Assessing the Extent to which Customer Feedback Contributes to Value Co-Creation: A Focus on the Tourism Industry

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the process of creating economic value has
changed from single companies contributing individually to co-creating value
and integrating customer knowledge into product development. Firms are
creating value through the use of engagement experiences between customers
and firms. The new locus of value co-creation is interactions between firm
stakeholders and customers; hence, organisations need to be designed to
revolve around these interactions to identify opportunities for customercompany co-creation. Nonetheless, there are still a lot of unanswered
questions regarding value co-creation, its antecedents, and its effects.
Literature on the effects of customer feedback on value co-creation is sparse,
the existing body of knowledge lacks information regarding the role played
by customer feedback to enhance the co-creation of value between firms and
their consumers. In context with this, the study aims to assess the extent to
which customer feedback contributes to value co-creation by focusing on the
tourism industry. In addressing the aforementioned gap, this study employed
the Service – dominant (S–D) Logic Theory. Moreover, purposive sampling
was used in this study to gather qualitative data from 20 guests who made
visits to the 23 targeted game and nature reserves in Mpumalanga. The
findings revealed that customer feedback such as preferences and opinions
about products and services enhances value co-creation. Moreover, the
findings revealed that the use of social media platforms to allow consumers to
make suggestions and comments about a service provision enhances value cocreation. This study therefore concludes that firms must encourage customer
feedback to enhance value co-creation.