Value creation: an internal customers’ perspective

Author: Grace Debra   Iacono Joseph Lo  

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd

ISSN: 0887-6045

Source: Journal of Services Marketing, Vol.29, Iss.6-7, 2015-09, pp. : 560-570

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Abstract

<title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</title>– The purpose of this paper is to understand and deliver the needs and wants of external customers. This being the case, we know quite a lot about one perspective of the value co-creation process (i.e. external customers’ perception) but very little about other stakeholder perspectives, in particular, internal customers’ perspectives of the value co-creation process.<title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</title>– This paper draws on the works of Edvardsson et al. (2011), Giddens (1984), Sweeney and Soutar (200), Helkkula et al. (2012), Herzberg et al. (1959) and Wolf (1970) to build a conceptual model of value creation developed specifically from the internal customer’s perspective.<title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</title>– The resultant conceptual model (shown in Figure 1) provides insight into the socio-structural and social exchange elements of the firm that provide the stimuli to value creation, which in the first instance, gratify (or not) the needs of internal customers and, secondly, influence the multi-dimensional value perceptions of internal customers.<title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</title>– The conceptual model of this paper provides a unique, pragmatic and useful framework for understanding how internal customers derive and perceive value within the social landscape of the firm. While empirical validation of the model is essential, the model, as presented herein, provides an excellent starting point for further investigation in this important, but largely under-researched, area.