The role of customer community in value co-creation for third places: an example of senior citizens

This paper reports findings of two sequential studies; qualitative (Study 1) and then quantitative (Study 2) that aimed to investigate factors that contribute to seniors’ place value co-creation via social engagement in third places. Using QSR NVivo 7 software for Study 1 and SPSS and AMOS software for Study 2 the results revealed that, the ‘operant’ resources of third places which are friendship and sociability between seniors co-created three types of place values; place value to socialise, place value as home and value of routine visit. The implications of these findings for customer centric view on value co-creation and for operant resources are discussed.