Tourism experience co-creationa service-dominant logic-driven model

Resumen

For some time now, new marketing paradigms are trying to set aside traditional and product-focused views of management and marketing strategies. Technological challenges, volatile customer needs, and alternative marketing application subjects and fields have pushed the discipline of marketing towards more adapted and generalizable marketing perspectives, leaving behind the long-established four Ps of marketing (Product, Place, Promotion, Price) and similar. These new paradigms emphasize especially the active role of customers in value creation, the inherent service-for-service nature of exchanges, the relevance of multisided resources, the formation of both planned and unintentional institutionally handled networks, and the interest on `experiences¿. Among the propositions found, value co-creation is one of the most appealing and recurring. However, the lack of specification has transformed co-creation into an overused interpretation, a jumble of many different ideas (e.g., co-production, interactions, citizenship behaviors), and a concept at risk of turning into an `all and nothing¿-type useless expression. Therefore, we need first, a conceptual underlying support that would lead the definition and implications of co-creation, and second, a practical backing that would demonstrate its empirical and contextual convenience.The objective of this study is to provide an empirical and context-driven approach of value co-creation, based on the service-dominant logic (SDL). In the conceptual concern, we believe that though in a meta-theoretical level, SDL provides a well-founded baseline framework for value co-creation, supplying a complete narrative and a number of premises centered on a comprehensive view of value co-creation. In the empirical concern, we chose place marketing in general and tourism in particular to situate our co-creation framework. Specifically, the research is focused on the tourism experience co-creation, which is thought to match the investigation requirements due to the experiential character of vacations, the multiple actors involved along the whole travel-related process, the main position of tourists in value creation, and the need of a marketing cut off from the traditional and commercial views in the tourism field.The study carries out an extensive and systematic literature review about value co-creation, SDL and similar concepts in place marketing, including urban, hospitality and destination environments. The literature review is then used, together with the SDL assumptions, to build an extended conceptual model of tourism experience co-creation, including antecedents and outcomes, represented by tourist and destination resources, and by functional, emotional, and social value dimensions, respectively. Value co-creation is defined as service exchange and resource integration represented by a set of tourist-driven processes, including interactional, behavioral, attitudinal, and mental processes before, during, and after the travel experience. Results show that tourist¿s specific travel-related knowledge and skills facilitate value co-creation processes, especially those connected with self-arrangement behaviors. At the same time, tourist co-creation processes are found to affect predominantly the emotional and social value dimensions, even more than destination resources. On the contrary, the latter positively affect the functional value of the experience. Among the co-creation processes, interactional and behavioral processes influence the tourism experience value perceived by the consumer. Concretely, interaction with local people is found to be one of the most influential. Mental co-creation processes deserve especial attention. Memorability is found to significantly and positively affect value, as well as representing a moderator role between other co-creative processes and value. This means that recalling the lived experience helps increasing the tourist¿s perceived value. On the contrary, attitudinal processes related to customer citizenship behaviors do not present any relevance. Therefore, the study contributes mostly in four aspects. First, an exhaustive literature review of place marketing co-creation allows acknowledging the efforts made previously on the field, in terms of identifying the different co-creation approaches, and registering the scarce variables used to precisely measure value co-creation (proxies are prevailing). Second, a verified measurement tool of value co-creation set up on a conceptually-based definition and composed of nine variables contributes to unfold the black box of `service exchange and resource integration¿. Third, the proposition and testing of various study hypotheses build on an `expertise¿co-creation processes¿value¿ chain helps identifying the most relevant tourist co-creation processes that increase perceived value, thus assisting destination and hospitality managers. Fourth, the two-phase data collection methodology used in the empirical part of the study provides a more rigorous research method that encourages alternative information gathering processes.