To help shape a more cohesive research program in marketing and consumer research, this paper presents a systematic effort to integrate current research on consumer empowerment with highly influential theories of power. We develop a conceptual overview of power consisting of three dominant theoretical models onto which we map existing consumer empowerment research. A synthetic review focuses on three perspectives of consumer power: consumer sovereignty, cultural power and discursive power, drawing from sociological, philosophical and economic literature. These models are then applied to consumer research to illuminate research applications and insights. Research of consumer empowerment has grown significantly over the last decade. Yet, researchers drawing from a variety of intellectual and methodological traditions have generated a multitude of heuristic simplifications and mid-level theories of power to inform their empirical and conceptual explorations. This reviews helps clarify consumer empowerment, and offers a useful map for future research. Researchers in consumer empowerment need to understand the historical development of power, and to contextualize research within conflicting perspectives on empowerment. The paper makes several contributions: 1) organizes a currently cluttered field of consumer empowerment research, 2) connects consumer and marketing research to high-level theorizations of power, and 3) outlines specific avenues for future research.

Mapping Consumer Power: An Integrative Framework for Marketing and Consumer Research

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to empirically examine the influence of consumer involvement on perceived relational benefits across service types.Design/methodology/approach – Based on Bowen's service typology, responses from patrons of fast‐food restaurants and hairdressers/stylists were used to assess the influence of consumer involvement on relationship marketing, specifically perceived service benefits and response behaviors.Findings – Results indicate that highly involved consumers perceive greater relational benefits when engaged in a high contact, customized service (i.e. hairdressers/stylists) versus a more standardized, moderate contact service (i.e. fast‐food restaurant).Research limitations/implications – Care should be taken when generalizing these findings to other service settings as this study only addressed two service types. Thus, an opportunity for future research could add moderate contact, non‐personalized services to determine if there are significant differences between the...

Relationship marketing: the influence of consumer involvement on perceived service benefits

Purpose – To help shape a more cohesive research program in marketing and consumer research, this paper presents a systematic effort to integrate current research on consumer empowerment with highly influential theories of power. A conceptual overview of power consisting of three dominant theoretical models is developed onto which is mapped existing consumer empowerment research.Design/methodology/approach – A synthetic review focuses on three perspectives of consumer power: consumer sovereignty, cultural power and discursive power, drawing from sociological, philosophical and economic literature. These models are then applied to consumer research to illuminate research applications and insights.Findings – Research of consumer empowerment has grown significantly over the last decade. Yet, researchers drawing from a variety of intellectual and methodological traditions have generated a multitude of heuristic simplifications and mid‐level theories of power to inform their empirical and conceptual exploratio...

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Mapping consumer power: an integrative framework for marketing and consumer research

Extant service research considers several aspects of customer participation (CP) but lacks a clear and inclusive typology that delineates CP’s domain, scope, or boundaries. To address this gap, the authors build on a review of extant literature and propose a typology to classify CP into three categories—mandatory, replaceable, and voluntary. They demonstrate how this proposed typology improves the conceptual and empirical clarity of CP research. More specifically, the authors (1) suggest using “customer participation” to replace other terminologies such as coproduction and cocreation to reduce confusion; (2) conceptualize CP, customer engagement, and customer innovation as related but distinct concepts; (3) use the proposed typology to extend existing conceptualizations, integrate prior empirical research, and reconcile conflicting findings. Building on the enhanced conceptual clarity, managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.

Customer participation in services: domain, scope, and boundaries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the contribution of qualitative methods and techniques in extending the understanding of relationship marketing theory.Design/methodology/approach – The study investigated six Australian sporting organisations using multiple data collection methods including semi‐structured interviews with several senior executives within each organisation, secondary and historical data sources and participant observation. The application of triangulation and multiple case studies is discussed in relation to their contribution toward a greater understanding of relationship marketing practice in the professional sport industry, as well as the barriers to the adoption of this strategy.Findings – Using triangulation and a multiple case study approach provided a richness of information which, upon analysis within and across cases, revealed a number of commonalities and some limited diversity. Using this approach maximised the depth of information and increased the transfer...

Using triangulation and multiple case studies to advance relationship marketing theory

The authors examine the impact of consumer involvement on consumers'willingness to engage in relationships with service providers, because healthy relationships between consumers and service providers depend on the voluntary participation of consumers in relationships. They also examine the effect that involvement has on consumers' expectations of relational efforts by the service provider. On the basis of survey results from the telecom and health sector, the authors' results indicate that more involved consumers express greater interest in engaging in relationships with service providers. Also, although high-involvement customers do not differ from their low-involvement counterparts in terms of their expectations that their service providers communicate with them regularly and be price-competitive, they express a greater desire for fairness in treatment and being involved in solutions to their problems. These results indicate that the opportunity exists to engage high-involvement customers in long-term ...

Shirley Wong

Papers

Consumer Involvement in Relationship Marketing of Services