LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
2.11. Research Propositions
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assimilates the value into a useful form and the internal elements demonstrate how the organization transforms the value in order to exploit customer experience. These, however, are all functions achievable through the co-creation activities and are solely impacted by the organization’s managerial roles. To identify the full potential and the most effective and efficient internal processes of social media by the managerial roles, further research is needed.
The capability of the organization to capture VoE through social media is thus determined by the absorptive capacity of the organization in the application within the organization. The framework highlights the important the co-creation process and value captured that customers and organization generate within online interactions. Organizations should take advantage of the process that promotes customer empowerment and online participation in the co-creation process.
While continuous improvements to the framework would help drive the customer co-creation process, the framework would prove useless if customers do not continue to participate in future value co-creation activities. We brought the social media to take the traditional co-creation to new insights of having a fresh model assuring the need of having such tools if not a must.
To summarize the visualization of the conceptual framework for the present study, four major elements are determined. They are illustrated in Figure 2.17 below:
1. The online interactions by the customers towards co-creation concept 2. Social media concept as the integrated platform,
3. The organization employee as actors for co-creation to capture value 4. The value capture concept towards value creation
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RP1: Social media has an impact on value co-creation in the hospitality sector in UAE
Prior studies such as those of Morosan (2015) focussed on value cocreation through the use of mobile commerce by colecting data from US hotel guests, which focussed on the factors of personalization, trust in the hotel, and their personal innovativeness. On the other hand, Chathoth et al. (2016) highlighted the challenges of capturing value cocreation and emphasised on the modalities of service transactions which varies based on boundary conditions, enablers, and use of technology platform. Therefore, these findings highlight the gap in literature which specifically focuses on the use of social media platforms for value cocreation. Moreover, the lack of studies related to value cocreation in UAE also highlights the literature gap which presents an interesting area of study. Therefore, this proposition is expected to contribute to bridging the research gap related to the lack of evidence from the UAE hotel industry, which was identified in the present review of literature.
RP2: The use of social media has an impact on the value capture through collaboration with customers
This research proposition is grounded on the detected positive interconnection between the application of social media by business organizations and value capture (Agafonow 2014; Bashir, Papamichail & Malik 2017; Majchrzak et al. 2009). However, while these studies provide evidence of the usefulness of customer engagement with organisations, these are related to product development and leveraging social feedback, there is a gap related to the engagement of customers towards creating value in the context of hotel industry. This proposition is aimed at addressing the gap in the present knowledge connected to the viability, type and direction of the relationship between social media and the value capture through social media based on the collaboration between business and customers in the case of the UAE hotel industry.
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RP3: The digital media content influences customer engagement and co-creation benefits
Prior studies such as those of Mahrinasari (2021) and Weerasinghe (2019) have revealed a positive influence of digital content marketing and online customer engagement. However, the research of Mahrinasari (2021) is focussed on user and generation theory (UGT) and user generated content, and hence presents a limited view of the influence of digital content marketing which lacks linkage to value co-creation. Similarly, the study of Weerasinghe (2019) focussed solely on the relationship between content marketing and customer online engagement without focus on value co-creation in any industry. A more focussed approach was provided by Terho et al. (2022) who identified factors which enhance the performance outcomes of customer-centric DCM, however the study is inclined towards theory building by undertaking qualitative research design. Hence, even though there is evidence of influence of digital content on customer engagement, there is a gap associated with the influence of DMC and customer engagement on the VCC and value capture. The present proposition is developed based on this gap, while the identified beneficial relationship serves as the basis for its main assumption.
RP4: The diversity of social media platforms influences the process of value capture and value co- creation in the hotel industry
This research proposition is proposed considering the beneficial impact of social media platforms on VCC and value capture processes (Solakis et al. 2021; Agafonow 2014; etc.), as well as the diverse capabilities (Kietzmann et al. 2011; Laroche, Habibi & Richard 2013; etc.), audience and engagement levels of different social media platforms (Lee, Hwang & Choi 2012; Coelho et al.
2016). However, while the studies identified the different elements of social media such as likes and comments and the influence of brand communities towards customer relationships, there is a visible gap towards emphasis on value co-creation. Furthermore, these studies are either focussed
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on social media adoption at initial stage (Lee, Hwang & Choi 2012) or the role of content towards involvement of followers across different social media platforms (Coelho et al. 2016). Hence, the lack of strong evidence in academic literature which explains the influence of diverse social media platforms along with their content attributes (such as posts, videos, and images, among others) presents a compelling case to delve into the issue. The study will address the gap connected to the impact of the social media platforms’ diversity on VCC and value capture processes, detected in the performed review of academic literature).
RP5: The process of value capture through the social media platforms has an influence on organizational strategy
Organisational strategy relates to the holisitc perspective of managing resources and adding value.
Previous studies (Hajli et al. 2017) have highlighted the effectiveness of the social media as an important marketing tool for co- branding (Hajli et al. 2017), use of social media insights for developing competitive advantage (Ribarsky, Wang & Dou 2014), and importance of communication between organisations and customers using social media platforms (Tsimonis &
Dimitriadis, 2014). Furthermore, researchers have also drawn upon the service dominant logic to examine the relationship of customer's social media interactions and behavioural engagement (Clark, Black & Judson, 2017; Onofrei, Filieri & Kennedy, 2022). However, it has been also pointed out that understanding of the best ways to use social media at all stages remains limited, fragmented and mostly anecdote and does not cover a holistic perspective of the influence on organisational strategy (Bashir, Papamichail & Malik 2017). Hence, the study aims to address this research gap by understading and exploring the process of value capture through the social media platform which can support organisational strategy. The knowledge related to the present proposition would provide novel knowledge related to the UAE hotel industry which is currently
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RP6: Value co-creation using the social media platform has significant implications in the hospitality industry
The vast implementation of social media in the hospitality industry has been identified in previous studies (Sørensen & Jensen, 2015; Solakis et al. 2021; etc.) but there is a gap related to the context of the UAE hospitality sector. Therefore, this research proposition has been defined to leverage the findings of the study and provide recommendations for use of social media platform to capture value and value co-creation. The findings of the study have the potential to provide useful insights in the specific context of hospitality sector in the UAE by leveraging the social media platforms.
It will support the efforts to address the gap related to the specific context provided by the UAE hospitality sector. Furthermore, the research is aimed at the introduction of a practical framework for effective VCC through social media in the context of the hotels industry.
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Figure 2. 17: Author’s Conceptual Framework of Value co-creation in digital era(Compiled by the researcher)
137 2.12. Conclusion:
This chapter has shown that knowledge on the use of social media for value capture value co- creation and even access to social media within organizations is limited and fragmented.
Consequently, in this chapter the researcher put forth a conceptual framework to investigate and explore how value co-creation, value capture it is organized within the organization. Also, how social media is interrelated at the organizational purposes. The researcher proposed a framework by extending and adapting the value co-creating concepts presented in SDL, ACT and social media literature. The proposed framework is designed to refine and make clear the value of co-creation and value capture how presented in literature to support CGT as starting point of theoretical sampling and collecting data to answer the research questions.
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