Connections, communities, and collaboration: service sustainability in the digital age

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Journal of Service Management

ISSN: 1757-5818

Article publication date: 14 June 2013

981

Citation

Aksoy, L., van Riel, A. and Kandampully, J. (2013), "Connections, communities, and collaboration: service sustainability in the digital age", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/josm.2013.08524caa.001

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Connections, communities, and collaboration: service sustainability in the digital age

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Service Management, Volume 24, Issue 3

A Thought Leadership Conference with the theme of “Connections, communities, and collaboration: service sustainability in the digital age” was hosted by Radboud University from June 27 to 29, 2012 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Distinguished scholars and practitioners from global Fortune 1000 companies each discussed significant issues firms face in sustaining service in today’s digital environment. To facilitate discussions, attendees were divided into six groups with each group discussing a distinct challenge. The result of each of these groups’ discussions was the creation of a research agenda, ultimately resulting in the creation of a scholarly article designed to guide needed scientific research on the topic. This special issue of the Journal of Service Management presents the articles resulting from these efforts.

This article provides an overview of the topics covered in the remaining six articles. We begin with a brief discussion of the importance of the digital age for service. We then discuss the six challenges pertaining to service sustainability in the digital age.

There is no doubt that the digital age has transformed our lives as individuals, as consumers, and as managers. There are an estimated one billion users of Facebook, 517 million users of Twitter, 400 million Google+and 75 million users of LinkedIn registered. Each day, users total more than 500 million “likes” on Facebook and 471 million tweets. 40 percent of these users also note that they socialize more on Facebook than face-to-face and 92 percent of users re-tweet content which they find interesting. In terms of mobile device usage, 91 percent of internet access is for the purpose of engaging in social activities (statistics summarized in Bennett, 2013). As a result, Facebook has become the number one social marketing tool for brands for 83 percent of firms and over 60 percent of marketing managers agree that social media in general has become an important part of their marketing campaigns.

This development has made it difficult for firms to control their brand message. In an effort to stay abreast of what is being said about their brands (in the hope of nipping potential problems in the bud), companies have begun aggressively monitoring what is said about their brands online.

Companies are also attempting to tap into the possibilities associated with large numbers of people in near constant contact through personal digital devices (e.g. smart phones, tablets, etc.) that have the potential for real time interactive communication and geo-location capabilities. For example, consumers can now be monitored via geo-location technology on their smart phones for having visited/shopped the locations of a store and its competitors in the category. As a result, firms are now establishing “geo-fences” (i.e. pre-defined, virtual spaces around a particular location) around their stores and competitor locations (Mattioli and Bustillo, 2012). The technology even makes it possible to identify aisle-specific locations within stores which can allow for just-in-time couponing and messaging.

Companies are also crowdsourcing innovation whether it is for design, brand-naming or even problem solving. Related to this effort, companies are establishing online brand communities (Adjei et al., 2012) to enhance brand relationships and source new ideas from their most ardent customers.

This leads to the six critical issues discussed that will impact service sustainability in the digital age:

  1. 1.

    online communities;

  2. 2.

    Gen Y’s use of social media;

  3. 3.

    “value fusion” across digital channels;

  4. 4.

    customer-driven influence in the digital age;

  5. 5.

    innovation; and

  6. 6.

    new metrics for marketing accountability.

Below is a brief introduction to each of these research streams.

Wirtz et al. (2013) discuss the importance of online communities to brand building and other outcomes. Online brand communities have become important strategic business assets for firms. Consumers benefit through their ability to influence a firm’s offer and through greater access to knowledge. Managers get the benefit of new ideas and greater consumer loyalty.

Bolton et al. (2013) review what we know – and do not know – about Generation Y’s use of social media and to assess the implications for individuals, firms and society. The paper describes a conceptual framework for understanding Generation Y’s social media use, its antecedents and consequences. Generation Y (also referred to as the Millennial Generation or Millennials, Generation Next, Net Generation, and Echo Boomers) represent a significant proportion of the population as well as the economy. Having grown up in the digital age these consumers are much more technology savvy than their predecessors, have extensive experience with socializing and purchasing online, engage in gaming, and use a variety of new media channels. As a result, this group has cognitive, behavioral and attitudinal characteristics that are unique to this generation.

Larivière et al. (2013) introduce the concept of “value fusion” to describe how value can emerge from the use of mobile, networked technology by consumers, firms, and entities such as non-consumers, a firm’s competitors, and others simultaneously. The number of interactive channels available to consumers has grown rapidly over the last decade. These new media channels and the way consumers use these channels present opportunities for different business models that provide enhanced value to consumers.

Blazevic et al. (2013) examine the importance of interactions between consumers as an important part of a business’s strategy though customers’ word of mouth “advertising”. Motivated in part by the ability of consumers to connect with one another in a variety of ways in near real time through social media, managers and researchers would like to be able to leverage these interactions as part of a larger customer relationship strategy. This paper aims to conceptualize an expanded model of customer-driven influence (CDI) that presents an overview of the influence process and its determinants.

Van Riel et al. (2013) investigate the role that connectedness can play in innovation. Innovation crosses multiple domains, including new product introductions, process improvement, idea development, technology, and service. They introduce the idea of service constellations, a combination of multiple, interdependent services – often produced by multiple specialized service providers – offering consumers complementary value and synergetic benefits. They argue that consumers increasingly experience and value services as elements of larger constellations of mutually facilitating, complementary, and supporting services.

Kumar et al. (2013) provide insights into the benefits of data-driven services marketing and provide a conceptual framework for how to link traditional, digital and neurophysiological sources of customer data and their metrics. Marketing accountability and establishment of ROI has long been a concern for firms. The changing business landscape, combined with the emergence of new technologies, has generated new sources of data that are relevant for marketing decision-making. This has resulted in a need to create dashboards with new metrics that managers can monitor, and which provide quick insight into current and future firm performance.

In conclusion, each of the six papers in this special issue provides a unique synthesis of thought leadership and the current best thinking within the scientific literature. Since the true potential of services marketing in a connected world is still largely unexplored, this special issue proposes important avenues for future research.

Lerzan Aksoy, Allard van Riel, Jay KandampullyGuest Editors

References

Adjei, M.T., Noble, C.H. and Noble, S.M. (2012), “Enhancing relationships with customers through online brand communities”, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 53 No. 4, pp. 22–24

Bennett, S. (2013), “100 amazing social media statistics facts and figures”, available at: www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/100-social-media-stats_b33696 (accessed 5 March 2013)

Blazevic, V., Hammedi, W., Garnefeld, I., Rust, R.T., Keiningham, T., Andreassen, T.W., Donthu, N. and Carl, W. (2013), “Beyond traditional word-of-mouth: an expanded model of customer-driven influence”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 294–313

Bolton, R.N., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, N., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T., Komarova Loureiro, Y. and Solnet, D. (2013), “Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 245–267

Kumar, V., Chattaraman, V., Neghina, C., Skiera, B., Aksoy, L., Buoye, A. and Henseler, J. (2013), “Data-driven services marketing in a connected world”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 330–352

Larivière, B., Joosten, H., Malthouse, E.C., Van Birgelen, M., Aksoy, P., Kunz, W. and Huang, M.-H. (2013), “Value fusion: the blending of consumer and firm value in the distinct context of mobile technologies and social media”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 268–293

Mattioli, D. and Bustillo, M. (2012), “Can texting save stores? ‘Geofencing’ lets retailers offer deals to nearby customers, fight price-shopping”, Wall Street Journal, May 8

Van Riel, A.C.R., Calabretta, G., Driessen, P.H., Hillebrand, B., Humphreys, A., Krafft, M. and Beckers, S.F.M. (2013), “Consumer perceptions of service constellations: implications for service innovation”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 314–329

Wirtz, J., Ambtman, A., Bloemer, J., Horvath, C., Ramaseshan, B., Van De Klundert, J., Gurhan Canli, Z. and Kandampully, J. (2013), “Managing brands and customer engagement in online brand communities”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 223–244

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