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Introduction
The quintessential service in a tourism and hospitality environment can be characterized as a consummate "personalized boutique". It caters to exclusive guests with highly demanding requirements through customized offerings (Chathoth, 2007). For instance, in hospitality services, before any check-in, a potential guest will send specifications of the desired room, its amenities, level of security and a pre-designated meal schedule. Using a proprietary database of previously registered guests that include their preferences, the hotel will suggest improvements in which the guest might be interested, but not necessarily aware. A price is determined for the bundle of goods, services and amenities. While this service is an example of how co-creation might be implemented, the actual integration of customer engagement (CE) and co-creation as a method of service-differentiation varies within the hospitality field.
For example, a restaurant in London called Ianmo uses technology built into the restaurant table design that allows guests to customize backgrounds, play games, order using touchscreens, interact with servers directly and view projected images of menu items prior to ordering. This technology allows the firm to enhance CE, enhance service and co-create several elements in the dining experience. While Fairmont Hotels and Resorts have a variety of services that exemplify CE and co-creation, a great service example is the firm's "Canine Ambassadors" program. At select hotels, resident hotel dogs can be part of a traveler's experience for those who are missing their own furry friend, looking for a companion while taking a walk, for extra security or the comfort of home.
Even though co-creation has its merits in creating superior customer experiences, there are questions posed on what type of framework would allow for a smooth transition to such a system. While exemplars of CE and co-creation can be identified in areas of hospitality services, a variety of barriers pointed out in the literature (Chathoth et al. , 2014a) begs the following questions:
Q1. Is this primarily hype or are these outcomes realizable? What will determine whether firms will adopt this model?
Q2. Assuming that some firms are inclined to do so, what might guide their strategies and implementation?
In the following sections, the above questions are addressed with a broad assessment of prior research, and a framework is presented for building and...