Individual customers’ use and integration of resources: Empirical findings and organizational implications in the context of value co-creation
Otago Forum 2 (2008) – Academic Papers
Paper no: 6
Steve Baron University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
[email protected]
Gary Warnaby University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
[email protected]
Otago Forum 2: Academic Papers
Individual customers’ use and integration of resources: Empirical findings and organizational implications in the context of value co-creation Abstract The paper addresses the need to explore the empirical potential of the service-dominant logic, and to assess its potential reach to practitioners. It tests the appropriateness of a model of the resource-based view of consumers in an organizational context – the British Library (BL) – and concludes that the model can be adapted to include individual customers with varying motivations (personal/business) for using the BL’s services. A detailed analysis of individuals’ operant resources (enabled through accessibility to 565 messages posted to a BL user support forum) provided a different lens through which the organization could consider strategies to support value co-creation. The outcomes, from a collaborative research process, with executives and senior managers of BL, suggest that a sub-division of customer operant resources into physical, cultural and social has empirical support and managerial relevance, and that a focus on individual customer’ resources can provide insights on how to manage cocreation of value. Key words:
Service-dominant logic; customer operant resources; Co-creation of value; British Library
Introduction The service-dominant (S-D) logic of marketing is conceptually compelling. The remit for the 2nd Otago Forum, which formed the basis for this journal special issue, emphasized: (1) the need for empirical studies to support the conceptualizations, and (2) the importance of engaging practitioners. This paper is based on empirical work and discussions carried out for, and with a large organization, the British Library (BL). A paper on the resource-based view of the consumer (Arnould, Price & Malshe, 2006), that appeared in the edited book of papers on the S-D logic (Lusch & Vargo 2006a), provided the foundation for the process of data analysis of users’ perceptions of the BL and the operand and operant resources utilised in their interactions with it, which comprised Stage 1 of this research, and also for the discussions and feedback from BL executives and managers incorporating Stage 2. The outcomes of the empirical work and close engagement with practitioners represent the contributions of the paper. First, considerable detailed evidence is presented that supports the proposition that individual customers possess stocks of operant resources (physical, social and cultural) that they can use and integrate, in partnership with an organization, in order to pursue life projects and roles (both professional and personal). Second, while Arnould et al’s (2006) framework has its focus on individual consumers, it is shown to be applicable to a continuum of individuals as customers; from those interacting with the organization to fulfil entirely personal needs to those with predominantly business needs. Third, a focus on how individual customers use and integrate their resources has been shown to provide organizations with a different lens through which to observe their relationships with customers. Through such a lens, organizations are able to consider (1) the facilitation of the development of perceived customer resource deficiencies, and
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(2) the communications potential of employing the resources of existing customers, as relationship-building options. The paper begins by outlining the theoretical and organizational contexts for the research, before outlining the two stages of the research process. Stage one involves an analysis of the resources used by customers (and their integration) in their relations with the BL. Stage two outlines the reaction by senior management at the BL to the results of stage one, and concludes with a discussion of the potential implications for organisations such as the BL, which have a wide range of customers whose motives for interaction with the organisation can be both personal and workrelated. As such the BL’s constituency could be thought of as being as much business-to-business (B2B) oriented as it is business-to-consumer (B2C) oriented.
Research context A developing theme of the S-D logic is that of resource integration. Following the discussions of the original Journal of Marketing paper (Vargo & Lusch 2004), a ninth foundational premise was introduced that stated that ‘Organizations exist to integrate and transform micro-specialized competencies into complex services that are demanded in the marketplace’ (Vargo & Lusch 2006, p.53). There was, however, almost immediate recognition that ‘the resource integration role of the firm is equally applicable to individuals and households’ (Lusch & Vargo 2006b, p.283), in the light of arguments put forward in a paper on a resource-based theory of the customer (Arnould et al. 2006). Subsequently, Vargo and Lusch (2008, p.7) re-wrote the ninth foundational premise as ‘all social and economic actors are resource integrators’, deliberately using the word ‘actors’ not ‘organizations’ because, as they point out, ‘individuals are resource integrators’ (p.9). The research reported here explores how individuals use and integrate their resources in the course of their experiences with a particular organization. It takes, as a starting point, the conceptual framework offered by Arnould et al. (2006) which is reproduced as Figure 1. Figure 1:
Consumers’ operand and operant resources
Social:
Family relationships
Specialized knowledge & skills
Physical: Energy, emotion,
Operant
Operand
Goals: Life Projects
Allocative capabilities
Cultural:
Authoritative capabilities
Brand Communities
Consumer
Economic: Material objects
Source: Arnould et al., 2006
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The model postulates that in order to enact roles and pursue life projects, consumers deploy both operand and operant resources. Operand resources constitute tangible resources, especially economic resources and goods/materials over which the consumer has ‘allocative’ capabilities. In contrast, operant resources are those over which the customer has ‘authoritative’ capability, including physical, cultural and social resources. These operant resources (and their specific configuration) - as they are often linked to cultural schema - will influence how the consumer employs their operand resources. There is little doubt that the framework does consider individuals as resource integrators, as recognised in the re-written ninth foundational premise, but, as it stands, it emphasizes consumer resource integration. As will be described in the next section, however, individuals who integrate resources may have business or professional motives for so doing, in addition to personal ones. For example, individuals using BL services may have reasons ranging from the purely personal (e.g. researching family genealogy) to the ‘work-related’ (e.g. academic research and scholarship, which may have both personal and professional motivations) to the ‘work-dependent’ (e.g. commercial research and/or business start-up advice). One of our aims was to establish whether the framework for the resource-based view of the consumer would be robust enough when confronted with examples of resource use and integration by individual customers exhibiting a wider range of motivations, including those that could be deemed business-related and dependent. In so doing, we sought to investigate one of the opportunities for further research identified by Arnoud et al. (2006, p. 99), namely to ‘examine the interplay among life projects, narratives and roles, and consumers’ operant and operand resources’, and in particular where this interplay may occur in both B2C and B2B contexts.
Organizational context The BL, based at St Pancras, London, is the national library of the UK. Its collection comprises 150 million items, ranging from manuscripts of unique historical importance, to current reference and market information, including business databases and details of over 56 million patents held in the BL’s Business and Intellectual Property Centre. Its facilities are accessed and used, free of charge, by people from all over the world. Since 2001, the BL has become increasingly marketoriented and has identified five broad segments or ‘audience communities’ comprising both organizations and individuals, namely: researchers; business people; the library network; schools and young people; the general public (British Library 2005). The BL’s ethos centres on the cocreation of value. It exists to ‘support the customer’s value creating processes with both service activities and goods that render services’ (Ballantyne and Varey 2008). In the strategy document for 2005-08, entitled ‘Redefining the Library’, it is stated that the BL’s main users are ‘people who are doing research for academic, personal or commercial purposes – and the organizations that support and benefit from their work’ (British Library 2005, p. 3). There is a considerable overlap between its B2C and B2B services. Strategic Marketing and Communications (SM&C) is one of six directorates within the BL’s organizational structure (the others being Finance and Corporate Services; Scholarships and Collections; e-Strategy and Information Systems; Human Resources; Operations and Services). Comprising over 120 staff, SM&C has the responsibility for public and regional marketing, business marketing, marketing to and with higher education institutions, marketing and facilitation of learning, corporate and internal communications and press relations, web services, and creative services (for example exhibitions). It also manages sales and marketing activities (for example in the BL shop) and is actively involved in product development and publisher relations.
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One of the authors of this paper had worked previously with the Director of SM&C (see Warnaby and Finney 2004, 2005). As part of a continuing dialogue, discussions took place on the mediating role of information and communications technology on the dynamics of the 21st century marketplace. A particular event, a users’ campaign in support of the BL (described in detail in the next section), highlighted the potential resources and networks of BL’s customers, and how they could contribute to (and even take over, in some respects) the marketing role of SM&C. This, in turn, led to the collaborative research described in this paper.
The research process The research was carried out in two main stages. In Stage 1, a qualitative analysis was undertaken on a database consisting of 565 user support messages for the BL. In Stage 2, the outcomes from the analysis were presented to the MS&C Directorate and to the Executive Board of the BL, and feedback from the meetings was gathered. This led, in turn, to further discussions with the marketing and communications managers of MS&C, and the Business and Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC), and also access to additional BL documentation. Although, for exposition purposes, the two stages are treated separately, in practice the process was iterative, and there was considerable overlap between the stages.
Stage 1 The BL relies on Government funding, specifically from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The UK Labour Government undertook a ‘Comprehensive Spending Review’ in late 2007, which would include a review of the money to be available to the DCMS, and how its money would subsequently be allocated to cultural/arts organizations, including the BL. There was a widespread belief at the time that the outcome would result in possible budgetary cuts for the BL. Indeed, BL management was asked to consider the implications of budget cuts of the order of 7% p.a., and concluded from this analysis that shorter opening hours and/or the introduction of fees for previously free services (such as use of the St. Pancras reading rooms) would be necessary if such a scenario actually transpired. When news of this became public in January 2007 via the national media, there was extensive protest by BL users, and widespread media comment. As part of its response to this controversy, in February 2007, BL sought to elicit views from its users, and posted the following statement on its Supporters Forum website: ‘If you want to support us please let us know why the British Library is important to you’. This resulted in an overwhelming response from users. The MS&C Executive recognized the value in this rich data set, and so made 565 posted messages (from one paragraph to two pages in length) available to the authors for analysis in June 2007. These constituted the first tranche of messages of support uploaded onto the website – hundreds of further messages were received, but these were not part of the analysis. Thus, a great opportunity presented itself for a detailed examination of the resources of BL users based on their own ‘voice’. Also, given the context in which the messages were forthcoming, the external environment had clearly played a part. Consequently, at the outset, the following categories were identified, and NVivo7 was employed to facilitate data coding and analysis: Customer Operand Resources; Customer Operant Resources (sub-divided as Cultural, Physical and Social); BL Operand Resources; BL Operant Resources (sub-divided as Emotional, Physical and Social); Environment (sub-divided into Economic, Political and Technological).
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During the process of coding and cross-checking the data between the authors, it was found necessary to further sub-divide some of the categories, and to introduce two further categories, ‘The BL’s Position’ and ‘BL as a Symbolic Asset’ - themes that represented the higher level values that the users shared and articulated in their messages of support. Through the iterative process of coding, BL’s Position was subdivided into the categories ‘Contribution to Intellectual Life’, ‘Global Reach’ and ‘World Leadership’, and BL as a Symbolic Asset was sub-divide into the categories ‘As a Public Good’, ‘As a National Collective Memory’ and ‘As a Home for Scholarship’. The full list of categories finally agreed is shown in Appendix 1. Initial findings The first objective, at Stage 1, was to seek and present evidence that individual customers are able and willing to use and integrate their operant resources, and to establish the practicality of adopting Arnould et al’s classification of operant resources as physical, cultural and social. The evidence was extremely strong on both counts, as seen below, as the letters of support provide both explicit and implicit evidence of the physical, cultural and social resources that BL users have at their disposal. Physical resources The physical resources of energy and emotion of BL users are evident in most of the letters of support. Energy is demonstrated with respect to the users’ inputs in their use of the BL facilities often over many years: “I have been a reader there since 1988, and the wonderful trove of unexpected delights, seventeenth-century bundles of pamphlets, eighteenth-century miscellanies, sentimental novels unpublished since the 1790s, the volumes of Lysons’ collectanea, the large collections of advertisements and broadsides, the fabulous array of reference items – all these and more enabled me to launch my career and to write all my monographs and edit various editions…” (female, academic, UK) “I cannot say how much the British Library has meant to me as a publishing scholar and teacher. Without it I could not have published books on and editions of the playwrights W B Yeats, J M Synge, Bernard Shaw, Lady Gregory, nor written the biography of Mrs W B Yeats.” (female, academic, Canada) “… I wrote my first feature film screenplay in the British Library, with the hourly benefit of its world-class research resources. After a three-week writing and research period I sold an option on the script for £7000” (male, writer, UK) “I am an academic living in Zululand, South Africa, where scholarly resources are somewhat limited. However, I manage to do scholarly research and get my articles in international journals and books. This is possible at least partly because I have access to the British Library…” (female, academic, South Africa) Also evident was users’ willingness to provide further support to the BL:
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“I have e-mailed Gordon Brown and several other MPs directly” (female, academic, UK) “I have sent the following message to the Dept of Culture Media and Sport. Please forward this message to whoever at the BL is keeping track of such letters of protest” (male, academic, USA) “As an American, I am not eligible to sign the petition to halt any funding cuts for the Library, but I would still like to voice my opinion” (male, academic, USA) Emotion is evident in the in the language used and the sentiments expressed. Many supporters showed their strength of feeling by declaring themselves ‘appalled’ by the prospects of cuts to the BL. However, a multitude of other expressions were used; for example, ‘gravely concerned’, ‘scarcely believable’, ‘dismayed’, ‘alarming’, ‘great shame’, ‘latest idiocy’, ‘utter disgrace’, ‘extraordinarily sad’, ‘embarrassing’, ‘astounded’, ‘short-sighted’, ‘breathtaking’, ‘grave impact’, ‘strongly object’, ‘horrified’, ‘great anxiety’, ‘very disappointed’, ‘devastating effects’, ‘absolutely despicable’, ‘tragedy’, ‘deeply disturbed’, ‘deplorable’. The following quotations summarise the emotional impact of the BL on many of its users: “The library is a life-line for me. A place where you can come and learn in peace, a place for furthering yourself and encouraging yourself. It is a place of hope” (female, occupation not known, UK) “None of my work (and thus my happiness and well-being) would have been possible without the BL” (female, freelance writer, UK) “I was in the manuscript room of the British Library on Monday and, unaware of the gathering storm clouds, felt immensely privileged and fortunate to be there…” (female, independent researcher, UK) Cultural resources As would be expected with users of a research facility, their level of education and specialized knowledge and skills are much higher than the adult mean. Table 1 gives the job functions of the sample of BL supporters whose letters of support are contained in the analysis. Given their occupations, the support letters are highly articulate, with personal titles and qualifications (e.g. Prof. Dr. etc.) often emphasized within or at the end of the letter to add weight to its contribution. “I write as a professor at Queen Mary University of London, and also as a scholar who has used your library over many years” (female, academic, UK) “As an American academic who has written several books and many articles at the British library over the last half century…” (male, academic, USA)
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Table 1:
Job function of BL user Number of Users
Percentage of Users
214
38
Postgraduate Research Student
68
12
Freelance researcher
52
9
Author/Journalist/Writer
44
8
Librarian/Archivist
40
7
Postgraduate Taught Student
19
3
Commercial Researcher
17
3
7
1
Other
14
2
Unassigned
90
16
Job Function Academic Faculty
Undergraduate Taught Student
There is cultural diversity with respect to home locations and places of work (see Table 2). Table 2: Home locations / Places of work of BL user Location
Number of Users
Percentage of Users
United Kingdom
375
66.3
North America (USA/Canada)
106
18.8
Europe
22
3.9
Australasia
10
1.8
Asia
5
1.0
Africa
3
0.5
South America
3
0.5
43
7.6
Unassigned
The cultural diversity is often linked to the user’s history of research work using the BL’s facilities.
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“It [the BL] has been a solid monumental presence for me as I have moved from Australia, to Canada, to the US with long periods in the UK. Over the years I have haunted the old reading room in Great Russell Street and used the new libraries facilities at St Pancras” (male, academic, USA) “First as a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, then as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Puget Sound in Washington State, and most recently as an assistant and now associate professor of English Literature at the University of Toronto, I have spent at least two months at the British Library every year but one since 1995” (male, academic, Canada) Social resources It is evident that family relationships, consumer communities and commercial relationships play a significant part in the experiences of BL users, and that these same resources are utilised in contributing to the campaign. Customer-to-customer interactions, mostly mediated by modern information and communication technology, were the backbone of the campaign, and not only via the BL website. Access to consumer communities was indicated in several of the support letters: “I have just joined a facebook group detailing the government are proposing to cut the funding to the British Library” (male, production assistant, UK) “As I am sure you know, the possibility of limited funds forcing you to begin charging for use of the libraries is everywhere on the Internet” (female, independent researcher, USA) Equally, there was evidence from many sources that work-related relationships contributed to the worldwide awareness of the potential cuts in funding. Some academic institutions (for example, Durham University, St Andrews University, Roehampton University and University of Toronto) had multiple contributors to the BL website, indicating the existence of networks in these locations. More specific examples, contained in the letters, demonstrated not only the importance of work-related/commercial relationships, but also the manner in which these relationships contributed to the campaign momentum: “I am also urging my academic colleagues to write to you on their own behalf” (male, academic, Canada) “In case you are unaware of it, I draw your attention to the petition mentioned in the message below…which reached me this afternoon. It came from an academic friend who had clearly added his name and sent it on to his entire address list” (male, occupation not known, UK) “As a member of UCU [University and College Union – the trade union for UK academics] I have been asked to email you to stress how important the British Library is to my research and to my writing” (female, academic, UK) It is less easy to trace the effect of family relationships although there were a few instances of contributions from different people with uncommon family names, and occasional references to other family members. 69
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Integration of operant resources It has been highlighted how customers can employ their physical, cultural and social resources in supporting a campaign in which they believe. These resources are integrated at the individual level, almost subconsciously. The following short quotation, for example, has elements of energy and emotion (physical resources), specialised knowledge and history (cultural resources), and family (social resource): “I am a 27-year-old doctoral student from Ireland. I have been to more libraries than most people my age. Big ones like the Bodleian in Oxford or the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., and little ones like the Ralph Vaughn Williams Library in Cecil Sharp House, London. Of all my library experiences, the British Library stands out. I have flown to London especially on a number of occasions to visit it. There, I could access material that was held nowhere else. In particular, the National Sound Archive was a revelation. I was able to listen to the recorded voice of my dead grandfather, who passed away long before I was born” (female, postgraduate research student, Ireland) The individual customer operant resources are clearly integrated collectively, as well as individually, as evidenced by the volume of support for the BL and the speed with which it was manifested through the social and professional networks mentioned above. The importance of understanding individual customer use of operant resources Another very evident and interesting feature of the qualitative data was the relative lack of operand resources available to the individual customers in comparison to their stocks of operant resources. The use of operand resources by users was manifested in expenditure occasioned by travelling to and staying in London in order to use BL resources, which would potentially be increased by shorter opening hours and fees for access to the reading rooms: “At present I can catch an early train to London, spend a whole day in the library and return in the late evening. If the opening hours were to be reduced I would need two days to achieve the same objectives and would thus have to make and expensive overnight stay. If I were have to pay access fees on top of this, it would become a major obstacle to my work” (male, academic, UK ). “For the very large number of BL users who come to London from abroad on sabbaticals and research leaves, any money we have to spend paying fees reduces the amount of time we can remain in London”(male, academic, USA ). Notwithstanding this, many users highlighted the cumulative operand resources spent in their use of the BL and the consequent contribution to the local economy: “During the last thirty-six years, I have travelled to the UK at least once a year with the primary purpose of conducting research at the rare book and manuscript collections at the BL. In financial terms alone, these trips have represented a contribution in excess of £100,000, with attendant payments of VAT and so forth” (male, academic, USA).
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Stage 2 Stage 2 involved real time interaction and collaboration with BL executives and managers, and is still ongoing at the time of writing. During the course of the data analysis in Stage 1, the UK Government announced (in November 2007) the details of its Comprehensive Spending Review, and, to the relief of BL staff and users, the proposed cuts did not materialize, and the BL’s ‘grantin-aid’ from the Government was increased in line with inflation (at 2.7% per annum) until 2010/11. Only anecdotal evidence exists to indicate whether the messages posted by the BL users, and their lobbying for the BL, had a bearing on the Government’s position, but nevertheless, the MC&C Directorate were very interested to see the findings from the Stage 1 analysis, as they intuitively recognised the value of the data, but had not found the time for a systematic and thorough analysis of the user support messages. The findings of Stage 1 were presented to the senior members of the MS&C Directorate in April 2008, and the discussions and feedback were recorded. This resulted in an invitation for further presentations to the BL Executive Board and to the MS&C Directorate as a whole in September 2008. At this time, additional discussions took place with Marketing Communications managers and a manager responsible for the Business and Intellectual Property Centre. At each of the meetings, the authors were presented with documentation relating to the current marketing initiatives. The ‘data’ gathered at Stage 2, therefore, consisted of the organizational responses and contributions on their relationships with individual customers. Findings Although ongoing discussions cover the full range of categories listed in Appendix 1, in this paper the focus is primarily on issues concerning the operant resources of the BL’s individual customers. On the framework adopted The initial presentation, to the senior members of the SM&C Directorate in April 2008, consisted of two elements; the resource utilization of BL users, and the role of the BL in their users’ life roles and projects. Both elements are fundamental to the framework exhibited in Figure 1. The members of the Directorate found the categorizations of individual customer’s operant and operand resources, and of the BL’s position, extremely helpful. They appreciated particularly how the analysis had brought a meaningful classification of what was, up until then, a huge volume of unstructured, supportive messages. For the SM&C Directorate, this was the first exposure to a thorough, systematic analysis of the messages of support. Prior to receiving the results of the Stage 1 analysis, they had been able to give little detailed consideration of message content other than to comment about receiving “another lovely one” as messages were read and uploaded onto the BL website. The Director of SM&C felt its value to be that of giving them an opportunity to view their customers “through a different set of spectacles”, and was keen to follow up the ideas. Throughout the discussion, there was a genuine surprise at the speed and dynamics of the user-led campaign of support, coupled with a recognition that such a process could develop in a similar way against an organization, with potentially disastrous consequences. At this stage, it became apparent to the authors that a focus on individual customer resource integration, while different and novel, had an appeal and meaning to practitioners of an organization engaged on a day-to-day basis with cocreating value, and maintaining positive relationships with their customers. The adopted framework had a practical relevance. 71
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Consequently, it was arranged that the findings of Stage 1 should be presented to a wider audience, and that discussions could take place with BL managers responsible for customer research and services. This occurred in September 2008, with presentations to the BL’s Executive Board and to wider membership of the SM&C Directorate, resulting in very positive feedback from both groups indicating that it provided a different perspective on their thinking, and one that would be considered in the development of ongoing marketing communications strategies. The B2B context – Customers of the Business and Intellectual Property Centre It was also recognized very strongly that the findings would have relevance to those dealing directly with BL’s business customers, who are, as mentioned above, identified as a key audience in the BL’s strategy (British Library 2005). As a result of the discussions above, the authors were encouraged to assess the applicability of the Stage 1 findings to the work of the Business and Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC). One of the managers of the BIPC, who had heard the presentation to the full SM&C Directorate, was subsequently interviewed. The BIPC, which opened in 2006 with financial backing from the London Development Agency, was designed “to support SMEs and entrepreneurs from that first spark of inspiration to successfully launching a business”, in this, it offers “a unique combination of business and IP information, including free access to more than 30 high-value subscription databases, hundreds of market research reports, and the vast resources of the UK Intellectual Property Office, including searchable databases on patents, trademarks and registered designs” (British Library 2007, p. 2). The aims of the centre are for its customers to be inspired, have the opportunity to network with like-minded people, get personal advice from experienced people, develop their skills and knowledge, and make good use of their time. A number of initiatives had been set in place to meet the aims, and the demand for the BIPC services had far exceeded its forecast targets since opening (detailed in British Library 2007). The operant resource-profile of BIPC individual customers was believed to be very different from that of academic faculty who made up the majority of the message writers to the BL’s support forum. For example, unlike academics whose cultural resources reflect regular contact with library services, many BIPC customers were unfamiliar with library usage, and require help with getting the best out of the facilities. Also, in contrast to the access to peers taken for granted by academics, many BIPC customers work in relative isolation, and can suffer from lack of social resources. Despite these differences, however, the framework inspired by Figure 1 was seen as a useful lens through which the view the BIPC service, as will be explained below.
Discussion and implications Arguably, most of the current contributions to the S-D logic of marketing are at the conceptual level. The research reported in this paper provides empirical support for an important feature of the S-D logic – that of customer resource integration – and seeks to establish its organizational relevance. The findings result from ongoing collaboration with a specific organization, the British Library. The detailed messages of customer support for the BL are but one example of the available customer voice data in the current internet-driven world. In many respects, organizations can be overwhelmed by the volume of qualitative data that customers can provide on various internet platforms, and require guidelines as to its analysis. The adoption of the framework in Figure 1, to explore individual customers’ use and integration of resources, has been found to be both feasible 72
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and practical in this particular context. The generic categories of customer and organizational operand and operant resources, and the sub-categorization of customer operant resources as physical, social and cultural, can provide the bases for a systematic and useful analysis of customer voice.
The continuum of individual customers The framework in Figure 1, that has guided the process of analysis at Stage 1, was presented as a resource-based view of the consumer. As was emphasized earlier, the BL has individual customers whose motivations for using their services may be positioned on a continuum from at one extreme the purely personal, a mix of personal and professional, to the purely professional, where their use of the BL’s services is motivated by their organizational/business affiliations and as such could be regarded – implicitly and/or explicitly - as being a manifestation of a B2B market context (see Figure 2). Indeed, this notion of a continuum, where the delineation between consumer and business market contexts – and buyer behaviour within them - may be somewhat blurred rather than strictly dichotomous, is supported for example by Wilson, who in a review of this area states that, “there are likely to be insights to be gained from regarding individuals and organizations as axiomatically similar and comparable (not the same), rather than treating them as empirically, theoretically and conceptually distinct” (2000, p.782). The analysis in Stage 1 did not require separate categories to be introduced to account for the variation in personal/professional motivations. While the physical, cultural and social resources demonstrated by individuals through their messages do clearly vary, there was no evidence that the variation could be accounted for by differences between personal and professional motivations. Indeed, similarities often occurred. For example, in terms of cultural resources related to BL usage, the sentiments are very similar across the continuum: “I was a professional journalist from 1962 to 1990 (Sunday Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Express) - writing features - and have since been a professional author (more than 50 titles on the Public Lending Rights register.) I have leant upon the Newspaper Library at Colindale very, very heavily for 30 years indeed, I could not have maintained my output without it.” (i.e. Work-dependent Use) “I use the British Library for personal research and as a librarian and advise my students to use it.” (i.e. Work-related Use) “The BL at St Pancras has been crucial to discovering my family history in India - I have spent hours, nay days, in the OIOC Reading Room and simply could not have achieved as much without the wonderful freedom of access to the archives and the invaluable help of the OIOC Reading Room staff.” (i.e. Personal Use) There is strong support, from the Stage 1 research, that Figure 1 could be augmented to represent a resource-based view of individual customers. This implies that the framework may provide a valuable vehicle for offering insights into the use and integration of resources by those many individuals whose interactions are the mainstay of commercial B2B relationships. Indeed, the importance of individuals in this context is well recognised (see for example, Ford et al. 1998; IMP Group 1982). 73
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Figure 2:
Motivations and categories of BL individual customers
Personal
Family tree researchers Exhibit Visitors
Work‐ Dependent
Work‐Related
Academic faculty Authors and writers
Commercial researchers Librarians Entrepreneurs Organizational or Business Affiliation
Facilitating the development of customer operant resources According to the 2007-08 Annual Report and Accounts, the BL’s first strategic priority is to ‘enrich the user’s experience’ (British Library 2008, p. 16). In respect of the BIPC, the BL offers ‘inspiration and support to inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs’ (British Library 2008, p. 14). Thus, without using the language as such, the BL are working to develop the operant resources of their customers (who, in the case of BIPC, have business motives). Therefore, the categorization of customer operant resources as physical, social and cultural has the potential to provide a coordinating framework for the activities that are undertaken to meet this strategic priority. Thus, the cultural operant resources of BIPC customers, such as specialized knowledge and skills (Arnould et al., 2006), are facilitated by both BL and partner (e.g. London Development Agency) resources, including: • • • •
Workshops (e.g. ‘Introduction to Intellectual Property’, ‘How to Search’ workshops on patents, trademarks, registered designs and copyright, ‘How to Find’ workshops on using business information to assess markets, produce plans and pinpoint customers) Advice sessions with the ‘Inventor in Residence’ and other experts, offering free bespoke ‘consultancy’ A free e-course on intellectual property Website information
Social resources (highlighting relationships and communities) are facilitated by, for example: • • • • •
‘Inspiring Entrepreneurs’ networking events and talks by famous entrepreneurs (which are also available on YouTube) A Facebook group Blogs A monthly e-newsletter Coaching, mentoring and ‘Ideas into Action’ workshops (British Library 2007, 2008).
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Many of the above activities could also facilitate the development of physical operant resources such as energy, emotion and strength (Arnould et al. 2006) among BIPC customers, for example, by the use of successful exemplars, which could provide motivation and encouragement to individuals to persevere with what may be at times difficult and complex situations in which they find themselves as they seek to exploit their intellectual property and/or establish businesses. Indeed, the BL encourages its users to communicate their positive experiences of the BL: “Are You a Business & IP Centre success story? Has the Business and IP Centre helped you get your idea off the ground or made a real difference to your existing business? If so, we would like to hear from you. We are looking for successful entrepreneurs and inventors to be part of our case study programme. If you qualify to be part of the programme, your story could be featured on our website, in our press coverage and in promotional material in the Centre. To apply to be a Business & IP Centre success story, visit www.bl.uk/bipc/success.html .” (Promotional postcard distributed to users of the Business and Intellectual Property Centre). Not only did the analysis at Stage 1 emphasize the stock of operant resources of the BL customers, but also it set in motion the recall of a number of anecdotal stories in the discussions following the 1 September presentations of how customers had always been willing to use their resources to help the BL in a variety of ways. This use of user case studies has been a central tenet of the BLs communications activities for some time, with much promotional literature and the institution’s Annual Report and Accounts in recent years incorporating user case studies, emphasising how user resources have been enhanced by BL facilities and services. Thus, developing customer participation had been at the forefront of BL’s marketing activities. Seeing their work in the context of co-creation of value, and having a greater sense of, and feel for, the operant resources of their customers, added legitimacy to their activities, and supported strategies for encouraging relationship-building through even greater customer involvement. There was full agreement that steps should be made to utilize the huge base of customer resources – demonstrated in the campaign to support the BL - in an ongoing way.
Limitations and further research As stated earlier, the availability of the data supplied by the BL’s user support forum offered a great opportunity to gain access to real customer voice. However, it is clearly not a random sample of customers (a point emphasized, in discussions, by the BL Executive Board), and, by definition, contains the more passionate and loyal BL users. Therefore, the voices analyzed were more likely to be those of customers who possessed higher levels of emotion and energy (physical resources), and education (cultural resource) than those of many other BL users. Nevertheless, with that caveat in mind, the purpose of the analysis at Stage 1 was achieved; namely, to assess whether the categories, suggested by the framework of Figure 1, were applicable for gaining a greater understanding of operant resources used by individual customers with different motivations for engaging with an organization. The answer was ‘yes’. In some respects, however, the findings were only partial. For example, the illustrations of customers’ use of social resources raised questions about the dynamics of the social networking – how does it start? who are the main instigators? what forms of communication are used? This suggested that future marketing research activities could/should concentrate on understanding customer practice. This would complement the conventional customer survey-based research. 75
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The findings reported above reflect the scope of the paper, and are concentrated on the operant resources of individual customers. As seen in Appendix 1, the data categorizations also extend to organizational operand and operant resources, and analysis of data in these categories would provide insights on a customer-centric perception of the resources of the organization (BL) (Arnould 2008). This is part of the ongoing and future collaboration with the BL. Finally, the BL is a service organization, and furthermore one that is dedicated to customer ‘value in use’. In that sense, it is the type of organization that would be receptive to ideas emanating from the S-D logic. It would be instructive to offer a taxonomy of organizations in terms of their potential to adopt S-D logic ideas in order to build relationships with their individual customers.
Conclusions Brown (2007) observes that the empirical potential of the S-D logic should be explored if the logic is to develop beyond dialogue and debate, and that its reach should be judged to a large extent through its managerial relevance. This paper provides some empirical support for the ‘resourcebased view of customers’ framework that underpins the concept of co-creation of value, and is one of the first to document organizational reactions to, and views regarding, a focus on the operant resources of individual customers. The process described above supports the view that an S-D logic focus on co-creation of value can have resonance with practitioners at the executive and senior management levels. In particular, detailed research on operant resources (physical, social and cultural) can provide organizations with a different lens through which to view their customers and build relationships. Moreover, this approach can apply to customers with both personal and business motivations, recognising the degree of convergence that exists between the B2C and B2B sectors in a number of respects (Baines et al. 2008; Wilson 2000). What can be learnt from a single organizational case study can, inevitably, only be partial, but it is hoped that it can supply a trigger for other researchers to make the S-D logic accessible to businesses and organizations.
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References Arnould, E.J. (2008). Service-dominant logic and resource theory. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36, 21-24. Arnould, E.J., Price, L.L., and Malshe, A. Toward a cultural resource-based theory of the customer, in The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate and Directions, R.F.Lusch and S.L. Vargo, eds., ME Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 2006, 320-333. Baines, P., Fill, C., and Page. K. Marketing. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008. Ballantyne, D., and Varey, R.J. (2008). The service-dominant logic and the future of marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36, 11-14. British Library, Redefining the Library: The British Library’s Strategy 2005-2008, The British Library, London, 2005. British Library, British Library Business & IP Centre: A Capital Resource for Enterprise and Innovation, British Library, London, 2007. British Library, Annual Report and Accounts 2007/08, TSO (The Stationery Office), Norwich, 2008. Brown, S. (2007). Are we nearly there yet? on the retro-dominant logic of marketing. Marketing Theory, 7 (3), 291-300. Ford, D., Gadde, L-E., Hakansson, H., Lundgren, A, Snehota, I., Turnbull, P. And Wilson, D. Managing Business Relationships, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, 1998 IMP Group, An interaction approach, in International Marketing and Purchasing of Industrial Goods, IMP Group, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, 1982 Lusch, R.F., and Vargo, S.L., eds. The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate and Directions, ME Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 2006a. Lusch, R.F., and Vargo, S.L. (2006b). Service-dominant logic: reactions, reflections and refinements. Marketing Theory, 6 (3), 281-288. Vargo, S.L., and Lusch, R.F. (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic of marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68 (January), 1-17. Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. Service-dominant logic: what it is, what it is not, what it might be, in The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing: Dialog, Debate and Directions, R.F.Lusch and S.L. Vargo, eds., ME Sharpe, Armonk, NY, 2006, 43-56. Vargo, S.L., and Lusch, R.F. (2008). Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36, 1-10. Warnaby, G. and Finney, J. (2004) Developing a marketing orientation at the British Library, SCONUL Focus, No. 32 (Summer/Autumn), 42-44 77
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Warnaby, G. and Finney, J. (2005) Creating customer value in the not-for-profit sector: A case study of the British Library, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 10, 183-195. Wilson, D. F. (2000) Why divide consumer and organizational buyer behaviour? European Journal of Marketing, 34 (7), 780-796.
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Appendix 1: Categories used in the NVivo analysis of BL users’ messages of support • •
• •
•
•
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Customer Operand Resources Customer Operant Resources o Cultural Current Experiences of Using BL Past Experiences of Using BL Reasons for Using BL Facilities o Physical BL Contribution to Personal Objectives Strength of Feeling User Resource Expenditure Willingness to Provide Further Support o Social Member of Formal Network (Social) Member of Formal Network (Work) Relationship with BL staff Relationship with Other BL Users Organizational Operand Resources Organizational Operant Resources o Emotional Positive Feelings about BL o Physical Ambience Facilities Products/Services Used o Social Staff Expertise Staff Friendliness and Helpfulness Environment o Economic o Political o Technological BL Position o Contribution to Intellectual Life o Global Reach o World Leadership BL as a Symbolic Asset o As a Public Good o As a National Collective Memory o As a Home for Scholarship
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