Im Rahmen des kooperativen Promotionsprogramms an der HSBA, startete Patrick Weretecki 2017 seine Dissertation. Im Rahmen seiner Promotion besch盲ftigte sich Herr Weretecki mit der gemeinsamen Wertsch枚pfung in Multi-Akteur-脰kosystemen und den daraus resultierenden Implikationen f眉r Theorie und Praxis. Patrick Weretecki wurde an der HSBA von Prof. Dr. Goetz Greve und an der University of Twente von Prof. Dr. Ir. J. Henseler betreut. Am 17. Dezember 2021 konnte er seine Dissertation erfolgreich verteidigen. In einem kurzen Interview spricht er 眉ber sein Forschungsfeld und die Ergebnisse seiner Arbeit.
Dissertation: Value Co-Creation in Multi-Actor Ecosystems
How did you become interested in your field of research?
The common denominator among all companies ever created is their striving for value creation. Deutsche Telekom, the company I work for, is no exception. While the concept of value has been discussed since Aristotle, most recently, research has started to acknowledge the increasing relevance of taking different actors, their behavior, and their interactions with each other, in the respective service ecosystems, into account. With more than 242 million mobile customers, 27 million fixed-network lines, 22 million broadband lines and countless interactions between multiple internal (e.g., salespeople) and external stakeholders (e.g., customers), joint value creation is at the top of Deutsche Telekom鈥檚 mind. Hence, I accepted the challenge to add to the very limited understanding of value co-creation in multi-actor ecosystems.
What is the focus of your PhD?
The main goal of my research was to answer two primary research questions:
- RQ1: What characterizes selling actors and their behavior in multi-actor ecosystems?
- RQ2: How can these actors and their behavior be influenced?
The multidimensional nature of these questions called for further narrowing; that is, breaking down the central research questions into clearly delineated sub-questions. Within the context of this work, the following four sub-questions were addressed and answered:
(1): Who are salespeople's ecosystem partners exactly, what characterizes them, what do they expect, what tasks do they perform, and how do they do perform them?
(2): Which elements of the multi-actor service ecosystems contribute to a customer's experiential value, and can they be used to encourage customers* citizenship behavior?
(3): Can gamified experiences be used to encourage customers* participation behavior in multi-actor service ecosystems?
(4): How exactly are companies achieving ecosystem well-being, and can it be transferred to other businesses?
What are the main findings of your PhD and who are your results aimed at?
By means of a variety of different qualitative and quantitative methods, my thesis goes beyond a theoretical discussion on selling actors identities and their behavior in multi-actor ecosystems to deduce actionable insights from theory and practice and provides researchers and managers with tools 鈥� such as the first salesperson-selling actor relationship/behavior typology or a holistic experiential value measurement scale for multi-actor ecosystems 鈥� to actually 鈥渨alk the talk鈥� and encourage customer participation and citizenship behavior, and in consequence value co-creation in multi-actor ecosystems.
Are there any results or discoveries you are particularly surprised of?
That is a tough question. To be honest, most of my findings validated, what I have already expected based on my professional experience but wasn鈥檛 scientifically proven. For instance, the fact that experiential value in multi-actor ecosystems comprises five dimensions, the functional value of personnel (professionalism), the perception of other customers' appearance (similarity), the perception of other customers' behavior (suitable behavior), multisensory stimuli (sensory appeal), and a customer's enjoyment (playfulness), didn鈥檛 come as a surprise to me. However, I was really surprised to find out that in multi-actor ecosystems there are at least eight different selling actor identities present. This in turn led to the development of the salesperson-selling actor relationship/behavior typology. Nevertheless, the fact that I was invited to present my research findings at leading international conference in Germany, Great Britain, and the USA, as well as the fact that I have published three journal articles in (peer- reviewed) leading international journals, is evidence of my research鈥檚 relevance and novelty value.
How relevant is your work for your further professional development?
From my point of view, the successful completion of a PhD, especially as an external PhD student, is (most of all) a testament to that person鈥檚 perseverance and persistence. These are qualities that are required in all areas of life and certainly help in pursuing personal, academic, and professional goals alike.
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