Executive summary of The role of learning in value co-creation in new technological B2B services

Citation

(2014), "Executive summary of The role of learning in value co-creation in new technological B2B services", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 29 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-01-2014-0019

The role of learning in value co-creation in new technological B2B services

Article Type: Executive summary and implications for managers and executives From: Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Volume 29, Issue 3

This summary has been provided to allow managers and executives a rapid appreciation of the content of the article. Those with a particular interest in the topic covered may then read the article in toto to take advantage of the more comprehensive description of the research undertaken and its results to get the full benefit of the material present.

Traditionally, value creation in business markets has been seen as the process of how suppliers create value for their customers and how customers perceive such value in the offerings. More recently, however, the focus has switched to value "co-creation" in which provider and customer engage, resulting in the customer determining the value during in-use experience. In such circumstances the provider needs to understand what motivates a potential customer to embark on value co-creation.

As a result of technology innovations, companies are using new mobile technologies in order to strengthen and facilitate their businesses and to retain their competitiveness. Examples include interactive mobile networks for internal and external information sharing, SMS solutions for customer service, and mobile advertising – a service through which retailers send advertisements to their customers’ mobile phones.

When presented with a new technological B2B service, a customer typically has no previous experience of that service and therefore no clear expectations of it. The uncertainties present a major challenge for the service provider to help the customer understand how to derive value from the service. In other words, recognizing the customer’s motivation for service use enables the service provider to offer value propositions that will encourage the customer to use the new service and therefore participate in service co-production and value co-creation.

In "The role of learning in value co-creation in new technological B2B services" Dr Hanna Komulainen discovered that the customer’s major motives relate to:

• gaining experience (getting to know the service, testing it and seeing how it works);

• commercial effectiveness (referring to the financial gains and improved sales expected from the service); and

• pioneering (a willingness to be among the first to try a new service and to stay at the forefront of technological development.

It is critical for service providers to encourage their business customers to invest in learning. This involves getting customers to appreciate that sacrifices will be required if they are to learn to use and exploit new technological services and to derive value from them. Correspondingly, service providers need to make the value of the emerging technological business service explicit to customers in order to encourage them to invest in learning. Customers differ in their willingness and ability to use novel technological services. For that reason the amount of resources needed, for example in training and service support, may vary significantly depending on customer predispositions, such as absorptive capacity and learning orientation.

Service providers need to create the best solution to serve different types of customers depending on their specific needs. A trade-off will be required between the resources invested in serving the customer and the choice of the target customer base. Overall, understanding customers’ learning processes is vital to the service provider, since the information can determine who the key customers are, how to organize training and service support for each different type of customer, and how to encourage customers to invest in learning.

The focal service explored in the study is m-advertising which enables, in a cost-effective way, the sending of personalized and customized advertisements and can engage customers in personal real-time discussions and transactions with the sender. As it is radically new and different from traditional one-way advertising, m-advertising requires mutual effort and interaction from the service provider and the customer to learn to use the new service efficiently.

However, this study suggests that the commercial effectiveness of the m-ads depends more on their quality and the way special features are utilized (e.g. targeting the ads at the right recipients at the right time) rather than the advertiser’s line of business. The study findings offered no confirmation that the retailer’s industry would influence its use of m-advertising. However, personal factors like enthusiasm, skills, and prioritizing tasks, and also the resources allocated for m-advertising seem to affect the way the m-advertising service was used. Hence, the retailer’s motivation and capacity to learn were important determinants of the use of m-advertising.

The service provider can help the customer with planning how to use the service efficiently alongside the firm’s other service offerings. For example, in the case of m-advertising the service provider should offer assistance in planning the content of the ad (both visual and technical aspects) and guidance on how to integrate the new advertising medium to support other marketing channels. It is also important that the service provider knows its customers well enough to ensure they get the amount of support they require to use the service effectively.

This includes proper training in the early phases of usage, offering service support and guidance whenever needed, constantly testing and updating the service to make sure it functions as intended and keeping in touch with the customers to monitor their experience of using the service. Finally, the service provider needs to support the customer’s evaluation of the outcomes of the service use.

To read the full article type 10.1108/JBIM-04-2011-0042 into your search engine.

(A précis of the article "The role of learning in value co-creation in new technological B2B services". Supplied by Marketing Consultants for Emerald.)