SMARTPHONE USERS IN CREATION OF CUSTOMER VALUE. A value-centered approach to product carbon footprint.

Abstract

To be able to differentiate services, provide competitive value propositions, and gain sustainable competitive advantage on the market, companies need to learn and understand how customers create value in their everyday activities. Value creation may occur at the pre-purchase and post-purchase stages of the consumption process. Depending on this, the created value can be regarded as perceived or desired customer value. The purpose of the study was to describe and analyse how the value creation processes of a smartphone user interrelate with each other in terms of perceived customer value and desired customer value, when the value creation processes are compared in accordance with the communications service offering and a new supporting service that does not exist as a part of the service offering yet. Product carbon footprint was the new supporting service in this study context.

Experiential and conceptual perspectives were utilised in order to understand the nature and complexity of these value creation processes. This case study approached the phenomenon by combining services marketing, customer value and sustainable marketing paradigms in order to enrich the knowledge of the dynamic relationship between service differentiation and customer value creation. The generation of empirical data was twofold. The secondary data were created by Nokia Siemens Networks and the researcher participated in this data generation. These data consisted of the calculation results of product carbon footprint of 3G service. The primary data were generated by interviewing 9 Finnish smartphone users in March 2011. By utilising projective techniques and phenomenographic analysis a multidimensional perspective to customer value creation was developed.

The results indicate that the creation of desired customer value and perceived customer value are interrelated especially through the envisioned and experienced service use situations when a customer creates value for a total service offering and a supporting service. Perceived customer value is created by describing specific service attributes and service use situations that are subjectively experienced. Desired customer value is more socially constructed as the desired end-states and desired use situations get more emphasis through the images of what kinds of desires other customers would create for a service. Benefits and sacrifices as value components are used as the building blocks of customer value, but sacrifices are often not expressed explicitly. This was the case especially in the creation of desired customer value in this study.

Asiasanat:customer value, smartphone, product carbon footprint, value creation