How to Manage Customer Relationships in the Age of Digitalization: An Overview of the Influence Factors on Consumers' Participation in Firm-Hosted Virtual P3 Communities

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing grade: 13 University of Münster language: English abstract: As a result of the rise of digital technologies new media phenomena shape the rela-tionship between customer and company. Companies need to take the shift in rela-tionships into account when managing customer relationships in the age of digital-ization. Customers are now more involved and adopt a more powerful position as market participants. Simultaneously companies are able to interact with their cus-tomers directly. One new media phenomenon is the emergence of virtual commu-nities which are hosted by firms for commercial purposes. Virtual communities permit companies to enhance the customer-firm-relationship and promote consumer-to-consumer interactions. With the help of virtual peer-to-peer problem solving (P3) commu-nities companies can complement their service support in a low-cost way. Thus the research question of this seminar paper pertains to this issue: What motivates consumers to participate in firm-hosted virtual P3 communities?