Plan de Capacitación al personal

Research design explains the delivery of an empirical research (Salo, 2006). In this thesis, research is accomplished by conducting three separate studies: a conceptual study based on literature, qualitative interviews complemented by a web questionnaire and quantitative analysis of customer data. The research design of each study and the multiple-methods approach are substantiated. The following section concentrates on describing the background for the three studies forming the core of the thesis. This chapter concludes by providing a description of the data collection, analysis, and assessment of methods for evaluating the study.

3.1 Background

The aim of the study was to investigate ways of measuring and managing the value of online customer relationships in the news industry, in order to harness the value potential of all existing customers for the benefit of the company and to maintain and grow loyal and engaged customer relationships for the future.

The thesis builds from the premise that in the online environment, maintaining long-lasting customer relationships is more challenging than accumulating occasional transactions (Valvi & Fragkos, 2012). The acquisition cost of a customer can be even higher than in the offline environment and at the same time one registered user in a social network site can lead 15-20 new visitors to the retailer site (Hodis et al., 2015 for Goad, 2011; An et al., 2011). Within subscription- based business models, a typical service provider loses an excess of four per cent of its subscribers each month, and the cost of acquiring a new customer is five to ten times higher than that of retaining existing subscribers (Chu et al., 2007).

The increasing digitisation of news has fundamentally reshaped the news industry (Xu et al., 2014). The ewspaper industry, in particular, has experienced a transition from print to online, as the number of people receiving news online has been growing while print circulation keeps dropping. The majority of online news sites in the U.S. already receive their traffic mainly through mobile websites and associated applications (Pew Research Center, 2015). Social media has been one of the major drivers of change in media consumption. Social media platforms have gathered millions of individuals as registered users and as content providers, and challenged the traditional media platforms both in the amount of audience and in advertising revenue (Toubia & Stephen, 2013). However, along with the increasing online interactivity of fluctuating audiences, the availability of data helping gain

In order to manage the value of existing customer relationships, the present work identifies the formation of value in online relationships from company´s and from customer´s perspective. The customer perspective is first explored in terms of the online customer experience, and the drivers of loyalty (central aspect of CRM) addressed. The framework for managing customer value from the company perspective is formed and the concept of customer engagement value is introduced with the measurements to manage customer relationship value on the individual level.

The research context and customer data are provided by Kauppalehti, a news channel for business news, representing the largest business media outlet in Finland operating both online and offline. The news channel is targeted to audiences who are interested in economy, business and financial news, and typically work in management positions.

3.2 Research phases

The current research has been in iterative phases, with the theory being built throughout the process. The thesis adopted an intertwined research process enabled by combined case research and quantitative measurement. The

opportunities offerered by combining as a research methodology have often been ignored by researchers (Dubois & Gadde, 2002). Table 6 presents the perspective, the three elementary research phases of the study, and the tasks of each essay

Table 6. Research phases of the study

In phase 1, the idea was to collect evidence for customer experience formation in the online context and to gain more understanding of the value creation in online relationships from the customer perspective. To examine the relative importance of attributes explaining customer experience in practice, empirical evidence for the study was collected in the form of personal interviews. Two separate web surveys complemented the interviews. The results of research phase 1 provided evidence of the crucial attributes of customer experience in maintaining and enhancing online relationships with customers. The study forms the basis of the customer perspective to online relationship value, and provides managerial implications for customer value management.

Phase Essay Tasks Perspective

Phase 1 Essay 1 Defining research problem domain. Collecting empirical evidence. Integrating existing theories of Customer Experience and empirical evidence to determine the key components of online customer experience leading to loyalty in online news channel context.

Customer and company perspective on online relationship value.

Phase 2 Essay 2 Refining research questions. Exploring the existing theories of Customer Engagement Value. Building a conceptual model to identify the elements of customer value in online relationships.

Company perspective on online relationship value creation.

Phase 3 Essay 3 New synthesis of existing literature on Customer Value Management. Collecting empirical evidence. Integrating existing theories and empirical evidence. Modelling cus- tomer relationship value measurements for customer value management in online news channel context.

Company perspective on customer value management.

Phase 2 extends current knowledge of components yielding customer value