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Citation for the original published paper (version of record):
Echeverri, P., Skålén, P. (2011)
Co-creation and co-destruction:: A practice-theory based study of interactive value formation.
Marketing Theory, 11(3): 351-373
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470593111408181
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Co-creation and co-destruction
A practice-theory based study of interactive value formation
Per Echeverri
and
Per Skålén
Service Research Center
Karlstad University
Phone: +46 54 700 1000
Fax: +46 54 836552
per.echeverri@kau.se
per.skalen@kau.se
ABSTRACT
Drawing on an empirical study of public transport, this paper studies interactive value formation
at the provider-customer interface, from a practice-theory perspective. In contrast to the bulk of
previous research, it argues that interactive value formation is not only associated with value co-
creation but also with value co-destruction. In addition, the paper also identifies five interaction
value practices – informing, greeting, delivering, charging, and helping—and theorizes how
interactive value formation takes place as well as how value is inter-subjectively assessed by
actors at the provider-customer interface. Furthermore, the paper also distinguishes between four
types of interactive value formation praxis corresponding with four subject positions which
practitioners step into when engaging in interactive value formation.
Keywords: Practice theory, Marketing, Value, Co-creation, Co-destruction, Interactive value
formation, Praxis, Subject positions.
1
INTRODUCTION
Understanding how value is formed has been a key research endeavour in marketing. Previous
research distinguishes between two major types of value formation. The first is non-interactive
value formation which holds that value is produced by providers and consumed by customers—
value is conceptualized as exchanged (Alderson, 1957; Bagozzi, 1975; Hunt, 1976). The second
is interactive value formation which stipulates that value is co-created during the interaction
between the provider and the customer (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004; Ramírez, 1999; Vargo
and Lusch, 2004)
1
.
In this paper, our aim is to outline a framework that explains how interactive value formation
takes place in practice. We argue that such a framework is lacking. Key reasons for this can be
found in two research limitations in previous research. The first concerns the lack of knowledge
of how interactive value formation actually takes place in practice. A major part of previous
research is conceptual and abstract. Empirical research has not been geared towards studying the
micro practice of interactive value formation. This makes previous research poor in terms of
theoretically explaining and practically guiding interactive value formation. The second
limitation concerns the abundance of positive, as well as the relative lack of negative, accounts of
interactive value formation in the literature (Bonsu and Darmody, 2008; Cova and Dalli, 2009,
Zwick et al., 2008). We argue that this resonates poorly with experiences that we have all had as
consumers, and with frontline employees’ experiences when serving their customers. Interactive
value formation is clearly not only linked to positive outcomes and connotations. Accordingly,
both the upside and the downside need to be explained and accounted for using an interactive
value formation framework.
2
In order to overcome these two limitations, we draw on a detailed empirical study of interactions
between the frontline employees of a Swedish public transport organization and their customers.
Theoretically, the study is based on practice theory, which helps us to illuminate and analyze the
micro practice of interactive value formation. In particular, we draw on practice theory as
elaborated on in previous marketing research, which has begun to address the above-noted
limitations (Schau et al., 2009; Skålén, 2009; 2010; Warde, 2005).
The empirical study and our theoretical orientation enable the outlining of a framework that
explains interactive value formation in practice. More specifically, the paper employs the notion
of value co-destruction (cf. Plé and Chumpitaz Cáceres, 2010)
2
, capturing the downside of
interactive value formation. In addition, the paper also identifies five interaction value
practices—informing, greeting, delivering charging, and helping. It suggests that value co-
creation and co-destruction are two key dimensions of these interaction value practices. It also
argues that these five practices are made up of specific elements of practices. Drawing on Schau
et al. (2009), these elements are discussed in terms of procedures, understandings, and
engagements that make it possible to theorize how interactive value formation takes place and
how value is inter-subjectively assessed by agents. More specifically, the paper suggests that
interactive value formation derives from providers and customers drawing on congruent (in the
case of value co-creation) and incongruent (in the case of value co-destruction) elements of
practices. It argues, furthermore, that the relationship between interaction value practices,
elements of practices, and dimensions of interaction value practices is associated with four types
of praxis—characteristic patterns of interaction between providers and customers: reinforcing
