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This study aims to evaluate the process of value co-creation within wellness tourism by constructing a structural equation model of customer interactions with the environment, service employees and other customers relating to customer-perceived value and customer engagement.

Questionnaires, including wellness tourists’ customer-environment interaction, customer-service employee interaction, customer-customer interaction, customer-perceived value, customer engagement and demographic background, were developed and distributed at well-known wellness tourism destinations around Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China. This study collected 528 valid questionnaires from hot spring resorts, national forest parks, mountain parks and spa wellness facilities located in Guangdong Province, China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the obtained data.

The results reveal that all three types of interactions, which include the customer-environment interaction (CEI), the customer-service employee interaction (CSI) and the customer-customer interaction (CCI), have positive effects on customer-perceived value (CPV) and that CPV positively affects customer engagement (CE). Based on these findings, recommendations for the management of wellness tourism service enterprises are given.

The causes and effects of CPV in wellness tourism, from the perspective of value co-creation, is a rather unexplored area of study. It contributes not only to knowledge about factors that foster CPV but also to the understanding of connections between CPV and CE.

本研究通过构建顾客与环境、服务员工和其他顾客之间互动对顾客感知价值和顾客契合的结构方程模型, 探究养生旅游中的价值共创过程。

本研究在中国广东省广州市附近知名的养生旅游目的地发放问卷, 问卷内容包括养生旅游者的顾客-环境互动, 顾客-服务员工互动, 顾客-顾客互动, 顾客感知价值, 顾客契合和人口统计学背景。本研究从广东省温泉度假区、国家森林公园、山脉等旅游目的地收集了有效问卷528份, 使用结构方程模型(Structural Equation Modeling, SEM)对所获得的数据进行分析。

本研究数据分析结果显示, 顾客与环境互动、顾客与服务人员互动和顾客与顾客互动三种互动类型均对顾客感知价值有正向影响, 而顾客感知价值正向影响顾客契合。在此基础上, 本文针对养生旅游服务企业提出了管理建议。

本研究从价值共同创造的角度对养生旅游中顾客感知价值的因果关系进行了一项未被探索的研究, 这不仅有助于我们识别并培育影响顾客感知价值的因素, 而且有助于我们理解顾客感知价值与顾客契合之间的联系。

Este estudio evaluó el proceso de la creación conjunta de valor dentro del turismo de bienestar, mediante la construcción de un modelo de ecuación estructural de las interacciones de los clientes con (1) el medio ambiente, (2) los empleados de servicio y (3) otros clientes relacionados con el valor percibido por el cliente y el compromiso del cliente.

Los cuestionarios fueron distribuidos en destinos de turismo de bienestar conocidos cerca de la ciudad de Guangzhou, provincia de Guangdong, China. El contenido del cuestionario incluye: interacción cliente-medio ambiente, interacción cliente-empleado de servicio, interacción cliente-cliente, valor percibido por el clientes, compromiso del clientes y el contexto demográficos. Este estudio recopiló 528 cuestionarios válidos de centros turísticos de aguas termales, parques forestales nacionales, montañas y spas de bienestar localizados en la provincia de Guangdong,China. Se utilizó el modelo de la ecuación estructural (Structural Equation Modeling, SEM) para analizar los datos obtenidos.

Los resultados revelan que los tres tipos de interacciones, que incluyen la interacción cliente-medio ambiente (ICMA), la interacción cliente-empleados de servicio (ICES), y la interacción cliente-cliente (ICC), tienen efectos positivos en el valor percibido por el cliente (VPC), y que el VPC afecta positivamente el compromiso del cliente (CC). Con base en estos resultados, se dan recomendaciones de gestión para las empresas de servicios de turismo de bienestar.

Este es un estudio bastante inexplorado sobre la causa y el efecto del VPC en el turismo de bienestar, desde la perspectiva de la creación conjunta de valor (CCV). Este estudio no solo contribuye al conocimiento sobre los factores que fomentan el VPC, sino también a la comprensión de las conexiones entre el VPC y el CC.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to examine the effects of different touch points on customer experience, second, effects of customer experience on loyalty intentions, and actual spend, and third, the moderating role of motivation orientation on these effects.

By recognizing the importance of capturing customer experience assessments at the “time of the experience”, a smartphone technology mobile app was developed for the purpose of this study. Real time customer experience data were collected at individual touch points.

The results show that the real-time touch point evaluations significantly effect overall customer experience and that these effects significantly differ for utilitarian and hedonic motivation orientations. The effects of technology, atmospherics, employee–customer interaction and service/product interaction touch points on overall customer experience are significantly stronger for hedonic orientation than for utilitarian orientation. In contrast, the effect of process touch point on overall customer experience is significantly stronger for utilitarian than hedonic orientation. Also, favorable overall customer experience evaluations exert significant positive influence on loyalty intentions, and actual spend, and these influences are significantly stronger for consumers with hedonic than utilitarian motivation orientations.

The findings of this study will enable companies to manage customer experience programs effectively by providing an understanding of the distinct touch points that occur along the customer journey and the relative importance of each of these touch points in enhancing customer experience.

This is the first empirical study that offers important insights on the effects of different touch points on customer experience, and on the moderating role of consumer motivation orientations on the touch points – customer experience – loyalty link by using real-time data.

Social media encourage interactions between customers and brands. Concerning the cues utilized during social media interactions, verbal cues (i.e. the language used) gain importance, since non-verbal and paraverbal cues are hard to convey via social media. Looking at interpersonal interactions, interlocutors adopt each other’s language styles or maintain their own language style during interactions to build trust. Transferring these insights to social media, the purpose of this paper is to test the effects of a brand’s language style accommodation in brand-customer interactions on brand trust and on its antecedents.

Two quantitative pre-studies (n₁ (questionnaire)=32, n₂ (laboratory experiment)=199), and one quantitative main study (n₃ (laboratory experiment)=427) were conducted to determine the effects of a brand’s language style accommodation on brand trust.

In line with communication accommodation theory, this paper reveals that the impact of a brand’s accommodation strategy on brand trust is mediated by perceived relationship investments, such as perceived interaction effort, benevolence, and quality of interaction. This paper also underscores language style’s roles and its fit, and sheds light on situational factors such as purchase decision involvement and the valence of the content.

This paper is the first to transfer cross-disciplinary theories on interpersonal interactions to brand-customer interactions in social media. Thus, the authors derive the effects of language style accommodation on brand trust as well as further mediating effects.

The authors propose applying Habermas's “theory of communicative action” (TCA) to discuss the benefits of incorporating the concept of interaction in the field of corporate brand management. The purpose of this paper is to gain suggestions for interactions derived from Jürgen Habermas's social theory.

This paper refers to Habermas's TCA in terms of its implication for stakeholder interactions within corporate brand management. Based on review of the sociological literature of Habermas's TCA, this approach offers a more detailed picture of corporate brand management. Bodies of literature are selected, examined and the TCA has been connected to corporate brand management to provide a research background and a managerially useful insight of human interactions.

The social theory of the German social‐philosopher Jürgen Habermas provides certain starting points for classifying interactions. The paper introduces Habermas's proposed forms of human action. Furthermore, it relates to the cognitive, moral‐expressive and aesthetic‐expressive knowledge interest areas, Habermas's validity claims of communicative actions as well as context and world relations.

The study of Habermas's TCA considers one stream in sociological theory. Other theories may provide further insights for corporate brand management.

The paper shows managerially useful implications for managing stakeholder interactions within corporate brand management. Management can use the developed patterns of thought as a starting point for managing interactions with stakeholders.

The paper introduces Habermas's TCA within the field of corporate brand management. Moreover, it facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of implications for managing interactions within the field of corporate brand management.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the role played by the social servicescape and positive emotions in the post-use in terms of response – satisfaction, perceived value and consumer loyalty – in hedonic services.

A quantitative study was conducted to gather data from 867 opera-goers through e-mail with a link to a questionnaire. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling based on partial least squares. The effects of the social servicescape and emotions as moderators were examined using interaction techniques.

The paper provides empirical support on the multidimensional configuration of the social servicescape composed by both characteristics and interactions of employees and customers. The results demonstrate significant relationships between the social servicescape and positive emotions in perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty of consumers. Positive emotions are a moderating variable, intensifying the relationship between the social servicescape and perceived value. The opposite effect in the relationship between the social servicescape and loyalty is found.

Further research is required to generalize the findings to other hedonic services.

Knowledge on both social servicescape and emotional effects on consumer behavior may enable cultural managers to improve the consumption experience of performing arts attendees.

This paper fulfills a research gap in the area of social servicescape as well as the effects of emotions in hedonic services. It makes two main contributions. First, it provides knowledge on social servicescape conceptualization and measurement. Second, the moderation, by interaction effect, of emotions and social servicescape in consumer behavior are confirmed.

When service failure occurs, it leads to dissatisfaction, lack of trust and avoidance behaviour among customers, and it can also be seen as a threat to the survival of the business. This paper aims to investigate the current and potential dynamics of service failure research within the tourism and hospitality area.

By adopting qualitative, quantitative (citation and text mining) and science-mapping tools (descriptive, conceptual and intellectual), this study analyses 99 key papers on service failure in 18 major hospitality and tourism journals over a 20-year span.

The research on service recovery strategies, recovery efforts, pre- and post-failure and post-recovery in the service encounter and the impacts of justice on post-recovery and post-complaint behaviour are identified as the major streams of service failure research. While emotional labour, rumination and satisfaction recovery were identified as emerging themes, service failure perceptions and social media were found as the developed and substantial trends.

This study presents a comprehensive understanding of service failure research development in the hospitality and tourism industry. This study propose three areas – circumstantial cues, interactional cues and crisis management – that practitioners need to understand to minimise service failure during the service interaction.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior bibliometric study has investigated the current and future dynamics of service failure in the hospitality and tourism industry and offered a research agenda based on this gap in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to use the Macau gaming industry as a case study to discuss the multifaceted relationships involving experiential quality, experiential relationship quality and future experiential intentions.

In this study, 566 usable responses were collected from casino gamblers who had gaming experience in one casino of Macau.

According to the study results, the dimensions of experiential quality (hedonics, involvement, surprise, fun, gambler contact and physical environment) had a positive effect on experiential satisfaction, which in turn led to experiential trust. Both experiential trust and experiential satisfaction positively influenced experiential commitment. Moreover, experiential trust, experiential satisfaction and experiential commitment positively affected future experiential intentions.

The main contribution of this research is that it has added to the body of knowledge about the interplay between the dimensions of experiential quality, the dimension of experiential relationship quality and future experiential intentions, which can be fruitful for the gaming industry.

−本文以澳门博彩业为例, 探讨了体验质量、体验关系质量与未来体验意向间的多层面关系。

−在此项研究中, 我们收集了566名在澳门一家赌场已有赌博经历的顾客。

−研究结果表明, 体验质量的维度(享乐、参与、惊喜、乐趣、赌徒接触和实体环境) 对体验满意度有正向影响, 进而导致体验信任。体验信任和体验满意度对体验承诺有正向影响。体验信任、体验满意度和体验承诺对未来体验意向均有正向影响。

−本研究的主要贡献在于, 它增加了体验质量维度、体验关系质量维度与未来体验意向之间相互作用的知识, 这对博彩是富有成效的。

− En este estudio, se obtuvieron 566 respuestas válidas de jugadores de casino que habían tenido experiencia en juegos en un casino de Macao.

− Este documento presenta a través de un estudio de caso la industria de los juegos de Macao con el objetivo de discutir las relaciones multifacéticas que involucran calidad experiencial, calidad de relación experiencial y futuras intenciones experienciales.

− Según los resultados del estudio, las dimensiones de la calidad de la experiencia (hedónica, participación, sorpresa, diversión, contacto con el jugador y entorno físico) tuvieron un efecto positivo en la satisfacción de la experiencia, lo que a su vez condujo a la confianza en la experiencia. Tanto la confianza experiencial como la satisfacción experiencial influyeron positivamente en el compromiso experiencial. Además, la confianza experiencial, la satisfacción experiencial y el compromiso experiencial afectaron positivamente a las futuras intenciones experienciales.

− La principal contribución de esta investigación es que se ha agregado al cuerpo de conocimiento sobre la interacción entre las dimensiones de la calidad experiencial, la dimensión de la calidad de la relación experiencial y las intenciones experimentales futuras, que pueden ser fructíferas para la industria del juego.

There is scientific consensus that employees' attitudes have a fundamental impact on customers' experiences. This paper seeks to focus on how to create favourable employee attitudes that are relevant for the creation of the service brand. In this context, the aim is to develop a framework that combines the concept of the perceived employer brand with employee outcomes that are relevant for service branding.

Empirical data were collected from a sample (n=2,189) of a worldwide operating insurance company. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modelling.

First, the findings underpin the idea of a relationship between the perceived employer brand and service branding. Second, the influence of particular drivers for employee attitudes is determined.

Research is based on data from only one company. Furthermore, customer outcomes are not investigated directly. Thus, research needs to be taken further by investigating the creation of a service brand, simultaneously exploring employees' attitudes and customers' experiences.

Influencing customer experiences is a complex process that involves interactions among several stakeholder groups. In order to raise efficiency, it is proposed that companies focus on creating a strong employer brand as this constitutes an efficient way of service branding.

This paper highlights the influence of the perceived employer brand on employees' attitudes, which is especially important in service settings. The investigation of customer‐relevant employee attitudes emphasises the significance of creating a strong employer brand. Furthermore, long‐term effects are considered by investigating the influence of the perceived employer brand on potential employees' identification.

The global tourism industry is continuing to experience a change from high-touch to high-tech with the increasing implementation of self-service technologies (SSTs) such as hotel reservation websites, kiosk technologies at airports and smartphone applications. SSTs require active customer involvement in the service delivery process and as such, the customer serves as a co-creator of value along with the tourism provider. Although there are benefits to customer involvement in service provision, there is a risk that SST usage may also detract value from the service experience. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore customer perspectives on their experiences of SST usage in a tourism context, through the theoretical lens of the service–dominant logic framework.

This interpretivist study employs a two-stage qualitative methodology of short interviews with 133 participants at an international airport, followed by 32 in-depth interviews with SST users in a tourism context.

Six diverse customer SST experiences are identified and then classified in terms of being either value-creating or value-destroying. The first two experiences accruing from SST usage, namely accomplishment and supportiveness, are deemed to be value-creating, while the experiences of lack of control, manipulation, concern about discrimination and social tension are deemed to be value-destroying.

The study responds to a gap in the literature regarding the concept and nature of customer value co-creation pertaining to the use of SSTs in a tourism context. The research findings indicate that value is not only created but may also be destroyed in the SST encounter. The study also illustrates that SST usage may have a strong social element in terms of the presence and role of other customers and employees. This challenges the consensus in the literature that SST usage reduces or removes human interaction.

The purpose of this paper is to extend current discussions of value creation and propose a customer dominant value perspective. The point of origin in a customer‐dominant marketing logic (C‐D logic) is the customer, rather than the service provider, interaction or the system. The focus is shifted from the company's service processes involving the customer, to the customer's multi‐contextual value formation, involving the company.

Value formation is contrasted to earlier views on the company's role in value creation in a conceptual analysis focusing on five central aspects. Implications of the proposed characteristics of value formation compared to earlier approaches are put forward.

The paper highlights earlier hidden aspects on the role of a service for the customer. It is proposed that value is not always an active process of creation; instead, value is embedded and formed in the highly dynamic and multi‐contextual reality and life of the customer. This leads to a need to look beyond the line of visibility focused on visible customer‐company interactions, to the invisible and mental life of the customer. From this follows a need to extend the temporal scope, from exchange and use even further to accumulated experiences in the customer's life and ecosystem.

This paper is conceptual. It discusses and presents a customer‐dominant value perspective and suggests implications for empirical research and practice.

Awareness of the mechanism of the customer value formation process provides companies with new insight on the service strategy, service design and new service innovations.

The paper contributes by extending the value construct through a new customer dominant value perspective, recognizing value as multi‐contextual and dynamic based on customers' life and ecosystem. The findings mark out new avenues for future research.