Abstract:

Symbolic value is consumer’s psychological benefit endowed by brands, which is an important way for marketers to strengthen consumers’ psychological satisfaction. Customers-to-Customer Interaction is very important but ignored by existing research. Firstly, this research builds and adjusts the mechanism model of the effect of CCI on symbolic value with the methods of interviews and Critical Incident Techniques. Secondly, the authors explore the relationships between customer in-role interaction behavior and symbolic value, and the relationships between extra-role interaction behavior and symbolic value respectively, based on Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO), revealing the formation mechanism of customer symbolic consumption in service scope. Thirdly, laboratory experiments, field experiments and survey are employed to test the theoretical model so as to provide theoretical tools and recommendations for service enterprises to stimulate consumer symbolic consumption.

Key words: customer-to-customer interaction, service, symbolic value, brand