The interaction effect of self-service technology experience and facilitating conditions on co-created value: A service-dominant logic perspective

Self-service technology (SST) (e.g., a kiosk at a hotel lobby or a touch screen tablet at a restaurant) has been increasingly introduced into the hospitality industry, which leads to changes a way that customers gain experience of service in a service encounter. However, this change has not drawn much attention from researchers who have more focused on the determinants of customers' acceptance or intention to use SST. Thus, it is not well known what happens through the use of SST in the service encounter and what role service firms need to play during the process. SST requires the active involvement of customers to implement the service. To cast a light on understanding customers' participating role in SST and its subsequent effects, this study adopts the concept of value co-creation from the service-dominant (S-D) logic paradigm. Specifically, the study develops a theoretical framework based on the resource-based view underpinned by S-D logic to explore the relationship between SST experience and co-created value, and the moderating effect of facilitating conditions (FC). Although value co-creation is the core concept of S-D logic that delineates how value is determined, how customers genuinely appraise the value in the sphere of the co-creation is not fully operationalized, which challenges the empirical research on S-D logic. Thus, study 1 conceptualizes co-created value from the S-D logic perspective and proposes a 15-item scale with four multidimensional constructs consisting of value-in-use, value-in-interaction, value-in-involvement, and value-in-experience. This study used a mixed-method approach to scale development. Rather than purely depending on qualitative data garnered through interviews, the study integrated rich text sources from relevant articles and online reviews into the item generation process by using text mining and machine learning techniques. A rigorously designed process checks, including reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and concurrent validity, were conducted. Study 2 investigates hypotheses that the current study proposes, by adopting the scale developed in study 1. The study conducted a scenario-based survey and analyzed 292 samples using latent moderated structural equation modeling in which an interaction effect can be tested at a construct level without the violation of normality. Findings show that SST experience is closely related to co-created value. Moreover, the interaction effect of FC on the relationship between SST experience and co-created value is statistically supported. From the resource integration point of view, the result implies that customers can incorporate multiple resources more efficiently by a high level of FC allowed even when SST experience is good enough. This study contributes to the existing research as follows. First, it developed a new consolidated scale for co-created value, which will lead to the extended domain of empirical research on S-D logic and co-created value. Second, it shifted the view of SST from "attribute-oriented" to "customer experience-oriented," which will provide new insights into the way of understanding SST not only theoretically but also practically. For example, the availability of service employees is required, not merely for the case when customers have a challenge of using SST. For the co-created value, a seamless service design will be needed to harmonize the roles of service employees and SST. Third, the study employed advanced methodologies such as a mixed-method of item generation and the latent moderated SEM. They will contribute to the rigor of future research.