A case study of hybrid strategies to create value for a contracting business in the education sector in England and Wales

Successful hybrid strategies adopt service marketing principles although the adoption of those principles by construction marketers is not apparent. Through an interpretive inquiry approach attempting to capture multiple views in a case of successful strategic programmes for the primary school market, various value co-creation elements of the programmes are assessed according to four axioms of service-dominant (S-D) logic. The strategic programmes were found to create value by (1) developing new skills and knowledge, building relationships to leverage skills and close the knowledge gaps; (2) enhancing interactions through customer engagement, dialogue creation and enrichment, the use of BIM technologies and social networks; (3) strengthening many-to-many relationships through supply chain integration; and (4) assisting individual customers to define their value propositions and to evaluate them through free self-service systems, and products and services inquiries. Further research is needed to assess how customers value the various co-creation elements identified in the paperevidence for applying the generic value co-creation principles to marketing in construction.