Abstracts Category : Other

Therelationship between value co-creation and customer perceivedvalue

by Pierre Coetzee

This research considered the relationship betweenCustomer Perceived Value, ultimately a measurement of a firm'sValue Proposition, and Value Co-creation, a recent development inService Science that considers the joint creation of value betweencustomers and firms rather than the traditional exchange valuelogic of marketing. The Value Proposition was broken down intoelements of functional value (Price and Quality), Emotional Valueand Social Value; while Value Co-creation was understood across thetwo dimensions of Value-in-use and Co-production. A descriptiveresearch design using a quantitative methodology was employed,collecting data from 297 respondents who form part of an onlineopt-in research panel through the use of an online survey.Perceptions of value and Value Co-creation were collected throughthe use of two existing measurement instruments proposed in theacademic literature, asking respondents about the serviceinteraction they can best recall with a major South Africa clothingretailer in the past three months. Four research hypotheses weretested through the use of regression analysis, and statisticallysignificant relationships were found between Perceived Value andValue Co-creation as well as Perceived Value and the dimensions ofCo-creation, namely Value-in-use and Co-production. Moreover,Value-in-use was found to have a statistically significant greatereffect on Perceived Value than Co-production. The research couldnot establish a differential impact of the dimensions ofCo-creation on the dimensions of Perceived Value, i.e. the data didnot support that Co-creation has greater impact on certain elementsof the Value Proposition than others. The fourth researchhypothesis considered Value-in-use as the ultimate customer outcomerather than a predictor of Perceived Value, and the statisticallysignificant regression model provides support that Co-productioncan be considered an integral part of a firm's Value Proposition,rather than an underlying construct of Value Co-creation consideredseparately from the Value Proposition. The research contributes tothe academic literature in validating two research instruments,establishing additional positive consequences of Value Co-creationand adding to the Service Innovation stream of the ValueCo-creation literature. Its business implications suggest relookingthe way Value Propositions are designed by adding conscious ValueCo-creation as a dimension of the firm's Value Proposition, leadingto enhancing the customer's Value-in-use which ultimately circlesback to improve perceptions of the firm's ValueProposition.Advisors/Committee Members: Matlala, Silas (advisor).