Co-creating the collective service experience

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify which consumption practices lead to the co-creation of collective service experiences and to outline a conceptual framework for their understanding. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a multiple case vignette approach combining examples from leisure industries described as perfect contexts to study collective experiences. Four case vignettes were selected according to community forms and types as defined by consumer culture literature. Findings – The study identifies and delineates the neglected phenomenon of the co-creation of collective service experiences and related practices. It highlights the ambivalence of these practices in terms of the co-creation or co-destruction of the experience and indicates their relative unmanageability. Research limitations/implications – The cases largely rest on symbolic service experiences, which are a small set of the total universe of consumer experiences. Practical implications – Companies should replace their efforts in organizing consumer practices with monitoring mechanisms and react to collective consumer actions, pursuing a co-evolutionary perspective when they do not have a dominant and permanent role in the relationship with their consumers. Originality/value – The paper gives voice to an understudied collective phenomenon in service management and provides the building blocks for its conceptualization.