Resource flows in a multi-directional integrated value creation model

This research reveals a multi-directional value creation model that highlights the role of customers as partners in a network of reciprocal resource exchanges. Customer-partners are conceptualized as customers that go beyond purchasing and using a product or service. They voluntarily engage end-customers to help the end-customers use the firms' products and services, or to otherwise solve the end-customer's problems with the firms' products or services. To illustrate the importance of the customer-partner to the value creation process, the authors integrate various value creation perspectives with social and resource exchange theories to illuminate the various resources exchanged when firms and their various types of customers engage in social interactions. The resultant model is derived from a netnography in the context of a high-tech firm's online support community. Findings point to three important activities (platform design, customer profiling, and platform engagement) for firms to consider if they hope to successfully integrate their customers in the value creation process.