Customer engagement, a friend or a foe? Investigating the relationship between customer engagement and value co-destruction

Abstract

Customer engagement has become a central issue in academic and managerial communities because it enables the relationship between a firm and a customer to evolve to a personal level. Customer engagement refers to the intensity of customers’ participation in and connection with an organisation’s offerings or organizational activities, and it is manifested affectively, cognitively, socially, or behaviourally. Customer engagement can offer numerous benefits for firms and customers, and in line with this, previous research has investigated the positive outcomes of customer engagement and how customer engagement can result in value co-creation. However, the literature also indicates that this might not always be the case. Only a few studies have addressed the negative impacts of customer engagement, namely value co-destruction instead of co-creation. This was the initial assumption adopted by the author of this thesis, and in line with this assumption, this thesis explores how customer engagement can influence the manifestation of value co-destruction.

This thesis adopted the qualitative research approach, and the empirical data were obtained from 2 qualitative studies involving 31 interviews across 8 organisations, 15 reflective diaries from consumers, and 344 on-line hotel reviews. This thesis includes five publications, all of which investigate the antecedents and outcomes of customer engagement or the antecedents of value co-destruction. The results of this thesis suggest that customer engagement can influence the manifestation of value co-destruction through firm-, joint-, and customer-originated reasons: the firm’s failure to serve customers (firm-originated), insufficient level of communication and turmoil in the relationship (joint-originated), and excessive or unjustified expectations and disruptive behaviour (customer-originated reasons). These reasons can be attributed to negative behaviour or provision of negative resources. In addition, the thesis unveiled the antecedents of customer engagement, positive outcomes of engagement, and the antecedents of value co-destruction, all of which either complement the relevant literature or offer novel insights into customer engagement or value co-destruction.

This thesis contributes to the customer engagement literature by identifying the antecedents and positive and negative outcomes of customer engagement across different relationships: business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and business-togovernment (B2G). This multi-relationship approach is novel in the customer engagement literature, which is heavily focused on B2C relationships. This thesis contributes to the value co-destruction literature by suggesting four larger antecedent categories to validate and expand the current understanding. Additionally, this thesis explores the temporality of value co-destruction and suggests that value co-destruction can be initiated before, during, or after interaction. Finally, the thesis contributes to the marketing literature by proposing five reasons why customer engagement influences value co-destruction. The marketing literature, in general, has focused on the positive outcomes of such relationships, and this thesis highlights that engagement and collaboration can have concrete negative outcomes. The main contribution of this thesis lies in exploring the dark side of customer engagement and suggesting how it can influence the manifestation of value co-destruction.

In addition to the theoretical contributions, this thesis has managerial relevance. Longlasting and mutually beneficial customer relationships are crucial for firms, and this thesis offers insights into the different ways to achieve customer engagement as well as the benefits of customer engagement. Additionally, this thesis discusses how customer engagement can be negative and how, in general, collaboration between a firm and customers can result in negative outcomes instead of positive ones. Hence, this thesis offers insights for managers regarding the different actions and behaviours of firms or their customers that can have negative outcomes.