Invisible value formation: a netnography in retail banking

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore value formation in the customer-bank relationship outside the line of visibility of service encounters. The customer's own context has been overlooked by the bank marketing literature as it is traditionally focused on value created by the service process and outcome. Design/methodology/approach – Positioned within the customer dominant logic, a netnography was conducted to explore how bank relationships are realised in customers’ own contexts and experiences. A total of 579 postings from discussions of retail banking in 18 online communities were collected and analysed. Findings – The study uncovered four factors of invisible bank service value experienced by customers: shared moral value, responsibility value, relationship value, and heritage value. Research limitations/implications – The study conceptualises bank service value as realised in the customers’ own contexts and thus highlights previously hidden sources of value in banking. The findings can be used for further conceptualisations of the customer dominant value formation of bank services. Practical implications – The netnographic method illustrates how naturalistic data about customers’ retail bank experiences can be retrieved unobtrusively. The findings help bank management to understand what comprises customer value beyond the service encounter. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the research in service marketing and bank marketing in three ways: first, a methodological contribution is the introduction of a netnographic approach to bank service value research. Second, a theoretical contribution is the uncovering of invisible value formation in the customer-bank relationship. Third, the paper uses the customer dominant logic in a banking context, thus providing insights into how banks are involved in the customer's own life.