Enacting organisational and consumer value capture: A social co-creation perspective

Abstract

The capability of the organisation in capturing customer value of experience (VoE) has led to continuous social interaction and spawned innovative ways to collaborate and co-create with the customers. This notion of reciprocal engagement is referred to as social co-creation. The co-creation paradigm represents value and is referred to as a function of experience other than the product itself. However, there is a critically needs for the organisation to formulate a ‘value capture strategy’ through the lens of social co-creation. It is evident that the fundamental question of the causal relationship between social media and co-creation has not been fully explained. The research developed a value capture framework in order to have a clear need to understand the various perceptions of four important conditions, social co-creation, customer engagement, engagement platform and organisation capability on value capture. The theoretical aspect of ‘Absorptive Capacity Theory (ACT)’ is used to demonstrate the organisational capability in order to recognise, identify, assimilate and implement the VoE in the organisation as part of competitive advantage along with existing of social technologies. In this respect, an original conceptual framework was formulated based on evidence within the current literature where a series of constructs are reported to guide the empirical fieldwork in identifying a ‘value capture strategy’. The research adopted a qualitative methodology for the data collection approach which consequently enabled an exploratory and interpretive investigation. This included three pilot studies, twentyeight semi-structured interviews and one validation phase with experienced senior managers involved in co-creation within the technology and services industry who were regarded as valid respondents. The findings addressed external and internal conditions of value capture framework for VoE as a result of the analysis. The external condition focuses on organisation capability in recognising a customer active participation with the engagement platform. The internal condition enables an organisational strategy to assimilate and implement the VoE through co-creation initiatives in capturing the VoE. The research considers the organisation role as an actioner purposes on using a social co-creation for direct communication as part of the organisations practice. 9 The study not only contributes to the knowledge of social co-creation generally, but also extending the needs for the organisation on considering the internal condition for the organisation to identifies the VoE from customer participation. With that regards, the social co-creation engagement works as the interface before extending on cocreation stages which more direct, in-depth conversations with customers internally. The evidence is presented which confirms that a value capture strategy in cocreation is important for organisations stability and enhanced service delivery. By formulating a value capture framework, it creates a much deeper understanding of how each element were related and correlated to reach potential end result for the organisation. The implications of the study are that organisations should carefully consider the role of social media on engaging with the customers and propose to develop an online engagement network with their customers in order to have more direct and effective communication tools. This would allow them to have the right strategy on selecting the right customer to engage, for the right purposes at the right time is far more important from creating a massive communication.