Customer Engagement and Co-Creation/destruction: The Role of External Actors That Foster/Hinder Tourist/Hotel Interactive Experience

ABSTRACT

Customers have become active and engaged with multiple actors outside the hotel, raising new challenges to theory and practice. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the external actors with which customers interact to ascertain which ones foster/hinder customer engagement and value co-creation/destruction. We used qualitative methods (16 in-depth interviews, document analysis, and four participants' observations) gathered from seven regions in Ghana. Data were analyzed using Nvivo12 within a thematic analysis framework designed to identify, analyze, and describe patterns found in data. The study revealed that guests' interactive engagement with multiple actors beyond the hotel environment influences their experience, either fostering or hindering value co-creation. Positive and negative engagement fosters/hinders guests' interactions and the potential for value co-creation/destruction. The study offers a novel connection between customer interactions, engagement, and value co-creation to discover and depict the external actors' actions that foster or hinder customers' experience in the hotel setting. Industry players can use the developed customer interactive engagement framework and value co-creation/destruction actors in tourist and hotel settings to assess their businesses and explore the value they aim to generate.

KEYWORDS:

• External actors
• customer interactive engagement
• guests’ value co-creation or destruction
• fostering and hindering actors
• hotel experience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clement Nangpiire

Clement Nangpiire (PhD) is currently a Senior Lecturer and Head-Department of Procurement and `Supply Chain Management at the SD-Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) Wa. He holds a PhD in Marketing and Strategy degree from the University of Minho-Portugal, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. Before then, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Ghana-Legon and holds a Diploma in Marketing from the Institute of Management Studies in Kumasi-Ghana. His research interests are in Marketing, Procurement and Supply Chain related areas, focusing on value co-creation, customer engagement, market orientation, innovation and entrepreneurship, public sector marketing, hospitality and tourism marketing, internal marketing, benefits of procurement activities to clients/customers, political marketing, digital/social media marketing and sharing economy. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Marketing, Services Marketing, Public Sector Marketing, Global supply Chain and Logistics, Total Quality Management, Social Marketing, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tourism/Hospitality Marketing, International Marketing, Digital Marketing, Strategic Management and Research Methods.

Joaquim Silva

Joaquim Silva is Assistant Professor at the School of Economics and Business, University of Minho, Portugal, and a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA.UMinho). His background is in Sociology; he holds a Master Degree in Management, with specialization in Marketing and Strategy and a PhD in Marketing and Strategy. His research interests are in marketing, including value co-creation, branding, sharing economy, circular economy, and innovation in teaching. He teaches undergraduate, graduate and PhD courses in Marketing, Marketing Research and Research Methodology and collaborates in several university training programs.

Helena Alves

Helena Alves is Associate Professor of marketing at the Business and Economics Department University of Beira Interior, Portugal, and a researcher at the Research Center in Business Sciences (NECE). Her areas of expertise include customer satisfaction, services marketing, tourism marketing and public and nonprofit marketing, having authored and co-authored several articles and book chapters on these themes. She was the coordinator of the marketing degree and later of the master degree. Her teaching experience includes degree, master and PhD levels in Portugal and Spain (the University of Extremadura, University of León and University of Valência). Currently, she is the editor of the International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing and is also on the editorial review boards of several journals such as The Service Industries Journal, The Management Decision Journal, among others.