreneurial marketing dimensions on firm performance. The results showed that customer intensity and value creation have positive effects on firm performance. The findings also confirmed that innovativeness and resource leveraging are positively correlated with firm performance. However, the effect of risk taking on firm performance was found insignificant. Finally, it was found that proactiveness and opportunity focus have significant positive effects on firm performance. This paper contributes to resource-advantage theory and empirical literature by addressing existing research gaps between the selected dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing and firm performance. It also contributes to the theory by bringing new insights from a Middle Eastern country owing to the lack of research on this topic, particularly in this region.

Revenue Mode Innovations for Product-Service Systems: Overcoming the Service Paradox

Industrial manufacturers aim to increase competitiveness by innovating their business model and offer product-service systems (PSS). However, firms often fail to exploit sufficient profits from PSS business model innovation (BMI). The role of revenue models to create and capture val-ue from innovating revenue streams for PSS is often neglected in practice and theory. The innova-tion literature has a profound understanding of the PSS concept and its value proposition design. However, it lacks knowledge and insights on how revenue model innovation (RMI) impacts the success and competitiveness of a PSS business model. From a perspective of the resource-dependence theory (RDT), we assume that RMI is a source of competitive advantage by reducing uncertainty and increasing interdependencies between economic actors of a PSS. Our research ap-plied a qualitative multiple case study with semi-structured interviews of leading PSS providers. We identified three dimensions of RMI-enabled customer value creation and provider value capture, reducing customer uncertainty and increasing dependence according to the RDT. Our research im-plies from the RDT perspective that PSS providers create a joint competitive advantage from RMI by giving additional value to their customers, which supports the power balance between both par-ties by a positive increase in interdependence. Our study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the role of RMI for PSS business model success. The study results will extend the theoretical knowledge about successful servitization through PSS and address its problem of exploiting reve-nues from the service business – the service paradox.

Smart product-service systems design process for socially conscious digitalization

While digitalization has become a key driver for promoting value creation for customers and stakeholders, much attention is being paid to smart product-service systems (PSS) to meet their diversified needs. When designing smart PSS, there is a strong need to consider growing concerns about the social and ethical impacts of digital technologies. Numerous ethical guidelines for digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, have been developed. However, a more practical methodology for designing smart PSS by taking into account both positive and negative impacts (including social and ethical impacts) of using digital technologies is anticipated. This paper aims to address this issue by integrating value sensitive design into the smart PSS design process. This design process combines participatory and systematic design approaches and integrates methods to extract values and develop the specifications of complex smart PSS in an iterative manner. To demonstrate its efficacy, this paper presents a case study of a monitoring service for seniors using a communication robot. The results demonstrate that the proposed design process can support design consideration for social and ethical values and lead designers and design participants to clarify design requirements and generate a socially conscious design solution.

Content Analysis of Vision and Mission Statements of Selected Petroleum Companies in Nigeria

A company's mission statement lays out the stated goals and strategies for meeting objectives. Still, a company's vision statement lays out the goals and aspirations it has for itself in the years ahead. Together, they form a synopsis of the organization's guiding principles and ideology. Terms used in the stated goals and objectives of a cross-section of Nigerian oil firms were the focus of this research. The literature that was deemed helpful to this study was analyzed. The research concluded that companies should ensure that their vision and mission statements include the following keywords which include: customer satisfaction, quality services and products, customer choice, value creation, and industry dominance. The staff and the public should use the company's vision and mission statements as slogans. Incorporating it into regular use among employees, customers, and other stakeholders is one way to achieve this goal. This would aid the company in maintaining a long-term perspective and fostering a culture of vision in key personnel.

Customer-Value Creation in Self-service Technologies (SSTs) in the Tourism Industry

Customer-Value Creation in Self-service Technologies (SSTs) in the Tourism Industry

MODELING THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF MARKETING AND ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS

This paper presents a model of interdependence of marketing information system and accounting information system activities, with the aim of harmonizing them while identifying activities on the basis of which the goals of information support for the execution of managerial tasks are completed. The lack of effort to create such models in the past can be explained by the tendency to present individual information systems as integral and sufficient for management needs. However, the growing management informational dependence of a company implies the need for more efficient ways to create and deliver relevant information and reports. The proposed model is based on a general management concept according to which, under the contemporary business conditions, three general groups of activities are performed: research and monitoring of market requirements, creation of value for customers based on previously identified needs and customer relationship management, and customer lifecycle management. On the basis of such grouped management tasks, marketing and accounting activities and their mutual conditionality were identified and unified though the proposed model.