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The Journal of Strategic Marketing

 

• Special Issue: The engagement of customers beyond their expected roles
• Submission by 19^th April 2010

 

There is a growing trend for organisations to seek customer participation beyond the core exchange. By this we refer to behaviour over and above expected customer roles. Terms used to describe this behaviour are now emerging in the practitioner and academic communities and they include crowd sourcing, customer extra-role behaviour, customer citizenship behaviour, pro social behaviour, and customer organisational citizenship behaviour. Examples of customer organisational citizenship behaviour, developed mainly in research involving customer – service worker relationships, include positive word of mouth, displays of affiliation, participation in the firm’s activities, benevolent acts of service facilitation, flexibility, suggestions for service improvement, customer voice, and policing of other customers. Further, the increasing popularity of web 2.0 has led to the emergence of crowd sourcing, whereby customers are used for R&D, new product development, advertising and political campaign support amongst other things.

So what is behind the engagement of customers beyond their expected roles? Theories of social exchange and reciprocity have suggested that this behaviour is a reward to the organisation for the extra efforts provided by service workers. But in the absence of service workers can this behaviour be emulated with branded goods? Is this behaviour always positive for the organisation? How can an organisation manage this process? In summary, a greater understanding is needed as to the triggers, consequences and management of such behaviour.

We intend to publish research which makes significant contribution to our knowledge in this area. We welcome theoretical, conceptual, empirical, and case based submissions. Topics may include, but are not restricted to, the following:

 

• Theoretical development of customer engagement beyond their expected roles
• The types and measurement of customer engagement beyond their expected roles
• Conceptual and empirical frameworks for examining customer engagement beyond their expected roles
• Processes and methodologies for encouraging and/or discouraging customer engagement beyond their expected roles
• Crowd sourcing
• Management of brand communities
• The potential for citizen science in market research
• Consumer service provision
• Customer engagement beyond their expected roles and the service worker
• Customer engagement beyond their expected roles and the organisation
• Customer engagement beyond their expected roles and the brand
• Customer engagement beyond their expected roles and web 2.0
• Customer engagement beyond their expected roles and competitive advantage
• Customer engagement beyond the transaction and differing market and/or marketing contexts
• Motives for customers to participate beyond their expected roles
• Benefits and sacrifices experienced by customers who participate beyond their expected roles
• The role of other customers in encouraging participation beyond their expected roles
• Trends and research directions for customer engagement beyond the transaction

 

Authors are invited to submit their manuscripts via manuscript central at: 

 

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Simon Pervan – Southern Cross University

Dr. Liliana Bove – University of Melbourne

 

The deadline for submission is 19^th April 2010.