Annika Ravald

The value concept and relationship marketing

The value concept is a basic constituent of relationship marketing. The ability to provide superior value to customers is a prerequisite when trying to establish and maintain long‐term customer relationships. Stresses the fact that the underlying construct of customer satisfaction is more than a perception of the quality received. What must be taken into account as well is the customer’s need of quality improvements and his willingness to pay for it. From a relationship perspective these aspects are fundamental, since they are both related to the costs of the parties involved. Suggests that a reduction in customer‐perceived costs may be a most recommendable method of providing value to the customer, since, done properly, it can improve the internal cost efficiency as well. It is then possible to establish and maintain mutually profitable customer relationships, which is of prime concern in relationship marketing.

Service as business logic: implications for value creation and marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to analyze the scope, content and nature of value co‐creation in a service logic‐based view of value creation, addressing the customers perspective in a supplier‐customer relationship. The nature of the activities and the roles of the supplier and the customer in value creation and co‐creation are analyzed. Furthermore, the purpose is to discuss what implications for marketing can be derived from this analysis.Design/methodology/approach – The article analyzes the marketing implications that follow from the pivotal role of interactions in service provision. The article, thus, builds on a long history in service marketing research pointing at the impact on the content and scope of marketing of customer‐supplier interactions.Findings – In this article, it is concluded that creating customer value is a multilaned process consisting of two conceptually distinct subprocesses. These are the suppliers process of providing resources for customers use and the customers ...

The Customer's Process of Value Creation

The purpose of this paper is to analyse value creation from the customer’s perspective with an aim to learn how value emerges for the customer. The author provides empirical findings on customer value and value creation and adds to the present knowledge on value and value creation. The findings show that value for the customer emerges in a variety of activities related to use and ownership, but that use and ownership are not equivalent to value creation as value does not always emerge. Based on the findings from empirical and theoretical sources, the author concludes that value could be defined as a positive emotional response and it is proposed that market offerings and relations to service providers do not contribute to the customer’s process of value creation until a personal meaning has been ascribed to them by the customer.

Making sense of service dynamics: the honeybee metaphor

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the honeybee colony metaphor as a tool to make sense of the dynamics of service systems surrounding a service relationship. Design/methodology/appr ...