Value creation and social context in service encounters : a practice approach

This thesis is concerned with the understanding the contextual nature of consumer value creation within service encounters in high customer participation services. The study of service encounters is shown to have traditionally adopted individualistic or highly rational perspectives that ignore or overlook the significance of social context in shaping the material and cognitive resources that participants bring to the encounter and that they use to shape its outcomes and effectiveness. It is shown that by focusing on encounters as forms of social practice, involving a complex set of activities and skills, all of which need to be located within a context that reflects a wide range of factors (from individual biography to macrostructures) it is possible to develop a more complete understanding of how encounters are structured and how value is defined within them. This perspective provides a framework of concepts within which a detailed qualitative study of service encounters is conducted, remaining open to new possibilities that may be identified inductively. The study uses observation and interviews with participants in two case sites in Colombia, a higher education institution and a fitness club, to develop a framework that identifies issues that carry contextual relevance, summarizing these in a model of factors that need to be taken into account when investigating service encounters. Although the model is provisional, being derived from only two cases in a single country, it offers a depth of analysis that helps to identify the complex processes involved. It is suggested that further research will be needed to test this model for applicability in a broader context. In summary, the research contributes to a better understanding of service encounters by showing the importance of social context in shaping value-creation issues: participants of service encounters are not only decision makers but active human beings embedded in a cultural, socio-historical context, who construct value through service consumption practices that are dynamic, contextual and practical.