Customer engagement, consumption and firm performance in a multi-actor service eco-system: The moderating role of resource integration

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Inc.

This study aims to understand how e-commerce firms can operate more effectively within the context of a multi-actor service eco-system by examining the factors contributing to their firms’ performance. Due to their multidirectional information and business exchanges through the worldwide internet cloud these firms are often characterized by network-based operations and collaborative systems. We investigate how multiple participants, namely employees, business partners, focal and fellow customers, social media communities and technology, interact with each other and how these multi-actor exchanges influence firms’ performance. Based on a total of 288 weekly data collected from a leading e-ticketing service provider from January 2013 to December 2018 in Taiwan, our empirical findings support the service-dominant logic that customer engagement across varied social media communities positively contribute to customer consumption in terms of new customer acquisition and existing customer retention, and further enhances the service firm's financial performance. Customer consumption is elevated when the firm successfully orchestrates its resource integration by providing better employee service, extending its business partnerships, and incorporating service innovation to improve its service delivery processes and customer database management.