1 Introduction
In this paper we address CCI in the context of CCI-driven services: services where customer interactions
are a core element of the service delivery process. Specifically we look at CCI in the context of trade fairs
services, a service setting which involves intense and diversified customer interactions. The purpose of this
work is to provide a contribution for the development of knowledge to assist service providers’ in the
setup of service systems with explicitly include customer interactions in the service delivery process. The
motivation for the work is twofold: first there’s a lack of research addressing CCI in service settings where
customers’ interactions represent a core element of the service experience. Most work in the field has
been devoted to the study of CCI that occurs between unacquainted customers whom, for example,
happen to share a service setting (e.g. retail stores); second the work about CCI has extensively addressed
the characterization of customers’ CCI behaviors whereas the investigation about the service design
decisions that providers need address to implement service systems which facilitate the desired CCI
remains very scarce.
The paper provides a contribution to the field of service management by addressing CCI in the context of
trade fairs services, a setting where customer interactions are a core element of service experience. The
paper builds on the literature about CCI and trade fairs services, to develop a set of research propositions
regarding the nature and the purpose of CCI in the context of CCI-driven services. This work is a first part
of an on-going research work about CCI in trade fairs services, which is now in the phase of validating and
refining the suggested research propositions trough empirical work. The paper is structured in two main
sections: a first part (section 2) is devoted to the review of relevant literature about the definition and
ICIEOM 2012 - Guimarães, Portugal
ID153.2
characterization of CCI, and to the discussion of the implications of CCI for service value; the second part
(section 3) focuses on the literature about trade fairs and the goals which drive customers’ attendance of
trade fairs. Research propositions are presented at each section.