Abstract
The increasing number of offerings that support consumers’ daily routines has led to a growing discussion in scientific research about consumers’ usage processes. A theoretical foundation for this discussion is offered by the service-dominant logic of marketing. The central idea is that value creation for a consumer is not based on mere product ownership but rather evolves through the usage of various offerings in terms of value-in-use. However, there is no universally accepted method to capture usage processes and analyze them with regard to value-in-use. The article therefore suggests a method for capturing value-in-use. For this purpose the repertory grid method is applied which is further adapted according to the underlying theoretical assumptions and empirically tested in a qualitative study on smartphone usage. On the basis of the findings, a specific value-in-use scale is then developed. Finally, this scale is validated in a quantitative study. The results indicate that the adapted repertory grid method is a promising approach to capture usage processes and the value-in-use created through these processes.
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Notes
To facilitate reading, we make no distinction between female and male terms. Subsequently, we use the male pronoun.
We are aware that the term “point of use” does not perfectly reflect usage processes and that process/period of use would be the more correct choice. However, for the terminological comparison with “point of sale,” we follow the notation in Weiber et al. (2011, p. 114).
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Accepted after two revisions by Prof. Dr. Spann.
This article is also available in German in print and via http://www.wirtschaftsinformatik.de: Bruns K, Jacob F (2014) Value-in-Use und mobile Technologien. Ein allgemeiner Ansatz zur Messung des Value-in-Use und eine spezifische Anwendung am Beispiel der Smartphone-Nutzung. WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK. doi: 10.1007/s11576-014-0437-z.
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Bruns, K., Jacob, F. Value-in-Use and Mobile Technologies. Bus Inf Syst Eng 6, 349–359 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-014-0349-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-014-0349-x