Customer co-creation in B2C e-commerce: does it lead to better new products?

The business-to-consumer e-commerce platform facilitates direct reach to customers and is especially conducive to large-scale customer co-creation. Many major e-commerce businesses have begun to leverage the platform to co-create with customers in new product development (NPD), in anticipation of new products that are more innovative and sell better. Yet, empirical evidence for the impact of customer co-creation is still scarce. This study investigates the impact by distinguishing among different co-creation tasks (idea co-creation and decision co-creation) and NPD stages (product design and commercialization). Based on the co-creation and innovation literature, it is hypothesized that idea co-creation has a stronger impact when there is also decision co-creation. Further, co-creation in the product design stage is expected to have a stronger effect on product innovativeness, while co-creation in the commercialization stage has a stronger effect on product sales. The hypotheses were tested with data on 107 actual products. Looking beyond a homogenous conceptualization of co-creation enhances our understanding of how it influences different aspects of new product success. This is also one of the earliest studies to report empirical evidence for the impact of customer co-creation in e-commerce. The findings offer specific insights into the co-creation tasks and NPD stages to open for customer co-creation in practice.

     

Designing for mobile value co-creation—the case of travel counselling

This paper focuses on the development of a mobile service as extension of travel agencies’ sales channels, fundamentally driven by the notion of value co-creation. Design goals are directly linked to the understanding of travel counselling as practical value co-creation and to the concern to progress this understanding throughout the travel customer cycle. Customers as well as travel agencies benefit from a mobile service rooted in value co-creation. Mobile service applications which target a service provision which furthermore is in line with the core competency of a travel agency (advice-giving and continuously accompany the customer) are scarce. Taking this as a starting point, we propose a mobile service and system design which provides a travel customer with continuing support on the trip, suitable to complement a lively, ongoing customer-firm interaction which enables the co-creation of value, ultimately targeting increased customer retention and loyalty.     

Customer benefits and value co-creation activities in corporate social networking services

Despite the growing importance of customers as value co-creators, little is known about their reasons for voluntarily participating in value co-creation activities. Based on expectancy-value theory, this paper empirically examines the specific benefits that customers anticipate from engaging in certain co-creation activities. Furthermore, it examines the manner in which interactions between customer benefits and joint activities/industry types influence customers’ intentions to continuously engage in value co-creation in the context of corporate social networking service (SNS)-based virtual customer environments (VCEs). Study data were collected from 327 corporate Facebook and Twitter VCE users through an online panel survey. Results of the main effect relationships reveal that all three customer benefits – cognitive, social integrative, and hedonic – significantly impacted customer intentions to continuously participate in value co-creation. Furthermore, the benefit–intention relationships differed depending upon the type of co-creation activities (e.g. ideation, design, testing, support, and marketing) and industry characteristics. Theoretical discussions about these results are provided, and implications for future research and practice are presented.     

基于朴素贝叶斯学习的电子商务网站客户兴趣分类的应用研究

随着电子商务的不断发展,用户的分析和分类对电子商务网站来说越来越重要。因此需要一个行之有效的方法来进行用户分类并对其进行个性化服务。在本文中,我们提出了一种可以根据用户的网页访问记录和网上交易记录来动态地对顾客进行分类的方法,主要是利用了改进型的朴素贝叶斯分类器,对用户在网站上的行为进行分类,从而得到用户的分类信息,其结果可以作为提供个性化服务的依据。文章通过实验证明了上述方法的有效性和正确性。     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">i</Emphasis>SIM: An integrated design method for commercializing service innovation

Service innovation is focused on customer value creation. At its core, customer centric service innovation is technology-enabled, human-centered, and process-oriented. To profit from such innovation, firms need an integrated cross-disciplinary, holistic method to design and commercialize service innovation. From diverse but interrelated strands of theories from service science, strategic management, organization science and information systems literatures, this article develops a new integrated design method, known as iSIM (integrated Service Innovation Method), for simultaneous service innovation and business model design for sustained customer value co-creation with the firm. Following design science research method, the article theoretically defines and integrates iSIM’s seven constitutive design process-elements: service strategy, customer type / value proposition, service concept, service system, customer experience, service architecture and monetization into a coherent and end-to-end aligned integrated design method. It explains how iSIM would be holistically and iteratively practiced by practitioners, and conceptually exemplifies its utility via telco and Amazon case studies using secondary data. Perspectives on iSIM from selected practitioners are discussed which confirm iSIM’s potential utility for their business. Managerial implications of implementing the iSIM and potential areas for further research are also discussed.     

Expectation-based coopetition approach to service experience design

Service experience design is a key issue in the service industry. Satisfactory service experiences provide customers with good memories and increase customer satisfaction, thus increasing customer loyalty and service provider profitability. However, providing customers with quality service experiences requires considering numerous factors, and thus is a complex and difficult issue both in academia and in real service contexts. Customer satisfaction results from the difference between customer perceptions and customer expectations. Hence, customer expectation management is important in delivering quality service experiences. Additionally, a competitive relationship exists among different service providers as well as between service providers and customers. The service experience delivery process can be regarded as a value co-creation process for service providers and customers who can implement either a competitive or cooperative strategy based on their goals and needs. This study accordingly presents an expectation based coopetition approach by using a real exhibition data of AutoTronics 2009 for simulations. The evaluation results show that this expectation-based coopetition approach can help service providers design and deliver quality service experiences and co-create value with customers, yielding a high performance ecosystem.     

再多一次接触:顾客反馈机制对服务失败后顾客评价的影响

It is difficult to control service quality for any service firm and service failure is inevitable due to human or non-human factors. As a result, service recovery stirred the interest of researchers and practitioners. However, service failure may not be identified by firms because a majority of dissatisfied customers will not complain to the service provider. Thus, this research proposes a proactive customer feedback mechanism comprised of proactive solicitation of customer feedback, customers providing feedback and follow-up communication and examine their impact of customer evaluations in the context of service failure. This research tries to establish that through adding a continuous series of satisfied service encounters or "moment of truth" to service failure encounters, the customer evaluations (e.g. satisfaction, trust, purchase intent and positive WOM) toward the service will be significantly improved. Our research employed a 2×2×2 between subjects experimental design. Three independent variables were manipulated as presence and absence level, that is, firms either proactively solicitted customer feedback or employed no solicitation of feedback, Customers either provided feedback to the service firm or refused to provide feedback, and service firm either conducted follow-up communication or no follow-up communication. Our research adoptted a scenario in the context of patronizing a three-star hotel on a business trip. In total, 221 business administration graduates from a famous university in Shanghai participated in the experiment. MANOVA was used to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that proactive solicitation significantly influenced trust (p<0.01). Besides satisfaction, the other dependent variables such as trust, purchase intent and positive WOM significantly differred between with and without follow-up communication groups (p<0.05). Third, a significant difference was detected regarding satisfaction, trust, purchase intent and positive WOM between customer providing feedback groups and no customer feedback groups (p<0.05). Moreover, significant interactive effects were found of customers provided feedback and follow-up communication on trust and purchase intent. Trust and purchase intent reached highest when a follow-up communication occurred after customers provided feedback. However, no interactive effects were found of proactive solicitation of customer feedback and customer providing feedback. This research suggests that service providers should create new encounters with customers when they are confronted with service failure, and in this study, through proactive customer feedback mechanism. That is, first, the service provider should encourage customers to provide feedback, which can improve customer evaluations after service failure and after customers providing feedback. At the same time, the firm should employ follow-up communication with the customer and inform them about how the firm responded to their complaints, suggestions and comments. It is worth to note that companies just need to have follow-up communication with those customers who have provided feedback. More important, as information technology and internet prevails, it is very likely sending email and short messages after a service failure to maintain customer relationships could significantly enhance customer evaluations of the service provider. Of course, how consumers respond to such measures online is an promising research area and needs further investigation.     

Technology as an operant resource in service (eco)systems

In this paper, we explore the role and scope of technology in value co-creation, service innovation and service systems—value co-creation configurations of people technology and value propositions (Maglio and Spohrer in J Acad Mark Sci 36:18–20, 2008). We draw on a structurational model of technology (Orlikowsky in Organ Sci 3(3):398–427, 1992) to provide a framework for considering the role of technology in service systems and how it influences and is influenced by human actions (i.e., practices) and institutions. We broaden the scope of technology in this model, beyond a material artifact, or outcome of human actions, by applying an S-D logic, service ecosystems (Vargo and Lusch in J Market 68(1):1–17, 2004, Ind Mark Manag 40(2):181–187, 2011a) approach, which focuses on the processes by which value is co-created and new ways of creating value (i.e., innovation) emerge. In this view, technology can be conceptualized as an operant resource—one that is capable of acting on other resources to create value—and, thus, becomes a critical resource for value co-creation, service innovation and systems (re)formation. We argue that the consideration of technology as an operant resource in service (eco)systems provides a more encompassing view for systematically studying the way in which technologies are integrated as resources, value is collaboratively created, and service is innovated.     

Usability beyond the website: an empirically-grounded e-commerce evaluation instrument for the total customer experience

A customer's experience with an e-commerce environment extends beyond the interaction with the website, including delivery of products, post-sales support, consumption of products and services, and so on. It is the total customer experience that influences the customers' perceptions of value and service quality, and which consequently affects customer loyalty. In our cross-disciplinary research in human-computer interaction (HCI) and relationship marketing, we have been investigating how HCI and customer relationship management (CRM) strategies can be integrated in the design of e-commerce so as to engender customer retention, trust and loyalty. We have performed a series of empirical studies to understand customers' requirements and perceptions about service-quality from e-shopping and e-travel environments. From these studies, we have developed an empirically-grounded evaluation instrument, E-SEQUAL, which we discuss in this paper. The development team can apply it at different phases of an e-commerce development life-cycle to integrate customers' perceived dimensions of service quality into the design and evaluation of e-commerce.     

Big data analytics in E-commerce: a systematic review and agenda for future research

There has been an increasing emphasis on big data analytics (BDA) in e-commerce in recent years. However, it remains poorly-explored as a concept, which obstructs its theoretical and practical development. This position paper explores BDA in e-commerce by drawing on a systematic review of the literature. The paper presents an interpretive framework that explores the definitional aspects, distinctive characteristics, types, business value and challenges of BDA in the e-commerce landscape. The paper also triggers broader discussions regarding future research challenges and opportunities in theory and practice. Overall, the findings of the study synthesize diverse BDA concepts (e.g., definition of big data, types, nature, business value and relevant theories) that provide deeper insights along the cross-cutting analytics applications in e-commerce.     

Usability beyond the website: An empirically-grounded e-commerce evaluation instrument for the total customer experience

A customer's experience with an e-commerce environment extends beyond the interaction with the website, including delivery of products, post-sales support, consumption of products and services, and so on. It is the total customer experience that influences the customers' perceptions of value and service quality, and which consequently affects customer loyalty. In our cross-disciplinary research in human-computer interaction (HCI) and relationship marketing, we have been investigating how HCI and customer relationship management (CRM) strategies can be integrated in the design of e-commerce so as to engender customer retention, trust and loyalty. We have performed a series of empirical studies to understand customers' requirements and perceptions about service-quality from e-shopping and e-travel environments. From these studies, we have developed an empirically-grounded evaluation instrument, E-SEQUAL, which we discuss in this paper. The development team can apply it at different phases of an e-commerce development life-cycle to integrate customers' perceived dimensions of service quality into the design and evaluation of e-commerce.     

Using online textual data,principal component analysis and artificial neural networks to study business and innovation practices in technology-driven firms

In this paper we introduce a method that combines principal component analysis, correlation analysis, K-means clustering and self organizing maps for the quantitative semantic analysis of textual data focusing on the relationship between firms’ co-creation activities, the perception of their innovation and the articulation of the attributes of their product-enabled services. Principal component analysis was used to identify the components of firms’ value co-creation activities and service value attributes; correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between the degree of involvement in specific co-creation activities, the online articulation of firms’ service value attributes and the perception of their innovativeness. K-means and self organizing map (SOM) are used to cluster firms with regards to their involvement in co-creation and new service development, and, additionally, as complementary tools for studying the relationship between co-creation and new service development.The results show that, first, there is a statistically significant relationship between firms’ degree of involvement in co-creation activities and the degree of articulation of their service value attributes; second, the relationship should be considered within the context of firms’ innovation activities; third, OS Software-driven firms are the best example in terms of co-creation and new product-enabled service development, i.e. the collaborative principles built in their customer participation platforms should be adopted by other (non-software) firms interested in enhancing their innovation capacity through involvement in co-creation and new product-enabled service development.     

Iterative uncertainty reduction in multi-actor smart service innovation

Smart service innovation is the process of reconfiguring resources, structures, and value co-creation processes in service systems that result in novel data-driven service offerings. The nature of such offerings requires the involvement of multiple actors, which has been investigated by a few studies only. In particular, little is known about the multiple actors’ efforts to manage uncertainty in the process of establishing smart service systems. Empirically grounded in data from 25 interviews with industry experts, we explore how organizations act and interact in smart service innovation processes. For our data analysis, we adopt a microfoundational view to derive a theoretical model that conceptualizes actor engagement as a microfoundation for iterative uncertainty reduction in the actor-to-actor network of the smart service system. Our study contributes to information systems research on service systems engineering and digital transformation by explaining smart service innovation from both a multi-actor and a multi-level perspective, drawing on service-dominant (S-D) logic and microfoundations as well-established theoretical lenses.

     

Variety is the Spice of Innovation: Mediating Factors in the Service Idea Generation Process

To create a breakthrough service innovation, firms need to go beyond current customers' needs and tap into the needs of the future market. As marketing theory favours customer‐centric approaches, customer‐led ideation and co‐creation of innovation seem natural candidates for extracting the ‘sticky’ information nested in some of the most innovative customers' minds. Grounded in the service innovation literature, this paper extracts innovative service ideas from ordinary users (n = 388) in three different service domains and seeks to identify the salient characteristics of the most innovative customers. Past research shows that innovative users are more likely to be service defectors, frequently switching from firm to firm, and motivated by their predisposition to seek variety. Using a structural modelling strategy, variety seeking is tested as a mediating factor between the subjective knowledge level and the presence of high level unmet needs leading to the generation of innovative service ideas. The results show that variety seeking fully mediates the relationship between subjective knowledge and unmet needs. Several interpretations of the role of variety seeking on customers' behaviour are explored within the context of capturing innovative service ideas.     

基于关联分类方法的网站客户分类研究

随着电子商务的不断发展,对用户的分析和分类越来越重要,因此需要一个行之有效的方法来对用户进行分类。针对网站日志数据的特点和各种数据挖掘算法的应用特征,尝试用基于关联规则的分类算法来对网站客户进行分类。实验证明此方法是有效的,其结果可以作为提供个性化服务的依据。     

改进型模糊神经网络在顾客分类中的应用研究

随着电子商务的不断发展,顾客信息的管理和分析对B2C电子商务网站来说越来越重要,因此需要一个行之有效的方法来收集顾客信息,并深入挖掘其中所蕴涵的有价值信息。在本文中,我们提出了一种可以根据消费者的网页访问记录和网上交易记录来动态地对顾客进行分类的方法,主要是利用了改进型的FuzzyART神经网络对顾客在网站上的行为模型进行分类,从而得到顾客的分类信息。其结果可以作为提供个性化服务、确定产品的市场定位等方面的基础和依据。文章通过实验证明了上述方法的有效性和正确性,并对其应用进行了进一步的展望。     

Community engagement and online word of mouth: An empirical investigation

How customer engagement in a firm’s social media marketing platform ? online brand community ? might affect word-of-mouth behavior is an open research issue as well as a vital business problem in e-commerce. To this end, we collected a set of longitudinal data that include community engagement behavior, e-commerce transactions, and customers’ post-purchase reviews. Using a control function approach, we find that consumer engagement in a brand community not only increases the likelihood of generating post-purchase reviews but also increases the likelihood of posting positive online reviews. Furthermore, we find that customer tenure has a positive moderating effect.     

A service innovation evaluation framework for tourism e-commerce in China based on BP neural network

With the rapid development of tourism e-commerce in China, how to evaluate the effectiveness of tourism e-commerce service innovation in the e-commerce field has become an important and critical issue. Drawing on pertaining literature, this paper chooses the back propagation (BP) neural network model to evaluate the effectiveness of tourism e-commerce service innovation. The study first establishes the evaluation index system that is consistent with the characteristics of the tourism e-commerce service industry and selects ten tourism e-commerce service providers to conduct an empirical analysis. Then Matlab7.0 is employed to simulate this evaluation model and to draw the corresponding conclusions. Finally, this paper summarizes the limitations of the study and proposes future research avenues. The insightful results of this study can mirror the development situation of tourism e-commerce and provide an effective evaluation framework for the tourism e-commerce service innovation performance in China.     

Firm-level benefits of IT-enabled resources: A conceptual extension and an empirical assessment

While the business value of IT (BVIT) is central to the IS discipline, only recently a possible chain of causation from IT assets (i.e., fungible, widely available, commodity-like, technology-based products) to firm performance has been conceptually specified. Furthermore, little empirical evidence exists regarding IT assets’ business value. In light of this paucity, this paper makes several contributions to IS research and practice. First, it advances the BVIT literature by empirically testing a model that traces a path from IT assets through IT-enabled resources to firm performance. Second, it extends the BVIT and resource-based view (RBV) literatures by explicating and testing the impact of a firm’s external environment on its IT-enabled resources. Third, it builds on recent literature to argue for, and test, two distinct forms of firm-level outcome: operational and strategic benefits. Finally, the paper contributes to managers’ and IS practitioners’ knowledge by demonstrating the transformative capacity of IT assets on the strategic potential of organizational resources. Empirically, the paper develops and employs valid and reliable scales to test the research model using survey data on IT-enabled customer service departments. The findings demonstrate that when an IT asset is combined with an organizational resource, the extent of synergy borne out of the resulting relationship can positively impact the strategic potential of the ensuing IT-enabled resource. This IT-enabled resource, in turn, is positively associated with firm-level benefits. Further, the external environment is shown to exert a positive effect on the strategic potential of outside-in IT-enabled resources. In sum, this paper offers several important conceptual and empirical contributions to a stream of research that is at the core of the IS discipline.     

Customer requirement-driven design method and computer-aided design system for supporting service innovation conceptualization handling

How to create value to meet customers’ requirements by effectively using advanced digital technology (DT) for digital transformation is an implementation challenge for new and future scenarios of current contexts. Valid digital transformation issues need to be considered to deliver novel values with sustainability concerns. Attempting to effectively achieve a successful service system design in an industrial context, a holistic customer requirement-driven service design method with abductive logic was proposed to drive self-service productivity enhancement. Laddering theory, ontology-based design knowledge hierarchy (DKH), theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) and quality function deployment (QFD) technique are adopted in terms of effective design knowledge handling in innovation conceptualization with a traceable path and abductive logic linking from customer concerns, business context and technology digitization. Then, a comprehensive case study of an empirical smart meal-ordering service system for the digital transformation of canteen processes was illustrated to verify this approach.