Abstract:

With the rapid development of information technologies and the Internet, firms increasingly pay attention to interaction with customers in order to realize value co-creation. Extant research proposed the interaction orientation and did empirical research about it, but its measurement derives from goods-dominant logic and does not explain the mechanism of value co-creation. Based on current literature, this paper executed three surveys, operated EFA and CFA, proposed the operational definition and dimensions of New Interaction orientation, and developed its scale. The findings showed that New Interaction Orientation reflects a firm’s implementation of a set of marketing actions to engage itself into customers’ daily life practices and co-create value with customers together. These marketing actions include building communciation platforms, facilitating interaction quality, encouraging customer engagement, and integrating interaction resources, et al. The construct of New Interaction Orientation consists of five behavioral dimensions, namely, “building communication channels”, “involving customers in co-production”, “improving service capabilities”, “improving interaction quality” and “integrating interaction resources”. Empirical results indicate that the measurement scale has acceptable levels of reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity and nomological validity. Theoretical implications, managerial implications and limitations of our study are discussed.

Key words: value, co-creation, interaction orientation, scale development