Co-creating the collective service experience

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify which consumption practices lead to the co-creation of collective service experiences and to outline a conceptual framework for their understanding.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a multiple case vignette approach combining examples from leisure industries described as perfect contexts to study collective experiences. Four case vignettes were selected according to community forms and types as defined by consumer culture literature.

Findings

The study identifies and delineates the neglected phenomenon of the co-creation of collective service experiences and related practices. It highlights the ambivalence of these practices in terms of the co-creation or co-destruction of the experience and indicates their relative unmanageability.

Research limitations/implications

The cases largely rest on symbolic service experiences, which are a small set of the total universe of consumer experiences.

Practical implications

Companies should replace their efforts in organizing consumer practices with monitoring mechanisms and react to collective consumer actions, pursuing a co-evolutionary perspective when they do not have a dominant and permanent role in the relationship with their consumers.

Originality/value

The paper gives voice to an understudied collective phenomenon in service management and provides the building blocks for its conceptualization.

Citation

Carù, A. and Cova, B. (2015), "Co-creating the collective service experience", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 276-294. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-07-2014-0170