Toward a Better Understanding of Customer Value: Empirical Studies from a Service-Dominant Logic Perspective

Abstract

Customer value, which can be defined as the customer’s trade-off between the perceived benefits and costs associated with a particular product or service, plays a key role at the heart of all marketing activities and thus deserves the attention of every marketing researcher. However, despite numerous studies about customer value and various efforts by an impressive number of researchers in the search for a precise understanding of customer value, this focal marketing construct raises some unsolved difficulties. This is called ‘the challenge of value research’, meaning that the researcher, on the one hand, focuses on a concept that is central to the marketing domain but, on the other hand, has to face the conceptual and methodological difficulties related to this focal construct. With this challenge in mind, this doctoral research aims to contribute to the marketing literature as well as practice by providing a more comprehensive understanding of customer value and value creation. Chapter 1 provides a theoretical background regarding customer value. First, the importance of customer value for the marketing literature is discussed. Next, the focal construct is described based on existing definitions of customer value. Additionally, the nature and scope of customer value are explicated from a service-dominant logic perspective. Finally, an outline of the remainder of this dissertation is presented together with an overview of how the individual research projects described in this dissertation are intertwined. In Chapter 2, four commonly used methods for measuring customer value are compared. In order to provide a better picture of the performance of these measurement methods, the comparison occurred with regard to two quantitative (psychometric properties and predictive ability) and two subjective topics (practicality and actionability). Because the results of this comparison can depend on the setting, these methods were compared across four different settings. Chapter 3 investigates the customer’s resource integrating role in the value creation process. The role of the customer in the value creation process is a very significant one, since he is the one who creates value by using the products or services and integrating them with other resources (e.g., time and effort). In case of co-production (e.g., do-it-yourself, online banking, self-check-in, self-scanning), the customer’s resource integrating role enlarges and his responsibility increases. In this chapter, the Psychological Capital (PsyCap) of the customer is investigated as a potential motivating factor which can be actively managed to encourage co-production. Chapter 3 describes three empirical studies that were conducted to investigate the role of PsyCap in a co-production setting. Study 1 investigates the relationship between a customer’s PsyCap and intention to co-produce. Study 2 examines the role of PsyCap in a larger conceptual model based on Social Cognitive Theory to increase our understanding of the various factors that influence a customer’s intention to co-produce. Finally, Study 3 focuses on gaining insight into several factors that lead to an improvement in the level of customers’ PsyCap in a co-production setting, which is in line with the malleable, state-like nature of PsyCap. Chapter 4 starts from the premise that value propositions should communicate the potential or expected value of a product or service as well as the customer’s role as a resource integrator. The effects of explicitly stating the customer’s resource integrating role in the value proposition were empirically examined. The advertised message was used as a communication device for the value proposition. Based on existing advertising theories, Chapter 4 presents a nomological web linking the inclusion of the customer’s resource integrating role in the advertised message with key outcomes. This nomological web was tested in two different settings. Finally, Chapter 5 presents a summary of the main findings of this dissertation’s empirical studies and provides some opportunities for further research.

Klantwaarde is de afweging die de klant maakt tussen de waargenomen voordelen en kosten gerelateerd aan een product of dienst. Dit construct speelt een sleutelrol in marketing en verdient dus de aandacht van elke marketingonderzoeker. Ondanks een groot aantal studies over klantwaarde en pogingen van een groot aantal onderzoekers om klantwaarde beter te begrijpen, brengt het construct nog veel onopgeloste moeilijkheden met zich mee. Dit is wat men in de marketingliteratuur ‘de uitdaging van waardeonderzoek’ noemt. Dit betekent dat de onderzoeker aan de ene kant te maken heeft met een concept dat centraal is voor het marketingdomein, maar aan de andere kant geconfronteerd wordt met conceptuele en methodologische moeilijkheden. In dit doctoraatsonderzoek gaan we de uitdaging aan en trachten we bij te dragen aan de marketingliteratuur en – praktijk door het verschaffen van een beter begrip van klantwaarde en waardecreatie.