Formation of Collective Value Experience in the Buying Centre in Professional Business Service Relationships

This study examines how the collective customer value experience forms within the buying centre in professional service business relationships. By relying on existing literature on buying centres and customer value creation, through a qualitative case study, we have empirically examined the formation. Our findings suggest that collective value experience formation takes place at two inter-related but also separate levels of episodes and relationship. Formation at episode level is connected to cycles of individuals acting as members of buying centre and business usage centre in which value experience forms from fragmented individual value expectations towards harmonised collective experience. Also, at relational level, facilitation of formation of harmonized collective value expectations from fragmented individual value expectations is essential for service provider to capture. This study contributes to literature on buying centres by illustrating the way individual and collective value experience are connected within professional business service relationships. It thus extends the understanding of buying centre from individual buying decision towards longer-term collaborative relational approach in which multiple buying decisions are conducted during the relationship. The study also identifies means for service providers to identify and facilitate the harmonization of individual value expectations towards collective value experience