How companies destroy customer value during crises—and how to stop it
A new study of the pandemic's impact on tourism reveals that businesses either co-create value with customers during emergencies or actively destroy it, depending on whether they follow seven key interaction principles. The finding matters because it shows executives how to build resilience: transparency, dialogue, and proactive communication are non-negotiable during disruptions.
Originaltitel: Exploring how interaction leads to value co-creation, value co-destruction, and value no-creation during service mega-disruptions
This study investigates the principles and the factors influencing interaction for resource integration during service mega-disruptions (SMDs) in the tourism ecosystem. Utilizing qualitative data from semi-structured interviews conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this article reveals that interaction principles of willingness to exchange, access to information, dialogue, transparency, coordination, adaptation, and informed risk assessment lead to value co-creation (VCC). Failure to follow these principles leads to value no-creation (VNC) or value co-destruction (VCD). During SMDs, the most critical factors influencing interaction for resource integration are traveller’s safety needs, initiation of travel cancellation, sympathy, proactivity, omnichannel communication, the effectiveness of technology and employees as well as the number of involved actors. Forced indifference in VNC is uncovered, where firms’ constraints hinder their engagement despite tourists’ desire for interaction. This study contributesto the understanding of value dynamics during SMDs and calls for further exploration of multiple stakeholders’ perspectives in such contexts.