Richard Nicholls

New directions for customer‐to‐customer interaction research

In recent years service researchers have increasingly given attention to the multitude of relationships that may occur in the production, delivery and consumption of services. An important driver of this tendency has been the rise of the relationship marketing paradigm. This paradigm has equipped marketing management with a theoretical foundation for going beyond the customer-supplier dyad and incorporating other relationships. The customer-to-customer relationship is one such relationship. Although it can occur in a number of different contexts, this paper concentrates on direct interactions between customers taking place in physical service settings, that is, customer-to-customer interaction (CCI). The paper seeks to answer two questions: 1 What have been the main accomplishments of CCI research? 2 What directions might be fruitful for advancing our understanding of CCI and its management?

Customer‐to‐customer interaction (CCI): a cross‐cultural perspective

Interactions between service customers are increasingly the focus of service management research. The customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) literature has, however, focused overwhelmingly on same-culture interactions. CCI has seldom been researched in a cross-cultural context. This is a serious deficiency given the increasingly cross-cultural nature of consumption in services such as the hospitality industry. As interactions between customers from different cultures are a potentially significant influence on customer satisfaction, it is important that hospitality industry managers are aware both of the forms these interactions may take and of the possibilities for managing them. This paper: draws attention to the increasing incidence of cross-cultural CCI (CC-CCI); outlines some CCI-related managerial challenges; identifies some pertinent research directions; and proposes methods for conducting such research.

Other customer age: exploring customer age-difference related CCI

Purpose – This study aims to explore the relevance of customer age-differences (CAD) in the context of customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) within various service domains. It provides a thematic framework for understanding customer age-difference related CCI and critically identifies new directions for research into CAD-related CCI. Design/methodology/approach – Using a narrative literature review approach, different perspectives in the literature on age-differences and CCI are analysed towards highlighting and emphasising valuable new themes. Findings – Three coherent domains: the desire for social contact; fellow customer behaviour; and social identity issues are identified to interconnect a fragmented diversity of literature. Many themes for future research directions in the study of CAD-related CCI are identified. Research limitations – Whilst a wide selection of literature sources is critically reviewed the fragmented nature of the literature on age-differences and CCI prevents the review covering all publications. Practical implications – The paper provides service marketing managers and scholars with strategic CCI insights into better serving a diverse age-range of customers. These insights will undoubtedly stimulate timely investigation of new avenues to enhance service customer compatibility and satisfaction in increasingly age-diverse societies. Originality/value – This paper provides the first overview of a wide range of strategic considerations aimed at explaining the impact of customer age-differences on CCI in service environments. Essentially, the paper elaborates opportunities and challenges in CAD-related CCI as critical themes for further investigations.