Crossed Glances on the Perception of Consumer Competencies within the Energy Sector : The Case of a French Energy Supplier

This paper discusses the concept of " consumption competence " at the heart of Service-Dominant Logic and the co-creation process of value. In order to examine the issues related to this emerging concept, the research methodology was divided in two parts. In the first one, we introduced a longitudinal ethnography research (2005-2007) based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with employees in a French business energy supplier called " Utility X ". This choice was the best means to understand how do managers in the energy sector consider their customers: are clients represented as active actors or as passive actors within their own consumption experiences. The second part of this research based on in-depth interviews conducted in 2009, involved a group of 10 customers of " Utility X ". The objective of these interviews was to emphasize the consumer " s activation of his competencies in the energy sector. This methodology was applied in order to get crossed glances on the concept of the " consumption competencies " emerging in the energy sector. Extended Abstract The service dominant logic paradigm, places the consumer and the company at the same level in the co-creation process of value (Vargo and Lusch 2008a). In this perspective, authors point out the tacit idea of the " competent " consumer through the concept of " operant resources " which combines heterogeneous elements such as capacities, abilities and knowledge and reflects the customer " s participation. In this exploratory research based on interaction with both professionals and customers, we propose to merge the data on the competencies activated by the consumers with the company representations of the " consumer competency ". The concept of " operant resources " which consists in some number of heterogeneous elements does not seem relevant enough to report completely the dynamics linked to the realization of these tasks from the consumer point-of-view. Thus, the notion of " competence " defined in the management field as the result of the mobilized knowledge, the know-how, the social skills, as well as the activation of all these resources (Le Boterf 1994), seems to be more relevant to re-articulate the diverse elements composing the concept of "operant resources ". Therefore, if marketing theories accept the idea of a " competent " customer, is it the case in the managerial sphere? And if yes, do customers activate those perceived competencies? In order to examine these issues, …