Value Definitions and Consumer Consciousness (original) (raw)
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This paper contributes to the understanding of value within the service science and management literature, a literature that currently defines and measures value in various ways, making assumptions about how value is created and judged. We present this paper in two parts: in the first, we reprise six core themes of value understanding in the management literature, highlighting their implicit philosophical, chronological and consciousness assumptions; in the second, we elaborate on consciousness and discuss the implications of a consciousness assumption on the understanding of value in Service Science and management literature in general. By applying theories on information processing, we reinterpret two types of value consciousness: a phenomenal and an access consciousness. We propose that different information processing systems are in operation in a phenomenal consciousness of value (active in the raw experience) than in an access consciousness of value (active pre- or post-experience). In so doing, suggesting consumer consciousness of value is different at consumption than at choice, and challenging the consciousness assumption implicit in the extant value literature.
Characterizing Value as an Experience: Implications for Service Researchers and Managers
Journal of Service Research, 2012
Within contemporary discourse around service-dominant logic, phenomenologically (experientially) determined value has been placed at the center of value discussion. However, a systematic characterization of value in the experience has not been presented to date. In this article, the authors outline four theoretical propositions that describe what value in the experience is, which are then illustrated using a narrative data set. The propositions consider both lived and imaginary value experiences and posit that current service experiences are influenced by previous and anticipated service experiences. The article contributes to the service literature by characterizing value in the experience as an ongoing, iterative circular process of individual, and collective customer sense making, as opposed to a linear, cognitive process restricted to isolated service encounters. The authors recommend that service researchers should consider the use of interpretive methodologies based on the four theoretical propositions outlined in order to better understand the many ways that service customers experience value in their lifeworld contexts, which extend well beyond the service organization's zone of influence. Service managers should also consider how a richer understanding of past, current, and imaginary value in the context in service customers' individual lifeworld contexts might generate novel insights for service innovations. ). Carol's research focuses on the consumer experience and practice of value co-creation in collaborative consumption contexts.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive understanding of current literature on value. This paper extends existing literature on value through reconciliation of various theoretical literatures in management, marketing, philosophy and economics, by categorising the literature into six themes of value understanding; utility, economic worth, perceived satisfaction, net benefit, means end and phenomenological experience. In so doing, it identifies implicit assumptions in philosophy, chronology and consciousness of value and offers an integrative value framework that brings in the literature to understand the contextual invariances of value creation within a phenomenon (i.e. offering, affordance, context, agency and individual resources), as well as reconciling that creation with choice and evaluation of the value ex-ante and ex-post. Our paper also proposes the paradox of value – the value that which can be assessed, measured and even judged by an individual cannot be the value created.. It also proposes an integrative framework that can be used for understanding the future of marketing and new business models.
Value-in-Context: An Exploration of the Context of Value and the Value of Context
Handbook of Service Science, Volume II
This chapter contributes to the advancement of service science by exploring the context of value and the value of context in service systems. The work advances theory development of value-in-context; a term initially introduced to conceptualize value within dynamic networks of actors interacting through exchange. More specifically, value-in-context emerged through the early development of service-dominant (S-D) logic and was an important part of the integration of S-D logic with service science. Recently, a service-ecosystems view has been introduced in the S-D logic literature, which has important implications for understanding value-in-context within service systems. The work presented here extends the contribution of S-D logic to service science by drawing on a service-ecosystems view and identifying various dimensions of value-in-context that shape evaluations of experience. More specifically, the chapter considers how phenomenological value is derived and determined within the context of a service (eco)system and offers a framework that conceptualizes value-in-context as a multidimensional construct.
The value of value: Further excursions on the meaning and role of customer value
Journal of Consumer …, 2011
Grounded on fundamental marketing principles, the concept of customer value has been revisited and refined by academicians and practitioners for the last 30 years. However, research devoted to achieving a consistent theoretical and conceptual development of valuerelated concepts has proceeded apace without ever reaching full closure. The present essay seeks reasons behind remaining deficiencies in value-related research and offers a review intended to move our understanding of customer value toward what promises to become a more enlightened future. The topic of value is approached by theoretical analysis and conceptual development. First, ''the challenge'' of value research is presented: the researcher faces a topic that is central to the marketing discipline but that suffers from various conceptual and methodological difficulties. Second, among the literature on value from the last three decades, two main research areas are selected: the conceptual delimitation and the methodological links between quality, satisfaction, and value. Third, as a conclusion, we identify several streams of research that promise to expand future knowledge in the area of customer value. Several tables and figures that provide a systematic and structured review of value-related knowledge support this inventory of the state-of-the-art in value research. Even the most patient theoretical development of value-related concepts tends to resist full conceptual closure. The breadth of customer value and its richness for marketing implications encourage novel and refreshing approaches.
Understanding the value process: Value creation in a luxury service context
Journal of Business Research, 2020
Value is an important part of the service literature, which increasingly recognizes that value cocreation is a process. The literature on the entire value process remains limited, however, with a lack of empirical evidence on how value is (co)created and what the different activities of service providers and customers are. Addressing this situation, we analyze the joint and separate activities of both the service provider and the customers in the value process. Using an ethnographic case study approach, we combine observations and interviews with managers, service employees, and customers to identify five stages of the value process and offer three main contributions. First, we show that service providers have roles extending beyond mere value cocreation. Second, we describe how customers create value independent of the provider. Third, we extend previous research on customer value-in-use by our focus on escapism as an important part of customer value in luxury services.
Conceptualizing Value: A Service-ecosystem View
Journal of Creating Value
The concepts of value-in-use and value-in-exchange have provided the theoretical foundation for scholarly thought since antiquity. The latter has exerted particular influence in economic and business thought since the time of Adam Smith. However, several value-related research streams have, more recently, drawn attention to the contextual and experiential nature of value creation and determination, shifting primary attention to the importance of value-in-use. The convergence of these streams can be seen in the transcending conceptual framework of service-dominant (S-D) logic and its service-ecosystem perspective. Despite its origination in marketing, S-D logic increasingly represents an interdisciplinary endeavour. This commentary elaborates S-D logic’s conceptualization of value—‘a change in the viability of a system’—by capturing the nature of value through four propositions: (1) value is phenomenological, (2) value is always co-created, (3) value is multidimensional and (4) value...
Customers’ everyday understanding of ‘value’ from a second-order cybernetic perspective
Journal of Marketing Management, 2019
Value is in the centre of service and marketing. However, what does value mean to customers? The purpose of the paper is to contribute to an understanding of value from a customers' perspective using a second-order cybernetics approach. We found that the word 'value' is recursively linked to 13 different 'meanings' indicating a variety of understandings of the term 'value'. Furthermore, the findings support service-dominant logic where customers integrate their own resources (skills and knowledge) in the value co-creation process. Future research has to be aware of the different meanings, which are associated with value. Marketing managers need to understand, on the one hand, that value has a different meaning to their customer and on the other hand, what value means to their specific target groups.