Introduction

Theory Development

Empirical Explorations

General Discussion

Managerial Implications

Toward a Research Agenda

References

Abstract

As interactive technologies become more pervasive, firms are increasingly conducting customer surveillance—the acquisition, usage, and storage of consumers’ personal data—more covertly and with fewer resources. Privacy calculus—the rational decision to disclose personal data—has dominated the literature to explain rational or calculated reactions to customer surveillance, however, not all reactions can be explained by rational processes. This article advances our understanding of these reactions beyond the privacy calculus concept by proposing attitudes toward customer surveillance. Based on levels of consumer privacy and consumer value concerns, these attitudes are associated with four archetypes—pragmatists, protectionists, capitalists, and apathists. By understanding these attitudes, researchers and managers can gain insight into the diversity of consumers’ concerns regarding both consumer privacy and consumer value in order to better explain observed marketplace behaviors.

Introduction

As marketing embraces the science of analytics (Bauman and Lyon 2013; Moe and Ratchford 2018), marketing managers need to reflect on the impact of surveillance practices on their customers. Customer surveillance, which involves the acquisition, usage, or storage of customers’ personal data (Plangger and Watson 2015), can be a source of competitive advantage by generating customer insights. These customer insights produce market intelligence—data on customers’ needs, preferences, characteristics, behavior, attitudes, and other attributes—to influence, target, and manage customers, as well as to proactively respond to customers’ needs (Holtrop et al. 2017; Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Wood and Ball 2013). Managers have a long history of using customer surveillance and market intelligence to gain a competitive edge and enjoy enhanced customer loyalty, satisfaction, and relationships (Jaworski and Kohli 1993). Marketing intelligence has become a central part of marketing operations for many firms across a wide variety of industries (Albrechtslund 2008; Deighton and Kornfeld 2009; Moe and Ratchford 2018). However, marketing managers also need to scrutinize the effects of surveillance investments on customers’ attitudes, loyalty, and behavior in order to identify and mitigate negative outcomes.

1- Introduction

2- Literature review

3- Research Model and methods

4- Results

5- Conclusions

References

Abstract

In Korea, traditional retail districts face a serious situation whereby businesses in downtown areas face collapsing as local population declines: resulting in a decrease in self-employed sales and a declining local economy. Traditional retailers use ambiguous accounting and are reluctant to use credit cards, and thus, the overall reliability of their customer data is low. This paper solves this problem by applying the concept of customer equity (CE). We conducted an empirical analysis through questionnaires to identify differences in CE between traditional and new retail formats. The questionnaire consisted of questions related to CE (value equity, brand equity, relation equity), satisfaction, loyalty, and demographic characteristics. CE and satisfaction were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 400 surveys were completed, resulting in 391 usable returns for analysis in this study. In the regression analysis between CE and customer satisfaction, both old and new retail firms showed statistically significant effects. In the traditional retail industry, value equity and brand equity were statistically significant, while relation equity were not.

Introduction

Over the last 50 years smaller formats have been put under pressure both by large format, sometimes multinational, retailers and by the internet. In many countries (Murcott et al., 2013) loss of traditional local shops has created under-served markets or, worse, Food Deserts where essential provision cannot be sustained. There is a clear social welfare agenda if members of the public cannot easily access food (Hallsworth and Coca-Stefaniak, 2018) and a loss of past investment when businesses fail. So a second key agenda concerns the retailers themselves: there are benefits if the self-employed continue to be independent, and achieve sustainable growth by satisfying customers. As much as anything, such innovations safeguard past sunk costs in traditional locations. However, this sector is under-researched not least because there is no reliable way to know how much the self-employed who work in the traditional retail sector sell, or how much profit they make. Unfortunately, some of the self-employed never report their sales or net profit numbers publicly. This is because not only do they prefer to transact in cash, but they may also report figures lower than their actual sales whenever they have been investigated by the government. This paper addresses this challenge by applying the concept of customer equity (CE). As customer-oriented marketing strategies that took hold in the 1960s were emphasized in the literature, related marketing theories and practices also received constant attention (Vavra, 1997). Recently, a customer-centered viewpoint, such as customer satisfaction and customer value, was implemented as a concept in marketing management (Bolton and Drew, 1991). That said, the concept of customer lifetime value (CLV) has attracted more attention in recent years. CLV has been discussed in many academic research articles over the past decade, and has been used as a practical tool to measure business success (Gupta et al., 2006). As an extension of the CLV concept, CE is defined as the discounted lifetime values from all customers (Rust et al., 2000). (see Figs. 1 and 2) CE usually consists of value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity (Rust et al., 2001; Vogel et al., 2008). CE is perceived as a strategic framework that links customers and businesses and creates new sources of revenue (Lemon et al., 2001).

1- The increasing role of the customer

2- The notion of value

3- Value creation and customer communities

4- The study

5- A conceptual framework of customer value formation

6- Managerial implications

7- Summary

References

Abstract

Despite tremendous interest in how online communities create value, existing research tends to focus on limited means through which such value is generated. In this article, we develop a conceptual model of customer value formation. This model rests on two dimensions, namely whether value is formed in the customer or provider domain and whether the value is individual or collective in nature. This enables value formation to be characterized in four ways and enables a more nuanced view of value formation to emerge. Firms are encouraged to reflect on their efforts to support each of the four value formation types. In particular, our conceptualization challenges companies to consider customer contexts outside of customer-firm interaction as important sources of value creation for customers. Such reflection enables practitioners to develop strategies for supporting individual and collective value creation across both the customer and provider domains.

The increasing role of the customer

Customer value–defined as the value customers derive from products, services, or brands-is a topic of extensive interest among marketing academics and practitioners alike. It is widely recognized as a key concept in marketing and one of the main drivers of business success. Value is recognized as being co-created by the provider and the customer (Grönroos, 2006; Payne, Storbacka, & Frow, 2008). This realization is part of a larger shift in how marketers understand value. The fact that customers and firms have different value-creating processes implies value is created in different domains and is no longer entirely in the firm’s control (Heinonen et al., 2010). Managers are increasingly aware of the need to understand customers’ roles in firms’ activities, such as those evident in service process blueprinting or customer journeys (Bitner, Ostrom, & Morgan, 2008; Voss & Zomerdijk, 2007). The increasing role of customer participation amplifies the need to understand how customers orchestrate value (Heinonen et al., 2010). Such understanding requires recognizing the individual and collective aspects of value (Macdonald, Kleinaltenkamp, & Wilson, 2016) and, as mentioned, that value creation is not always controlled by a company.

Purpose – Online customer relationship management (CRM) is an important issue for implementing digital marketing of electronic commerce or social commerce. The purpose of this study is to establish valuable markets for discovering customer knowledge from data-driven CRM systems for enhancing growth rates of businesses. Airline or travel agency industries are online businesses in the world. Therefore, the industries in Taiwan will be an empirical case for this study. Design/methodology/approach – This research applied a procedure with an applied proposed model for establishing valuable markets from data-driven CRM systems. However, the study used a proposed customer value model (recency, frequency and monetary [RFM]; RFM model-based), the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) procedure and a proposed equation for estimating customer values. Findings – For enhancing the data-driven CRM marketing of the industries, in this research, the market of air travelers can be partitioned into eight markets by the proposed model. As well, the markets can be ranked by the AHP procedure. Furthermore, the travelers’ customer values can be estimated by a proposed customer value equation. Originality/value – Via the applied proposed procedure, online airlines, travel agencies or other online businesses can implement the research procedure as their data-driven marketing strategy on their online large-scale or Big Data customers’ databases for enhancing sales rates.

Introduction

Airfare always takes the major portion of a traveling budget for transportation costs of an international travel plan. Hence, low-cost carriers (LCCs) attract more international travelers for their travel plans. In Taiwan, a new LCC was launched by China Airlines (Tigerair Taiwan). In other words, the impact of airline markets in Taiwan between regular airlines and LCC airlines will be extremely competitive in the near future. Therefore, for enhancing online customer relationship management (CRM) systems of international regular airlines in Taiwan, the purpose of this work is to analyze customer values of international travelers for marketing strategies of online CRM systems in the regular airline industry in Taiwan. However, a data-driven marketing strategy for online CRM is an important issue for airlines’ ecommerce or social commerce. The results of this research can be applied in their online merchandising or social commerce systems for enhancing the sales rates. Typically, retailers can realize their markets by using a questionnaire, survey or some investigation methods with designed variables of customer shopping benefit. Hence, the markets can be identified by recency, frequency and monetary (RFM) model as well (Kotler and Keller, 2016; Chiang, 2018). However, air travelers and retailers’ shoppers have different shopping behaviors. Thus, the RFM model can be modified due to different characteristics of industries (Chiang, 2012, 2018). Regarding the model, the researcher discussed with three scholars and managers in airlines’ management field, and the discussion results showed that three variables can identify travelers’ customer values. In accordance with the discussions, the research proposed a novel model for airlines and travel agencies to identify travelers’ customer values and markets, which consists of frequency, monetary and average number of group travelers (FMA model, RFM model-based). Furthermore, the FMA variables can be substituted for other businesses. The FMA model (markets) can be ranked via the well-known decision-making procedure of analytic hierarchy process (AHP, Saaty, 1990), because the AHP procedure can identify the weights of markets’ customer values. Via the weights of rank markets, the research proposed a customer value equation. The travelers’ customer values can be obtained using the proposed equation. However, the airlines/travel agents’ group or other businesses may implement customized marketing plans in their online marketing systems. Different types of enterprises can use the RFM model in various ways to plan their marketing projects for enhancing customer value or extending customers’ life cycle (Berry and Linoff, 2004). This research revises the RFM model to be the FMA model for airlines and travel agents’ group; the F variable is “frequency travel times in a specific period”, M variable is “average travel monetary in a specific period” and A is “average travel member number of group travelers in a specific period.” Via the analysis of the FMA model, the travelers’ customer values of family tourists can be discovered clearly. Hence, the study enhances the RFM model to become more suitable for observing the customer values of group travelers.

1. Introduction

2. Customer Value Perceptions and Approaches

3. Added Value, a Multidimensional Construct

4. Conclusions

References

Innovation is an important competitive advantage for market success. Faster, cheaper, better are the keywords of the current competitive environment. For this to occur, products and services need to address customer needs in such a way as to fulfil what they expect but in the same time delight them through unexpected and attractive features. The theory of attractive quality uses the Kano methodology, a value components model, when thinking about product features in this way. Unfortunately, the Kano questionnaire mainly analyses customer satisfaction regarding an existing offer, thus a post purchase evaluation. In the case of new and innovative products or services, we do not have prior consumer value or a “standard” to compare it with. Therefore, we must rely on pre-purchase judgment. But what is desired customer value and with what concepts should it be associated with? The present paper aims to delimit customer value pre-purchase perception from post-purchase perception and determine the terms and key words which best represent the customer’s perspective in this situation. The ultimate goal is to present a first conceptual step into the development of an alternative to the Kano model for the design stage of innovative products and services.

Introduction

Innovation today represents a desired outcome for all corporate products and services. It guarantees that a specific offer will not become easily a commodity. We start product and service innovative design by thinking about customer requirements, what is of value for the customer. Value is the outcome of an evaluative judgement (Sánchez-Fernandez & Iniesta-Bonillo, 2006). Customers develop criteria for preference judgement due to their specific values. Understanding customer demands/needs and determining their differences seem to be the key for first time right design. According to Raharjo (2007), the cost of not having accurate voice of customer is substantially huge since it determines all the subsequent downstream processes. The interesting thing about customers is that not all product/service attributes are viewed as equally important to them; there is a non-linear relationship between performance of quality attributes and overall customer satisfaction (Lin et al, 2010). And service providers or manufacturers must understand the effects of different quality attributes in order to allocate resources to increase customer satisfaction or minimize dissatisfaction (Fynes & De Búrca, 2005).

1- Introduction

2- Theoretical background

3- Hypotheses

4- Method

5- Model specification and results

6- Discussion

References

Abstract

Customer equity drivers (CEDs) include value, brand, and relationship equity, which have a strong link with loyalty intentions. This study aims to examine the incremental effects of positive and negative emotions on loyalty intentions and to determine whether these emotions moderate the positive link between CEDs and loyalty intentions. We use customer data with 102 leading firms across eighteen services industries in the Netherlands. The results show that (1) positive and negative emotions have incremental effects on loyalty intentions, (2) positive emotions weaken the positive link (negative interaction), and (3) negative emotions strengthen the positive link, but only for brand and relationship equity (positive interaction). Thus, positive and negative emotions also explain loyalty intentions. However, managers should be cautious when combining CEDs with positive and negative emotions. We provide a strategic matrix to help managers arrive at effective combinations.

Introduction

Loyalty intentions are an important outcome that helps firms protect their bottom lines and grow top-lines (Kumar, Pozza, & Ganesh, 2013). The loyalty literature finds three customer equity drivers (CEDs) that significantly influence loyalty intentions (e.g., Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004): value equity (VE), brand equity (BE), and relationship equity (RE).1 CEDs are customers’ assessments of value received, brand image perceived, and relationships established. In addition to CEDs, customer emotion is also a pervasive part of customer experiences and might heavily influence customer loyalty (e.g., WARC_1_2016). However, while prior studies have extensively studied CEDs (e.g., Ou, de Vries, Wiesel, & Verhoef, 2014; Ou, Verhoef, & Wiesel, 2017; Rust et al., 2004; Vogel, Evanschitzky, & Ramaseshan, 2009), they ignore how CEDs and customer emotion jointly influence loyalty intentions and hence it is unknown whether emotions affect loyalty beyond the established effects of CEDs. In addition, does a combination of CEDs and customer emotion effectively influence loyalty intentions? We will take Amazon.com as an example to illustrate the importance of these two questions. To expand its customer base, the eretailer uses both functional and emotional advertising to promote Fire TV and Prime (Whiteside, 2016). However, as Andy Donkin, Amazon’s former head of worldwide brand and mass marketing, points out, “The farther we push from functional into emotional, the more skepticism there is about whether that can deliver” (Whiteside, 2016). This statement indicates that managers still question whether managing customer emotion is the right thing to do. This doubt may stem from two reasons. First, companies strive to create positive emotional experiences, as creating memorable and personalized customer experiences is crucial for competitive advantages in the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 1998), which assumes that customer emotion has an enduring effect on retaining customers. However, emotions are short lived and context specific and can be positive or negative (Andrade & Ariely, 2009). Can the effects of positive and negative emotions be proved when we account for regular strategies, such as improving CEDs? That is, while CEDs have a strong link with loyalty intentions, the extent to which customer emotion can incrementally contribute to loyalty intentions remains unclear. Second, services, brands, relationships, and emotions are important ingredients for creating customer experience (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Verhoef et al., 2009). One unresolved question is whether the combination of CEDs and customer emotion creates strategic synergies or results in dis-synergies.

Customer value is emerging as one of the focal points that facilitate organizations to sustain the pressure of competition and differentiate them from the other competitors (Hamid, 2012). Considering the imperative role of customer value banking sector has also started framing strategic moves directed towards enhancing value perception of the customers regarding the products/services offered by banks (Al-Shbiel & Al-Olimat, 2016; Yadav & Suvarna, 2013). Among such moves, one of the promising initiatives taken by the banks is introduction of new and improved technologies into banking operations (Bajaber, AlQulaity, & Zafar, 2016; Kumar, Saxena, Suvarna, & Rawat, 2016). Introduction of latest technologies (such as internet banking (IB), mobile banking (MB), etc.) allow customers to carry out their banking transactions on anytime-anywhere basis, thereby, attempting to enhance value proposition of the customers regarding services offered by banks with the use of latest available technologies. Since the rationale of introducing latest technologies into the banking operations is to provide convenience to customers with the ultimate aim of enhancing their value perception, it becomes imperative for the banks to explore impact of such technologies on value perception of the customers. The exploration of such kind will enlighten banks regarding the facets of technology adoption behaviour of the customers that affect their value perception regarding latest technologies. However, available research in this field indicates that the phenomenon of customer value and technology adoption has been hardly studied in its entirety and comprehensively with reference to banking customers in India, though the concept has received substantial acknowledgement from distinct researchers (Bhatt & Bhatt, 2016; Karthikeyan & Soniya, 2016; Noori, 2015; Rao & Budde, 2015). Therefore, with the aim to prepare a novel and path-breaking contribution to the existing literature, the present research work has been framed to examine relationship between customer value and their technology adoption behaviour with reference to banking customers in India. Accordingly, Integrated Technology Adoption (ITA) model has been developed and proposed in the present study. The next part of the study has attempted to explore literature pertaining to the phenomenon of customers value and its relationship with technology adoption behaviour of the customers. Further, the present contribution includes elaboration of the research methodology followed by discussion regarding the results and conclusions emanating from the present study along with probable business implications for the banking sector.

مقاله سال 2016

نظریه مبتنی بر منابع (RBT) برمنابع به عنوان امری ضروری برای ایجاد مزیت رقابتی سازمانی تاکید میکند. با این حال، اینکه کدام قابلیتها برای افزایش ارزش مشتری ضروری هستند مشخص و روشن نیست.ارائه ی طرح اولیه و مبنا ، در این مقاله، برای نشان دادن روند شناسایی منابعی که برای هم آفرینی ارزش مشتری خاص هستند، اعمال می شوند. این امر معانی مهمی برای مدیریت منابع کلیدی و اصلی بازاریابی به همراه دارد. بر اساس نتايج این مطالعه موردی، استفاده از روش پیشنهادی ، راه جدیدی برای گسترش استفاده از RBT در حیطه مدیریت خدمات و در توسعه ارائه خدمات پیشنهاد میدهد.

مقاله سال 2017

In recent years of high turbulence of the environment, firms and organizations in general must pay special attention to those strategies or management processes with a greater likelihood of ensuring their success and of helping them achieve sustainable competitive advantages over time. Customer focus and the value that organizations are able to offer him or her constitute key elements to achieve such sustainable advantages.

Thus,the aimofthis study is to developamodelthat brings a better understanding on how a company can offer greater value to the customers, through its knowledge management (KM) processes. In particular, the research question this work aims to address is: given that customers are demanding each day a greater value, how can organizations create more value to customers from their KM processes and the combination of them?

In this line, KM becomes a key management capacity in order to create customer value. The importance of this capacity roots on the consideration of knowledge as a key strategic resource (Grant, 1996; Van den Hooff & Huysman, 2009). Thus, if firms want to take advantage of the knowledge they possess, they have to know how knowledge is created, shared and used within the company (Ipe, 2003).

مقاله سال 2017

In respond to an increasingly fierce market competition and meet diverse customer demand, the production and sale substitutable products have become a common behaviour of manufacturers and retailers (Draganska and Jain, 2006). For example, Nike Inc. designs and produces shoes with different kinds of styles, colours, qualities, and functions all the year around. And just about one year ago Apple Inc. released iPhone SE, however, the iPhone 7, a new generation mobile phone, has been in a sale at the present time. What’s more, the other older versions such as iPhone 6/6s are still on sales.

From the perspective of customers, product diversification has led customers to hold different customer values or customer reservation prices in different products due to their styles, colours, qualities and so on (Holbrook, 1999). For a newer or higher-quality product, the customer may hold higher reservation price than others (Martin, 1996), and customers determine their buying decisions by comparing their reservation price with the actual price of the product (Kaplan et al., 2011). Consumer behaviour is becoming more and more rational. The price factor cannot be considered as the only pricing decision-making reference any more. Therefore, the customer value has become one of the importance factors that influence customer’s product choice (Shioda et al., 2011). From the perspective of manufacturers and retailers, there exist phenomena that some stores, such as online stores or the stores in poor regions, may only sell specific types of products, and on the contrary, others may sell all kinds of products. Further, the same-type product in different stores which serve for different customers may labelled with different prices (Xia et al., 2004). Therefore, big challenges of product choice and pricing decisions have arisen to both manufacturers and retailers (Winer, 1986; Petroshius and Monroe, 1987; Akcay et al., 2010; Ferrer et al., 2010).

In recent years, referral programs have gained popularity in many industries as a viable means for new customer acquisition. Likewise, referral programs have attracted considerable scholarly interest. Previous studies provide insights on, for instance, optimal reward designs (Biyalogorsky, Gerstner, & Libai, 2001), drivers of participation (Verlegh, Ryu, Tuk, & Feick, 2013), and instruments to stimulate rewarded referrals (Hinz, Skiera, Barrot, & Becker, 2011). One of the most significant contributions in that context was Schmitt, Skiera, and Van den Bulte’s (2011; hereafter referred to as SSV) finding that customers from referral reward programs are more loyal and more valuable than those acquired through other marketing channels.1 The purpose of this paper is to replicate SSV by analyzing the effect of referrals on churn and customer value using similar data from a company with a different product and referral incentive structure.

مقاله سال 2017

Competition is both intensifying and shifting to new arenas in the current retail business environment in response to the increase in comparable and competitive offerings of products and services and growing consumer options (Bharadwaj et al., 2013). It has been repeatedly indicated in the literature that consumers are rapidly evolving their approaches to making purchase decisions, often resulting in the erosion of consumer loyalty (Gupta et al., 2004). Consumer free will to switch to better and/or less expensive choices in the retailing market means that it typically costs nothing for customers to switch from one retailer to another. Consequently, it is imperative for companies to focus on maintaining good customer relations and enhancing customer retention over the customer lifetime in order to generate higher profitability and growth in comparison to the significant costs and drawbacks associated with attracting and maintaining new customers (Aeron et al., 2008).

In customer retention efforts, segmentation is a critical tool for understanding how consumers differ in terms of their interactions with and behavioral responses to retail marketing (Wedel and Kamakura, 2002). Segmentation can be a powerful descriptor and drives more precise targeting and positioning, which can ultimately increase customer value (Foster et al., 2011). Using segmentation, firms may be able to offer products, services, and marketing campaigns that are very similar to those of other firms to many current consumers of those firms, who have a tendency to react or interact similarly. Time-tested segmentation approaches utilize information such as demographics, as well as psychographic methods, in order to surpass superficial customer segmentation and better comprehend purchase motivations and additional behaviors (Boone and Roehm, 2002; Malcolm and Dunbar, 2012; Wiertz and DeRuyter, 2007). Developing effective retail marketing methods first means understanding consumer buying behaviors.

The concept of brand personality recently has been analyzed extensively in marketing and consumer literature as a segmentation variable (Keller, 2001). The concept has been described as the human personality traits that a brand is associated with (Aaker, 1997). While an individual’s personality may be displayed in behavior, beliefs, and physical traits, brand personality is capable of being formed via direct/ indirect consumer brand experience (Kim et al., 2010). Thus, consumers can have personality traits similar to those of their preferred brand personalities. Brand personality traits can describe a brand in terms of a mutual cohort of the affiliation between brand and consumer (Sweeney and Brandon, 2006). Furthermore, brand personality has been found to have a positive effect on consumers’ loyalty, satisfaction, and recommendations to peers (Keller and Richy, 2006; Lin, 2010). Having a remarkable “personality” makes a brand special in consumers’ minds, thus forming and enlarging the equity of the brand (Freling and Forbes, 2005). However, while this has been noted by many scholars (Moilanen and Rainisto, 2008; Mulyanegara et al., 2009) brand personality has been applied infrequently to the context of national, country-of-origin (COO) brands in comparison to product or corporate brands.

مقاله سال 2016

All indicators point to the fact that the pace of services and services innovation will continue to accelerate in the future (Spohrer & Maglio, 2008). Organizations often rely on services to improve customer value, and ultimately, organizational performance. However, organizations have also begun to realize that value creation occurs in interaction with customers (Grönroos, 2011; Ramaswamy, 2009) and that service is also offered through resources and capabilities, often intangible ones (Ramaswamy, 2009). There is a need to identify and continually develop those resources and capabilities that are essential for both the improvement of organizational performance and the creation of competitive advantage.

Resource based theory (RBT) (Barney, 2014; Kozlenkova, Samaha, & Palmatier, 2014) or otherwise known as the resource based view (RBV) of the firm, posits that resources and capabilities are essential for creating competitive advantage and improving organizational performance (Barney, 1991; Hunt, 1997, 2011). Zubac, Hubbard, and Johnson (2010) develop a framework to show how managers can use a firm’s resources to create customer value. Several researchers examine the relationship between organizational performance and marketing resources and capabilities, such as market orientation (Narver & Slater, 1990) marketing planning capability (Slotegraaf & Dickson, 2004) and market knowledge competence (Li & Calantone, 1998). Different researchers identify different resources and capabilities as essential for organizational performance and competitive advantage. However, organizations are different from one another, and services they offer a unique nature and characteristics. Services are intangible, heterogeneous, inseparable and perishable (Johne & Storey, 1998). A method is required that can identify key resources and capabilities specific to an individual organization and its services. The RBV/RBT approach by itself cannot identify the specific resources and capabilities that lead to competitive advantage (Hinterhuber, 2013).

This paper addresses this gap in the RBT literature by demonstrating the use of service blueprinting (Bitner, Ostrom, & Morgan, 2008; Milton & Johnson, 2012) and benchmarking (Bissett & Buchan, 2006; Madritsch, 2009; Paladino, 2007; Wang & Lo, 2003) in identifying resources and capabilities that improve customer value and organizational performance in an Australian organization. First, RBT is discussed and the way it contributes to service delivery management. Second, an explanation of how service blueprinting and benchmarking can be used to identify the resources and capabilities that might improve customer value is presented and finally an industry example is provided to show how blueprinting and benchmarking can be applied in this way and managerial implications and suggestions for further research are then outlined.