Ivana Rihova - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ivana Rihova

Customer-to-Customer (C2C) Co-creation

Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing

Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strath... more Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.

Journal of Product & Brand Management, 2020

Purpose This paper aims to explore a multi-stakeholder perspective on brand meaning co-creation i... more Purpose This paper aims to explore a multi-stakeholder perspective on brand meaning co-creation in the context of the Olympic Games as a unique mega sports event brand with a strong brand identity, to understand how the brand manager may integrate such co-created meanings in a negotiated brand identity. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative methodology, the paper provides a tentative framework of co-created Olympic brand meanings by exploring the narratives of stakeholders’ brand experiences of the brand. Sixteen semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of Olympic stakeholders were conducted and analysed to identify key meanings associated with the Olympic brand. Findings Through their transformational and social experiences of the Olympic brand, stakeholders co-create brand meanings based on Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. However, at the same time, they offer their own interpretations and narratives related to competing meanings of spectac...

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2019

PurposeThis paper aims to explore and evaluate practice-based segmentation as an alternative conc... more PurposeThis paper aims to explore and evaluate practice-based segmentation as an alternative conceptual segmentation perspective that acknowledges the active role of consumers as value co-creators.Design/methodology/approachData comprising various aspects of customer-to-customer (C2C) co-creation practices of festival visitors were collected across five UK-based festivals, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with naturally occurring social units (individuals, couples and groups). Data were analysed using a qualitative thematic analysis procedure within QSR NVivo 10.FindingsPrivate, sociable, tribal and communing practice segments are identified and profiled, using the interplay of specific subject- and situation-specific practice elements to highlight the “minimum” conditions for each C2C co-creation practice. Unlike traditional segments, practice segment membership is shown to be fluid and overlapping, with fragmented consumers moving across different pract...

Tourism Management, 2018

Tourists' customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions are often viewed by managers as an uncontrollab... more Tourists' customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions are often viewed by managers as an uncontrollable aspect of the service encounter (Nicholls, 2010), yet they represent a crucial source of social value for tourists. Tourism consumption in contexts such as cruise ship travel, group tours, holiday resort stays, and festival and event visitation often involves spending time with peers and significant others, interacting and connecting with strangers, or simply being co-present as part of a larger collective. The social value of such encounters may not be directly linked to the immediate service exchange but rather, it is formed in the process of tourists' C2C co-creation. The purpose of this paper is therefore to empirically explore tourists' C2C co-creation by focussing specifically on social practices in the context of festival visitation, and to discuss the social value implications of C2C co-creation for tourism management. Extant research undertaken within tourism, leisure, events and hospitality servicescapes highlights the positive effect of collaborative C2C encounters on hospitality patrons' wellbeing (Rosenbaum, 2006), on vacationing families' relationships (Lehto, Choi, Lin, & MacDermid, 2009), and conference attendees' personal business relationships (Gruen, Osmonbekov, & Czaplewski, 2007). Furthermore, successful C2C interactions are shown to influence managerially-relevant outcomes, such as tourists' evaluation of service experience

Social constructions of value: marketing considerations for the context of event and festival visitation

Ideological, social and cultural aspects of events, 2015

This chapter argues for a shift from the traditional value perspectives to a more holistic repres... more This chapter argues for a shift from the traditional value perspectives to a more holistic representation of socially constructed value in practice. This chapter is organized in three parts. In the first part, an overview is offered of how value has been conceptualized in the service marketing literature and events literature, more specifically in order to set the scene for an alternative practice-based value approach in the event and festival context. This approach combines the recently emerged marketing concept of co-creation and the view of value as co-created in the social practices of event attendees. The second part of the chapter explores examples of three categories of event and festival social practices (namely, bonding, communing and belonging), in order to demonstrate, in the third part, how this value approach could help to inform empirical value explorations and applications in the context of event and festival marketing.

The role of heritage tourism in the Shetland Islands

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 2010

PurposeThis paper aims to determine the role of heritage tourism in Shetland Island destination d... more PurposeThis paper aims to determine the role of heritage tourism in Shetland Island destination development and how this links to tourism public policy in island communities.Design/methodology/approachThe study is conducted in the Shetland Islands, located off the north coast of Scotland, UK. Descriptive and inductive approaches are utilized to enable the researchers to recognize multiple social structures and draw conclusions from observations and specific information. Primary research focuses on semi‐structured interviews with key informants. Data is analyzed via a mix of content analysis and interpretation of the responses through a connected narrative approach.FindingsSeasonality is a key feature of Shetland Island tourism, alongside other key limitations to growth including transport links and climatic conditions. Potential conflicts exist between tourism stakeholders and their perceptions of the effectiveness of the heritage tourism public policy in Shetland, though overall st...

Customer-To-Customer Value Co-Creation Practices as a Basis for Segmentation

Rihova, I., Buhalis, D., Moital, M., Gouthro, MB. 2014, Customer-To-Customer Value Co-Creation Pr... more Rihova, I., Buhalis, D., Moital, M., Gouthro, MB. 2014, Customer-To-Customer Value Co-Creation Practices As A Basis For Segmentation, Proceedings of AMA SERVSIG 2014 Conference: Services Marketing in the New Economic and Social Landscape, 13– 15 th June 2014, Thessaloniki, Greece Customer-To-Customer Value Co-Creation Practices As A Basis For Segmentation Value co-creation has recently become a centre point for service marketing research. Scholars have explored how firms can co-create with their customers or customer communities by integrating their resources with those of their customers in collaborative, interactive relationships. The Service- Dominant logic in marketing (Vargo and Lusch, 2004) has posited that service firms do not provide value but rather offer ‘value propositions’. This has led to a shift in focus away from the service organisation’s value creating inputs, processes and outputs, toward those found in the customers’ own social spheres; as conceptualised recently in the Customer-Dominant logic in marketing (Heinonen et al., 2013). A stronger customer orientation is relevant in those service settings where customers’ physical or virtual co-presence, interactions and shared consumption in the same setting form an integral part of the consumption experience. Examples include leisure, sport, tourism and hospitality contexts, various types of events and festivals, but also leisure-oriented retail settings such as shopping malls and community markets. In these contexts customers may use the service as a platform for value creation by engaging in various social practices, such as reinforcing family ties, bonding with friends or helping strangers (Rihova et al., 2013). Importantly, the different practices and ‘styles’ of encountering other customers (conceptualised in this paper as customer-to-customer co-creation) can result in value that may not be directly related to the service offering itself but could influence customers’ service experiences (Grönroos, 2011; Mickelsson, 2013). Awareness of specific valuecreating practices could help service organisations design and deliver value propositions that facilitate C2C value co-creation more effectively, leading to competitive advantage. This paper aims to identify a variety of C2C co-creation styles in a specific service setting, while also considering the usefulness of the practice-based approach for customer segmentation. C2C co-creation practices are explored in the specific context of five different UK-based outdoor festivals, using a qualitative interview- and observation-based design. The following review briefly introduces the theoretical background of the study. The methods and main findings are then outlined, followed by a discussion and conclusions.

Social constructions of value: considerations for the context of festival participation

&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;What is value, how and where does it exist ... more &amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;What is value, how and where does it exist in a festival setting? There are extensive studies and perspectives that could address this question in a cohesive manner. Historically, in a services management context, the presence of customer value or value for the customer has been captured in consumer behaviour literature as judgement perception of the potential economic, functional and psychological benefits customers attribute to a marketer&amp;#x27;s offering (the ‘features-and-benefits’ approach). However, what this paper attempts to do is reflect on how value might be constructed or ‘co-created&amp;#x27; in the context of participants’ social experiences in festival settings. In so doing, a more holistic appreciation into the significance of these social experiences within festival participation is illuminated, permitting deeper insight into the appeal of attending multi-day festivals. Discussions in traditional market research literature therefore benefits from recognising the unique conditions by which value is co-created in social situations, guided by specific social rules and systems. Such a view is further reflected upon in this paper by proposing the adoption of the ‘value-in-social-experience’ perspective embedded in ethnographic principles and framed within a social constructionist epistemology. In so doing, this is a move away from highly individualistic, subjectivist customer-perceived value approaches through to a more holistic representation by which participants gain a valuable social experience merely by being in the company of others, and in its various contexts e.g. conversational, chilling out, camping, singing. More is therefore learned about what &amp;#x27;value behaviours’ and practices customers engage in when they themselves are immersed in the company of other people in festival settings, and how festivals can benefit from such perspective. &amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;

Ivana Rihova: Customer-to-customer co-creation of value in the context of festivals The notion of... more Ivana Rihova: Customer-to-customer co-creation of value in the context of festivals The notion of customers co-creating value with the firm has recently gained considerable attention within the service marketing discipline. The Service-Dominant

Journal of Service Management, 2013

Purpose – Approached from the customer-dominant (C-D) logic perspective, this paper aims to exten... more Purpose – Approached from the customer-dominant (C-D) logic perspective, this paper aims to extend current value co-creation discussions by providing conceptual insights into co-creation within customers' social sphere. Focusing on socially dense contexts in which customers consume together in dyads or collectives, the paper seeks to provide recommendations of how service managers can facilitate customer-to-customer (C2C) co-creation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper bridges current thinking on value within the C-D logic with service management perspectives on C2C interactions and social science concepts on consumer communities. Examples from literature and practice are drawn on in the discussion. Findings – The proposed framework reveals C2C co-creation as a dynamic, multi-layered process that is embedded in customers' social contexts. Value emerges in four distinctive social layers: “detached customers”, “social bubble”, “temporary communitas” and “ongoing neo-tribe...

International Journal of Tourism Research, 2014

The notion that tourists actively co-create value with organisations is increasingly acknowledged... more The notion that tourists actively co-create value with organisations is increasingly acknowledged in tourism marketing. Yet, not much is known about the processes in play when customers co-create value with each other. This conceptual paper offers a theoretical basis for the study of customer-to-customer co-creation in tourism contexts, while debating the epistemological assumptions of value-related research in tourism.

International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 2011

PurposeUsing the inaugural Edinburgh International Magic Festival (EIMF) as a case study, the pur... more PurposeUsing the inaugural Edinburgh International Magic Festival (EIMF) as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the motivational factors prevalent in a group of young event and festival volunteers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper will first review the extent of volunteering and, thereafter, will discuss volunteering in the festival and events industry. Focussing on motivations to volunteer, this paper will also identify key research that has examined volunteer motivation in the festival and event sector. Within the context of the festivals and events sector, the paper highlights the benefits of volunteering to the volunteer, the organisation and the community as a whole. The paper discusses volunteering as a means of developing specific skills and knowledge that improve volunteers' CVs and potentially has a positive impact on career opportunities and careers in the festival and event industries. Using the inaugural EIMF as a case study, the authors conduc...

This paper introduces the concept of volunteering in the hospitality industry. Used to great succ... more This paper introduces the concept of volunteering in the hospitality industry. Used to great success in other industries, volunteering is almost unheard of in hospitality and this paper argues that substantial benefits might accrue to not only the volunteer, through the development of skills and knowledge, but also to the hospitality industry, through the identification of quality and committed employees. The paper defines volunteering and presents an indication of the extent of volunteering in the UK. Thereafter, the paper ...

Co-creation of Experiences in Socially Dense Consumption Contexts (Abstract)