A Practice Oriented Approach to Understanding Value Co-Creation at Service Encounters

Purpose – To explore and describe how the different elements of the service encounter are dynamically integrated through service practices at extended service encounters in high customer participation services (HCPS); To analyze the dynamics of resource integration and value co-creation through service practices at extended service encounters in HCPS To see customers as practitioners who integrate resources in a phenomenologically, interactive, co-created, and dynamic process of value creation in value systems (Normann 2001; Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2004; Ramirez 1999, Giraldo et al 2010) To contribute to better understanding value co-creation processes in socio-historical activities contributing S-D Logic understanding of what value-in-context really means (Vargo & Lusch 2004;Vargo & Lusch 2006;Vargo & Lusch 2008) Design/Methodology– The empirical research question is what are the practices and their character for value creation at service encounters for the contexts of postgraduate higher education and taerobics (fitness practice), and the focus is to understand the dynamics of value co-creation and customer participation at service encounters. The aim of this paper is to explore these dynamic service encounters as social practices (Engeström 1987; Reckwitz 2002; Korkman 2006; Shove et al 2012). We develop a frame that helps us understand how and why the different elements of the service encounter are integrated in the value co-creation process through service practices, exploring the service encounter as a mediated, contextual, system of activity with embedded tasks, actions, and interactions (Engeström 1987; Nardi 1996) where customers are just one element of the system. Findings – We demonstrate that service users are not only decision makers but also active human beings embedded in a cultural, socio-historical context, who construct value through practices that are dynamic, dialogical and negotiated, aiming to get shared understandings with other elements of the practice, especially with service providers and social communities. Research limitations/implications – This is qualitative study that uses a range of methods to triangulate the data so that the analysis can be credible and transferable to similar settings. A thoroughly grounded understanding of situated service encounters is provided. Practical implications – The two-by-two matrices produced are a practical, useful tool for managers seeking to improve service encounters. Originality/value – The key outputs of this study are two matrices that demonstrate the transformative potential and the range of value creation options in high customer participation service encounters. Key words (max 5) Practices; value creation; transformative potential; service encounters Paper type –Research pape