Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Of the two alternative models (three versus four lower order factors) it was found that the
four lower order factor model is a better fi t for the sample data. Furthermore, as theory suggests
the existence of an overarching co-creation capacity construct (Model 4) is of great theoretical
interest given the high target coeffi cient of 89.8 per cent which indicates a high explanatory
power of co-creation capacity over the variation in acquisition, assimilation, transformation and
exploitation capacities.
Several independent two-tailed t-tests were conducted to evaluate differences of the
co-creation dimensions between US and Swiss DMOs. The t-tests were conducted based on
the four lower order factor models. No statistical signifi cant difference between US and Swiss
DMOs was found for acquisition: US
M
= 5.57,
SD
= 0.89 versus Swiss
M
= 5.37,
SD
= 1.30.
However, there were statistical signifi cant differences for the remaining three co-creation
dimensions: assimilation (US:
M =
5.13,
SD =
1.00; Switzerland:
M =
4.56,
SD =
1.07; t
(247)
=
-3.76,
p
= 0.000), transformation (US:
M =
5.24,
SD =
1.00; Switzerland:
M =
4.85,
SD =
0.86; t
(247)
= -3.03,
p
= 0.003) and exploitation (US:
M =
5.12,
SD =
1.08; Switzerland:
M =
4.73,
SD =
1.16; t
(255)
= -2.99,
p
= 0.003). These results suggest that US and Swiss DMOs are to a
similar degree capable of harvesting information from destination visitors, but that US DMOs
are slightly more effi cient in leveraging value from the acquired knowledge from consumers.
Results
Today tourism organizations, such as destination marketing organizations, are continuously
challenged to develop new tourism products and services to cater to current and new destination
visitors. Including visitors in this innovation development process is critical for DMOs as
information provided by those that experience the destination can prove valuable for the DMO
if visitors have an opportunity to participate in innovation development. Consumer co-creation
in tourism is particularly important because of the experiential nature of tourism products.
Hence, conceptualizing the capability of tourism organizations to integrate consumers into
co-creation activities has an important theoretical as well as managerial implication.
In this chapter we tested the concept of absorptive capacity, which is the capability of
organizations to extract and integrate external knowledge for their benefi t, in this case for the
development of new tourism products and services. The results show that capacity for co-creation
is a multidimensional capacity, which consists of lower order capabilities. Both the three and
four lower order factor models (Models 2 and 3) were identifi ed as better models than the
unidimensional model (Model 1), indicating that the lower order capacities are distinguishable.
Therefore, it can be suggested that DMOs' capacity to work together with consumers in the
process of innovation can be measured by DMOs' capacity to acquire knowledge (i.e. explore
knowledge from consumers), transform knowledge within their organization and exploit the
knowledge for new product/service development.
References
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Journal of Product Innovation Management
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Binkhorst, E. (2005)
The Co
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creation Tourism Experience.
Sitges: Whitepaper Co-creations.
Bitner, M.J., Brown, S. W. and Meuter, M.L. (2000)'Technology infusion in service encounters',
Journal
of the Academy of Marketing Science
, 28: 138-49.
Cohen, W.M. and Levinthal, D.A. (1990) 'Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and
innovation',
Administrative Science Quarterly
, 35: 128-52.
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Annals of Tourism Research
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