Customer Engagement Behavior in the Context of Continuous Service Relationships Haurum, Helle Document Version Final published version Publication date: 2018 License CC BY-NC-ND Citation for published version (APA): Haurum, H. (2018). Customer Engagement Behavior in the Context of Continuous Service Relationships. Copenhagen Business School [Phd]. PhD series No. 02.2018 Link to publication in CBS Research Portal General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us ([email protected]) providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT BEHAVIOR SOLBJERG PLADS 3 DK-2000 FREDERIKSBERG DANMARK WWW.CBS.DK ISSN 0906-6934 Print ISBN: 978-87-93579-58-3 Online ISBN: 978-87-93579-59-0 Helle Haurum CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT BEHAVIOR IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS The PhD School in Economics and Management PhD Series 02.2018 PhD Series 02-2018 Customer Engagement Behavior in the context of Continuous Service Relationships Helle Haurum Supervisors: Associate Professor Mogens Bjerre Professor Suzanne C. Beckmann Associate Professor Sylvia von Wallpach PhD School in Economics and Management Copenhagen Business School 1 Helle Haurum Customer Engagement Behavior in the context of Continuous Service Relationships 1st edition 2018 PhD Series 02.2018 © Helle Haurum ISSN 0906-6934 Print ISBN: 978-87-93579-58-3 Online ISBN: 978-87-93579-59-0 “The PhD School in Economics and Management is an active national and international research environment at CBS for research degree students who deal with economics and management at business, industry and country level in a theoretical and empirical manner”. All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ABSTRACT: This thesis discusses customers’ engagement behaviors (CEB) in the context of continuous service relationships (telecommunication provider and financial services’ provider). CEB manifestations are agreed in literature and in business to be a potential source of value for the firm and valuable contributions have been made, mainly focusing at antecedents for CEB, the various CEB behaviors and consequences of CEB. Extant literature adopts mainly a firm-centric perspective and tends to be conceptual. This research adopts a customer-centric perspective. The methodology is qualitative and is performed via semi-structured in-depth interviews with individuals resulting in 40 touch- point histories about their service relationships with their telecommunication provider and financial services provider. Furthermore, are qualitative data collected at the telecommunication firm, in terms of interviews with employees and participant observations at touch-points. CEB are definitely found to be potential sources for value-creation for the firm. CEB can however at times destroy value or cause lost CEB value (when CEB initiatives by the firm are not returned). From the perspective of customers are CEB manifestations part of their everyday Life. Customers manifest CEB to obtain a certain goal, sometimes targeted the firm, and sometimes targeted a group external to the firm. Customers manifest CEB by adopting a certain interaction style to facilitate goal achievement, and the way customers manifest CEB are sometimes inconsistent and follows not necessarily pre-figured sequences. Customers’ CEB manifestations co-exist with the experiences customers have in their service relationships. CEB is sometimes manifested by customers to re-experience, reinforce or challenge what the customer is currently / has been experiencing. CEB is as well sometimes embedded in the service relationship to a degree, where customers’ experiences and CEB become deeply intertwined or even become one and same construct, and sometimes is a CEB manifestation a consequence of a certain customer experience. CEB has changed the service relationship, and some of the recognized cornerstones in what constitutes a service relationship are challenged. This thesis suggests that CEB manifestations turn the service relationship into a plethora of (service) events of sometimes conflicting valence, which might disrupt the value creation process intended by the firm. This might be the reality of ‘the new service relationship’. These obvious managerial challenges are best solved by the firm, when the firm adopts a customer-centric approach and understands which situation(s) their customers are most frequently in (revolving around the firm). The firm should investigate which touch-points are relevant contingent the customer situation and finally how the touch-points could be best possible organized to stimulate for favorable CEB. This novel managerial concept is labeled ‘customer arenas’. 3 RESUME: Denne afhandling beskriver kundernes engagement adfærd (KEA) i forbindelse med kontinuerte service relationships (indenfor telekommunikation og finansielle tjenester). KEA er i den akademiske litteratur og i erhvervslivet anset som en potentiel værdikilde for virksomheden, og forskning har bidraget til at forstå KEA, hovedsageligt med fokus på ’hvad leder til KEA’ ’forskellige typer af KEA’ og ’konsekvenserne af KEA’. Den eksisterende litteratur anlægger hovedsageligt et indefra-og ud perspektiv og er fortinsvis konceptuelt orienteret. Afhandlingen anlægger et kunde-centreret perspektiv. Metoden er kvalitativ og udføres via semi-strukturerede dybdegående interviews med kunder (forbrugere) og resulterer i 40 touch-point historier om disses service relationships med henholdsvis deres telekommunikation udbyder og udbyder af finansielle tjenesteydelser. Derudover er kvalitative data indsamlet i telekommunikations-virksomheden i form af interviews med medarbejdere og observationer i forskellige touch-points. KEA identificeres i denne afhandling som en potentiel kilde for værdiskabelse i virksomheden. KEA kan dog undertiden ødelægge værdi eller forårsage ’tabt KEA værdi’ (når virksomhedens initiativer for at stimulere KEA ikke returneres). Kunder manifesterer KEA som en del af hverdagen. Kunder manifesterer KEA for at opnå et bestemt mål, undertiden i relation til virksomheden, og undertiden i relation til en gruppe udenfor virksomheden. Kunder anvender en bestemt ’interaction’ stil, når de manifesterer KEA, for at nå målet med KEA. Når kunder manifester KEA foregår det ikke nødvendigvis på konsistent vis eller i bestemte sekvenser, men snarere på en dynamisk og til tider kompleks vis. Kunders KEA manifestationer sameksisterer med de ’customer experiences’, som kunder har i deres service relationer. KEA manifesteres under tiden af kunder for at genopleve, styrke eller udfordre hvad kunden i øjeblikket oplever eller har oplevet. KEA er undertiden indlejret i service relationen en grad, hvor kundernes ’experiences’ og KEA blive dybt sammenflettet eller endda blive et og samme begreb; og endelig kan kundens KEA manifestation være en direkte konsekvens af en bestemt kundeoplevelse. KEA har ændret service-relationships på en måde, der udfordrer nogle af de gængse opfattelser af, hvad der udgør hjørnestenene i et service relationship. Denne afhandling foreslår, at KEA manifestationer medfører, at der snarere er tale om et væld af (service) begivenheder af undertiden modstridende værdi. Dette betyder, at værdiskabelses-processen – initieret af virksomheden – bliver disruptet. Dette kunne være virkeligheden for 'Det nye service relationhip'. Disse indlysende ledelsesmæssige udfordringer løses bedst af virksomheden, når den tager en kunde-centreret tilgang til opgaven, og søger at forstå hvilke situationer kunderne oftest er i (i forhold til virksomheden). Virksomheden kan med fordel undersøge, hvilke touch-punkter der er relevante i kunde- situationen, og hvordan touch-points bør være organiseret for at stimulere værdiskabende KEA. Denne nye tilgang præsenteres i denne afhandling som ‘customer arenas’. 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Associate Professor Mogens Bjerre, Professor Suzanne C. Beckmann and Associate Professor Sylvia von Wallpach for their valuable guidance, support and encouragement. I could never have done this without you. I would also like to thank my mentor at Copenhagen Business School, Professor Emerita Mette Mønsted for very constructive talks and discussions. Thank you ! Finally, I thank Copenhagen Business School for granting the PhD programme. 5 6 This thesis contains no material, which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma. To the best of my knowledge this thesis contains no material publish or written by any other person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. _________________ Helle Haurum October 2017 7 A guide for the reader This PhD thesis is a ‘paper-based’ PhD thesis at Copenhagen Business School. This type of PhD thesis is oftentimes referred to as a ‘compilation thesis’. The core of the thesis consists of three papers, which each investigates a hitherto