Service-driven social community and its relation to well-being

Abstract

This study aims to develop a conceptual framework pertaining to a service-driven social community and its relation to customer well-being. This paper draws on motivations and self-determination theory to expand an existing empowerment framework for a better understanding of how a service provider, which aims at transforming its service offerings to achieve business sustainability, supports for his/her customers’ needs in value co-creation in the beginning and over the course of time, which subsequently drive their active engagement in co-creation. The framework reinforces the transformative role of a service to establish a social community to satisfy customers’ psychological needs for competence, autonomy and a sense of relatedness. The satisfaction will drive the community to form a collective commitment to shared goals and intercustomer support, which subsequently perpetuates community members’ positive experiences of living well. This is accomplished through a case study drawn from the cTaipei platform, where service providers interact with their networks and customers to co-create values in developing a creative Taipei city. This paper contributes to this practice by providing a roadmap for services and customers to be benefited from the proposed service-driven social community framework.