Failing to develop a sense of ownership: A study in the consumer co-operative context

Figures & data

Table 1. The data structure

Route to psychological ownership	Second-order theme—challenge	First-order concept—cause of the challenge
Control	No sense of control via indirect use of voice	Customer-owners not having much say as individuals
		Customer-owners not being the ones with power to make decisions
		Elected customer-owners lacking the time to safeguard customer-owners’ interests
		Exit being perceived as more efficient than use of voice
	Lack of channels for direct use of voice	Customer-owners not having channels to influence the selection of products
		The channels being inadequate
		That a simpler feedback process would create incentive to influence
		The feedback process not being transparent
		Distance from the elected customer-owners existing in the administration
Intimate knowledge	Lack of (relevant) information	That store assistants could be more visible
		Member magazines not providing interesting information
		The promotions seeming arbitrary
	Lack of knowledge of the ways to exercise influence	Customer-owners not knowing how to exert influence
		Customer-owners knowing how to exert influence only via feedback
	Lack of knowledge of the principles of cooperation	Customer ownership being identified as regular customership
		Interest in volunteer work persisting only as far as this is not just collecting money for the shop
		Customer-owners not “owning” anything (the term is inaccurate)
		The “bonus” not being enough (in a private shop, one can bargain more)
		That a larger market share raises prices
	Inability to identify with the co-op	The operations being detrimental to local business
		The cooperative’s basic principles becoming eroded
Investment of the self	Lack of opportunities to invest the self	There being only one-way interaction
		More training in product knowledge being needed
	The co-op losing out in the competition for people’s time	Life situation rendering people unable to contribute
		Contribution to other things being perceived as more meaningful
	Investment of the self leading to negative emotions	“Customer-owner days” needing better promotion, further in advance
		New customer-owners being offered gifts while existing ones do not receive such surprises

Table 2. Control-related themes, concepts, and illustrative quotes

Second-order theme—challenge	First-order concept—cause of the challenge	Illustrative quote
No sense of control via indirect use of voice	Customer-owners do not have much say as individuals	“No. I’m just … I’m a customer-owner, but I don’t have that much say, as a single person”
	Customer-owners are not the ones with power to make decisions	“No. It is not customers who have the power to make decisions. It’s total hogwash to say that this affects ‘customer-owners’. It’s a misleading word. And it’s the wrong term to use”
	Elected customer-owners lack the time to safeguard customer-owners’ interests	“Well, the way it usually goes is they take the active ones … but there’s a downside to that. They’re active with so many other things as well”
	Exit is perceived as more efficient than use of voice	“I don’t feel any need to contribute. I buy my groceries there as long as it’s low-priced enough for me, and if another supermarket has lower prices I’ll switch”
Lack of channels for direct use of voice	Customer-owners do not have channels to influence the selection of products	“I don’t agree. Well, hmm, I don’t feel I can influence the selection or anything in S Group stores, so the competitors are … they beat them completely in that. At K food stores, you can make requests because the local store-owners make those decisions and the store-owners can react to your feedback. But because S Group stores are so, erm, similar everywhere, they always have the same selection. So you can’t influence that in any way”
	The channels are inadequate	“Well, I haven’t really thought about that. There is a feedback system, but, since most of the customer belong to the Internet generation, it would be good if it were possible to give feedback via the Internet as well”
	A simpler feedback process would incentivise customer-owners to exercise influence	“Well, maybe one way to contribute could be that while you’re doing your shopping you could tick a box or give some suggestions in an easy way. So it wouldn’t be like I have to go and vote and so on. I could just familiarise myself somehow and it would be customer-focused and so on. So if you had- you could choose from among some options or something. It should be quite easy, since you don’t really have the energy to get that deeply into anything when you have small children”
	The feedback process is not transparent	“Well, sometimes like if you want to influence the service and the selection in the store, there should be some other channel to do that. I don’t know what it could be other than the suggestion box that’s emptied once a month. I would say you can talk to a customer-service director, of course, but you’re not really sure whether they will take it forward”
	There is clear distance from the elected customer-owners in the administration	“Well, our local S Group has the customer-owner administration [executive board] or whatever it’s called, so … I don’t really know them. So an ordinary consumer doesn’t really have a say in that. They can’t really take their message forward. The only route to do that is: In our store, we have the CEO. You just go to his door and press the button, so I think you could do that if you wanted to discuss something. But these administrative boards and so on, they’re quite distant”

Table 3. Intimate knowledge-related themes, concepts, and illustrative quotes

Second-order theme—challenge	First-order concept—cause of the challenge	Illustrative quote
Lack of (relevant) information	Shop assistants could be more visible	“Well, the store is not- How should I put it? The shop assistants could provide better service. It’s a bit stiff and, well, who knows? The friendliness […] can be good among the employees, but they don’t have the best possible relationship with the customer. They could be more visible, at least for older people”
	Member magazines do not provide interesting information	“Yes, I get Yhteishyvä [the member magazine] and then another publication that provides information. It’s this ‘I flip through it and forget everything’”
	The promotions seem arbitrary	“It somehow feels like these promotions you get are quite random”
Lack of knowledge of the ways to exercise influence	Customer-owners do not know how to exert an influence	“Especially if I had to influence [something] somehow, I wouldn’t even know how”
	Customer-owners know how to have an influence only via feedback	“What do they mean by that? Well, I guess you can make product requests and [can] give feedback if you’re not happy about a product or something, so in that way, yeah. I didn’t think of anything else with regard to influencing”
Lack of knowledge of the principles of cooperation	Customer ownership is identified as regular customership	“Well, no. I guess in effect it’s just that [regular customership]. It’s nothing more than that”
	Interest in volunteer work is maintained only as long as it is not just collecting money for the shop	“Yes, I’m interested. I’m interested in all volunteer work. I’m actually volunteering four days a week at the moment. All these sorts of things. As long as it’s helping people and not collecting money for the store, I’m interested”
	The customer-owners do not own anything; this is the wrong term	“Yeah, it’s nothing more than that, because a customer-owner … we don’t own anything in this. If you owned one per cent, you’d already be quite rich ([one per cent] of this co-op, I mean). So you see what I mean. So ‘customer–owner’—it’s the wrong term”
	The bonus is not enough; in a private shop, one can bargain more	“They say we get the bonus, but no, it’s all so relative. And it’s hard to bargain. In a private shop, you would be able to bargain more”
	A bigger market share pushes prices up	“And then I’m thinking that it’s like if their market share gets too big, then their prices will go up. And that’s not good for us consumers. That’s a risk there”
Inability to identify with the co-op	Local business is harmed	“About S Group in general, I sometimes think that- the ABCs are expanding maybe a little too much, and what they do is they look for an existing and successful service/petrol station, and then they push them out. So it leaves kind of a bad impression”
	The basic principles of the cooperative become eroded	“But they are so big that … I don’t think a co-operative can function if it’s this big … so it’s not a co-operative anymore; it’s more of a chain, a chain store. A chain rather than a co-operative. So that has completely disappeared—it’s only in the name. There used to be all kinds of co-operatives, especially in the countryside. But there’s nothing left, only memories … and in banks as well they are trying to sell all kinds of things, like insurance and everything. They’d might as well sell candy. Like the post offices do”

Table 4. Themes, concepts, and illustrative quotes related to investment of the self

Second-order theme—challenge	First-order concept—cause of the challenge	Illustrative quote
Lack of opportunities to invest the self	Interaction is only one-way	“Well, I have nothing to say about that. As I said, I don’t feel like I’m an owner in this store. No-one ever asks me anything about anything […]. I just get advertisements”
	More product-knowledge training is needed	“Product-knowledge training, so when you need to ask something it would be nice if their answers were backed up by facts. There is training; the company organises that, which is good. It is important to invest in that. Because there are a lot of new brands of clothes and shoes and everything like that, so you want to know facts like why this is better and what’s good about this and that. …[T]hey should maybe have more store assistants there, because they are experts”
The co-op losing out in the competition for people’s time	Life situation renders people unable to contribute	“As the mother of two small boys, I don’t have any extra time, especially for this sort of thing […]. [The] retirees may have time for this sort of thing”
	Contributing to other things is perceived as more meaningful	“I personally think that if I were to do charity work in my leisure time, it would be for some other organisation, like- Can I mention names? But more like UNICEF and these sorts of things, so I’m not … I feel that sports and such things are a lot more important activities, so I wouldn’t […] busy myself with things like this”
Investment of the self leading to negative emotions	“Customer-owner days” should be promoted better and earlier	“I quite like the ‘customer-owner days’, when they offered good discounts. But they happen quite rarely. And they don’t really promote that until- They should promote it a bit sooner and more often so people would know, if you’re about to purchase something. So you feel kind of tricked when you buy a washing machine and the next day it’s 20% off, so if we’re talking about customer ownership, openness, getting the information out there—like, for example, that ‘customer-owner days’ will start next month. So if I need a washing machine I should go and look for it there”
	New customer-owners are offered gifts, but existing ones do not receive any surprises	“Well, I don’t know. At least I have been thinking that the S Group is really keen on getting new people as customer-owners, but I feel like the rewards have grown worse over the years. And like … this is all really negative, but it’s funny that the new customer-owners are offered all kinds of gift cards and stuff but the existing ones, sure they get their Bonus but there are never any surprises. There are other groups where you get, even several times a year, some small thing and it’s quite nice”