Please note this the authors’ pre-publication draft copy of the article published in the
International Journal of Tourism Research (2014). The original publication is available
at DOI: 10.1002/jtr.1993
Conceptualising Customer-to-customer Value Co-creation in Tourism
Ivana Rihova
1
, Dimitrios Buhalis
2
, Miguel Moital
3
and Mary-Beth Gouthro
3
1
School of Marketing, Tourism and Languages, The Business School, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
2
International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
3
School of Tourism, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
Correspondence to:
Dr Ivana Rihova, School of Marketing, Tourism and Languages, The Business Schoo, Edinburgh Napier University, Craiglockhart
Campus, Edinburgh, EH14 1DJ, UK
Email: i.rihova@napier.ac.uk
Abstract
The notion that tourists actively co-create value with organisations is increasingly
acknowledged in tourism marketing. Yet, not much is known about the processes in
play when customers co-create value with each other. This conceptual paper offers a
theoretical basis for the study of customer-to-customer co-creation in tourism contexts,
while debating the epistemological assumptions of value-related research in tourism.
Proposed conceptual framework posits that value is socially constructed and embedded
in tourists’ social practices.
Keywords: Tourism experience; co-creation; value; customer-to-customer; social
practices
When citing this publication, please use the following reference:
Rihova, I., Buhalis, D., Moital, M., Gouthro, M-B. (2014) Conceptualising customer-to-
customer co-creation in socially dense tourism contexts. International Journal of
Tourism Research. DOI: 10.1002/jtr.1993
1
Conceptualising Customer-to-customer Value Co-creation in Tourism
Introduction
Tourism consumption often takes place in social contexts, in which interactions and
shared experiences with other tourists form a crucial part of the service experience.,
Tourists participating in guided tours, cruise holidays or events and festivals come
together to spend time with significant others and to meet other tourists (Brown et al.,
2002; Huang and Hsu, 2010; Packer and Ballantyne, 2011; Prebensen and Foss, 2011).
In the course of their social experiences tourists bond, cement social relationships and
enhance their social skills (e.g., Arnould and Price, 1993; Wilks, 2011), thus co-creating
‘value’. Nonetheless, not much is known about what this value is and how it is co-
created. A growing number of tourism marketing studies explore the concept of value
co-creation (e.g., Binkhorst and Den Dekker, 2009; Cabiddu et al., 2013; Griessmann
and Stokburger-Sauer, 2012; Sfandla and Björk, 2013). These studies are, however,
largely limited to co-creation of value between the tourism organisation and the tourist.
More in-depth insights are needed that would acknowledge the ability of tourists to co-
create value with each other, as opposed to with the organisation.
Looking more closely at the notion of value, tourism marketing literature is
dominated by the outcome oriented ‘features-and-benefits’ value perspective. This
approach focuses on how the tourism provider can design and deliver value or valuable
experience through service attributes, so that it is perceived by tourists as benefits. This
does not, however, sufficiently acknowledge the active role of tourists as value co-
creators. Recently, a move toward the ‘value-in-’ perspective is evidenced in tourism
marketing research, building on the concept of the Service-Dominant logic (S-D logic)
in marketing (Vargo and Lusch, 2004; 2008). A number of scholars present S-D logic as
a new paradigm that offers interesting opportunities for tourism marketing research, and
the study of value co-creation in particular (Li and Petrick, 2008; Sfandla and Björk,
2013; Shaw et al., 2011).
This conceptual paper aims to contribute theoretically in tourism marketing
research and specifically to the study of value and co-creation in three ways. Firstly, the
paper argues that the principles of S-D logic do not go far enough in acknowledging the
complexities inherent in the social, C2C interaction-rich context of tourism
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consumption. The recently emerged Customer-Dominant [C-D] logic (Heinonen et al.,
2010) in marketing is put forward as an alternative orientation. Secondly, this paper
engages in a debate of the paradigmatic and epistemological foundations of the
experience- vs. practice-based value co-creation perspectives in C-D logic. It does so to
build a robust theoretical basis for C2C co-creation research in tourism.
Finally, a conceptual framework is posited that conceptualises C2C co-creation in
tourism. This is done by presenting value as a complex, multi-layered construct that
takes into account the social structures inherent in many tourism consumption contexts,
as well as the attributes of practicing subjects (i.e. the various social units involved in
C2C value co-creation). The framework offers a novel methodological and
epistemological basis for future C2C co-creation studies in a variety of social
experience tourism contexts. As such, it represents a theoretical contribution within
value and co-creation research in tourism marketing.
Value perspectives in tourism research
The notion of ‘value’ is central in the context of this conceptual paper. However, within
marketing and consumer research the term is rather ambiguous (Woodall, 2003). Before
proceeding to discuss C2C co-creation in tourism, two perspectives on value are
critically reviewed that appear in consumer and marketing research, and tourism
marketing literature specifically: The ‘features-and-benefits’ approach, as an outcome-
oriented value ontology grounded within a positivist paradigm (Tronvoll et al., 2011);
and, the ‘value-in-’ perspective that primarily draws on the principles of the S-D logic
and corresponds with a more reflexive, interpretive paradigm that can increasingly be
found in tourism experience research (Ryan, 2002; Uriely, 2005).
Delivering value for customers: the ‘features-and-benefits’ approach
In consumer research ‘value’ is mostly viewed as customers’ personal evaluation of the
trade-offs between the benefits they receive and the sacrifices they make (Zeithaml et
al., 1988). More recently, ‘customer-perceived value’ (Kotler et al., 2009) or ‘value for
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the customer’ (Woodall, 2003) is conceptualised as judgment perception of the potential
economic, functional and psychological benefits customers attribute to, or expect to
receive from, the marketer’s offering (Kotler et al., 2009; Woodall, 2003). Approaching
value from a rationalist, cognitivist perspective, researchers are concerned with how
customers (sub)consciously evaluate, assess, reason about, judge, and balance against
the value of something, allowing for calculated predictions to be made as to customers’
purchase and consumption choices. In contrast to the cognitivist approach, the
‘experience economy’ (Pine and Gilmore, 1999) moves toward the more symbolic,
emotional aspects of consumption. The focus is on experiences as a vehicle for
delivering positive customer value.
Both the cognitivist and the experience economy approach are predominantly
oriented at value as service attributes or experiential features that realise some positive
outcomes or benefits for customers. For instance, researchers aim to pinpoint specific
types of value (value outcomes) that tourists expect to derive from their experiences
(e.g., Turnbull, 2009). In a similar way, tourists’ needs and motivations are studied as
an indicator of value sought (e.g., Pegg and Patterson, 2010), with findings used to aid
tourism marketers’ decisions regarding effective design and delivery of ‘memorable’
service experiences (Oh et al., 2007; Walls, 2013). Alternatively, tourists’ ‘quality
experiences’ are scrutinised as an important mediator between service performance
factors, tourists’ overall service/ experience satisfaction, and their future behaviour
intentions (Cole and Chancellor, 2009). Outcome-oriented measures, such as the
expectancy disconfirmation approach, are adopted in service evaluation studies, with
authors measuring tourists’ perceptions of service quality as indicators of value (Baker
and Crompton, 2000; Thrane, 2002).
Ontologically, the features-and-benefits value perspective distinguishes clearly
between the subject (the tourist) and the object of consumption (the tourism service
experience), with researchers focusing predominantly on how the subject perceives and
evaluates the object (i.e. service or some experience attributes). While such approach
can lead directly to operationalisable solutions for tourism organisations, it assumes that
the organisation acts as a ‘producer’ or ‘enabler’ of tourists’ value outcomes. It
promotes value creation for the tourist, who somewhat passively and uncritically
accepts the organisation’s offering at its ‘face value’. Yet, as some authors (Goulding
4
and Shankar, 2011; Kim and Jamal, 2007) point out, tourists often look for more
authentic ways in which to construct and manifest their experiences. For Selby (2004, p.
191), tourists are “dynamic social actors, interpreting and embodying experiences,
whilst also creating meaning and new realities through their actions”. Aiming to
objectively determine and design value or valuable experiences so that through various
attributes they realise benefits to tourists could represent a somewhat prescriptive,
reductionist paradigm for value research. Tourism marketers benefit from more holistic
value perspectives that recognise the active role of tourists as co-creators of value and
experiences.
Co-creating value with customers: the ‘value-in-’ perspective
The above critique of the features-and-benefits perspective builds on conceptualisation
of value and re-definition of the relationship between the provider and customers as
proposed within the S-D logic in marketing. Introduced by Vargo and Lusch in 2004,
the S-D logic focuses on customers’ active role in co-creating value and valuable
experiences with the service organisation. Vargo and Lusch (2004) argue that by
viewing value as attributes that are embedded in a service and can be ‘exchanged’ to
realise benefits for the customer marketers subscribe to a static, outcome-oriented
‘goods-dominant’ logic. Instead, in the increasingly dynamic, process-oriented context
of service experiences, marketer’s role is limited to offering ‘value propositions’ to
customers (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Co-creation is then viewed as a joint value-
realising process that occurs as the organisation and its customers interact (Payne et al.,
2008). ‘Value-in-use’ (Vargo and Lusch, 2004) or ‘-in-context’ (Vargo and Lusch,
2008) is considered as a dynamic, situational, meaning-laden, and phenomenological
construct that emerges when customers use, experience, or customise marketers’ value
propositions in their own experience contexts.
According to Vargo and Lusch (2004), all social and economic actors are resource
integrators. Customers are therefore capable of co-creating value by integrating their
various ‘operand’ (tangible resources that can be allocated or acted upon; e.g. the
physical aspects of a tourism destination) and ‘operant’ resources (those that act on
other resources and over which the actors has ‘authoritative’ capability; e.g. skills and
