Online value co-creation during the “dreaming” phase, brand image and uncertainty avoidance Open Access

Brand image is a fundamental variable in consumer behavior, and particularly so in the service sector, where consumers tend to trust those brands that have a strong image (Alzate et al., 2022). According to the literature, online media constitute one important resource that can be used to create, maintain and develop such an image (Barreda et al., 2020) in the different stages of the customer journey. Brand image-formation can happen when the consumer interacts with sources as diverse as: the firm’s own online media (website and social networks, for instance); impartial, autonomous online platforms (which provide both information about services and also resources for consumers to search, compare and book them); or the reviews and comments posted by fellow consumers on review sites or social networks (Guo et al., 2021).

The evolution of online media enables users and service firms alike to create content and potentially generate inspiration to consume new services. One consequence of this shift is that service-firm brand image-formation is no longer limited to the three phases of the service consumption process as they are traditionally conceived, namely, pre-purchase (e.g. information-search, planning and decision-making); purchase (consuming the service); and post-purchase (e.g. evaluation of the service experience) (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Rather, thanks to online media, brand image can now begin to be formed during an earlier phase identified by the literature that takes place prior to pre-purchase: the dreaming phase (Fotis et al., 2011). It is in this phase that consumers’ interest and imagination are awakened, and they indulge in fantasizing or dreaming about the possibility of enjoying, one day, the service in question. This awakening to the very idea of consuming a given type of service thus constitutes the very first, crucial step toward the pre-purchase phase, which is when they will set about making their dreams a reality (Prasetya et al., 2021). However, compared to other points along the customer journey, the dreaming phase has received relatively little attention in the literature (Dai et al., 2022), a research gap that this paper aims to address.

What is more, online media have evolved in such a way that consumers can now actively participate in creating – even prior to consuming a service – the very service experience that they want to enjoy (Ruiz-Molina et al., 2023). This active participation via online media, and the value co-creation that arises from it, thus acquires special importance (Díaz et al., 2023), especially when viewed through the lens of service-dominant logic (SDL) (Vargo and Lusch, 2004), which emphasizes the multi-actor nature of value co-creation in online environments (Katsifaraki and Theodosiou, 2024).

On the one hand, the theoretical literature suggests that the value co-creation between different brand-related agents and consumers that occurs in online media prior to the consumption of a service can lead to an improvement in the image of the service brand (Zhang et al., 2018). On the other hand, a number of studies dealing with SDL argue that consumers’ national culture influences how they interact with different agents and, therefore, how they co-create with them (Grott et al., 2019). Furthermore, the literature argues that culture can also affect how a brand image is perceived (Areiza-Padilla and Cervera-Taulet, 2023).

What, then, do service firms need to do to promote such co-creation? Referring to this question, Peco-Torres et al. (2023) signal the need for research examining the potential of strategic online reputation management as one possible avenue for value co-creation. In the services context, the literature finds that implementing this strategy will facilitate value co-creation between consumers and online platforms and fellow consumers because it helps generate more content about firms on these platforms that derives from previous clients (Casaló and Romero, 2019). It has also been shown to help increase firms’ knowledge of their client base but also of the kind of online content that clients need for such co-creation to occur (Iglesias-Sánchez et al., 2019).

The construction of the SDL framework continues to be a work in progress, and scholars concur that further knowledge and updates are required (Bhanja and Saxena, 2022), in particular, vis-à-vis how brands can be developed, and brand perceptions improved, online (Satar et al., 2023). It is this research gap that the present study seeks to address, responding to the future lines of research proposed by, among others, Barreda et al. (2020) (to better understand the constructs that influence brand image in online media), Furrer et al. (2024) (to achieve a deeper understanding of how technology can help improve the customer journey) and Törmälä and Saraniemi (2018) (to analyze the respective roles of multiple actors as co-creators of brand image). The present work also speaks to the research areas proposed by authors such as Ranjbaran et al. (2022) regarding the moderating role that consumers’ national culture may play in value co-creation processes – in particular, the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede et al., 2010). This aspect of a consumer’s culture is highly relevant if we consider the intangible nature of services in the pre-purchase stages (Casado-Díaz et al., 2017), its central role in studies dealing with service-consumer behavior in the online context (e.g. Coves-Martínez et al., 2023) and, specifically, its prominence in the study of consumer co-creation online (e.g. Sabiote-Ortíz et al., 2025). Finally, the present study seeks to respond to the call for further insight into the consequences of strategic online reputation management as a business strategy (Niu and Fan, 2018) and the strategies that favor value co-creation in the service sector (González-Mansilla et al., 2023).

The aim of this study is therefore to propose a research model, within the SDL theoretical framework, that explains service-firm brand image-formation in the online context. To this end, the work analyzes how brand image can be strengthened through consumers’ online value co-creation – with the firm itself, with online platforms or with other consumers – during the dreaming phase, taking into account the moderating role of consumers’ uncertainty avoidance and considering the role of strategic online reputation management.

Brand image can be defined as a set of beliefs about a specific brand in the minds of target customers (Yuan et al., 2016). This variable is particularly relevant in the service sector, where the intangibility and experiential nature of services render consumers subject to heightened uncertainty, especially in the pre-purchase phase (Casado-Díaz et al., 2017; Grönroos, 1990). In this context, brand image is one of the most effective strategies by which consumers can reduce this uncertainty, by choosing to buy services from those brands that present a positive image (Casado-Díaz et al., 2017).

The literature has demonstrated the effect of the brand image of service firms on different variables of consumer behavior, such as brand love (Anbumathi et al., 2023), satisfaction (Mohammed and Rashid, 2018), perceived quality (Lee et al., 2017) and, above all, purchase intention (Chakraborty and Biswal, 2020; Siddiqui et al., 2021). Therefore, this variable is widely recognized as a powerful management tool that service firms can use to their advantage in an increasingly competitive market (Lee et al., 2017).

Given the relevance of this variable, the literature has shown great interest in understanding how it is formed, finding that brand image can derive from different sources. Broadly, these have been categorized into three types: induced sources (from the firms themselves, via their marketing and promotional campaigns); autonomous sources (from those stakeholders that are objective and are not controlled by the firm); and organic sources (friends and family who tell each other of their experiences of the product and previous consumers who share their opinions) (Lam et al., 2020).

Therefore, brand image will depend on the information that the consumer has consulted and the particular information sources available to them (e.g. Frías-Jamilena et al., 2012). Among potential sources, the internet has long been the primary one and can be considered to embrace all three – induced, autonomous and organic – sources of information (Yilmaz and Yilmaz, 2020). In practical terms, this means that, when consumers obtain information from different online sources, there may be discrepancies between brand images that are based on induced content (that which is produced by the firm’s official online media, including its website or social networks), autonomous content (such as online platforms that provide impartial information about services and enable users to book them) and organic content, originating from reviews posted online by other consumers on review platforms or social networks (Guo et al., 2021).

In a further layer of complexity, these multiple online information sources that contribute to brand image-formation also intersect in different ways with the different points of the consumption process. To better understand this idea, let us consider the specific example of one of the most prominent sub-sectors within the service sector, that of tourism (Bordian et al., 2023). As we saw earlier, a firm’s brand image may form at any point in the consumer journey (pre-purchase, purchase or post-purchase). In the tourism context, these points are often conceptualized as the pre-visit phase (during which the tourist plans his or her trip, including making the relevant bookings), the visit phase (when the consumer consumes the services they booked) and the post-visit phase (when the consumer looks back on their experience of the trip and reflects on how it went) (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2017). Now, however, thanks to the possibilities offered by online media, the aforementioned “dreaming” phase, in which consumers first become receptive to inspiration and fantasize about the idea or possibility of a certain service – in the tourism context, perhaps involving a stay at a particular place in future travels – has become much more prominent (Creevey et al., 2019; Fotis et al., 2011). This phase precedes the active planning that is typically associated with the definition of the pre-visit phase, and it ends once the decision to travel to a specific destination has been made (Creevey et al., 2019). What marks this phase as distinct is that, here, the consumer does not yet have any specific destination or service in mind. Rather, they are in a state of being curious and open to inspiration and, thus, actively or passively seek ideas and tips about where they might want to visit next, what kind of experience they might want to consume and how they might go about it (Prasetya et al., 2021).

Prasetya et al. (2021) empirically demonstrate that the dreaming phase plays the most important role in the decision-making process surrounding future travel. This is because, in this phase, today’s consumers are exposed to, and interact with, not only the online media of the firms providing the services but also with impartial online platforms and with other consumers online. And, crucially, these latter two information sources – online platforms and consumer online posts – are particularly well-placed to provide ideas and tips that can inspire consumers to start dreaming about their next possible trip (Fotis, 2015).

Furthermore, online media are far from static resources consulted by consumers to obtain information before consuming a service. On the contrary, they have now evolved to such a degree that users are no longer merely passive recipients of content but highly connected, active collaborators who, even long before consuming any particular service, participate in online dialogue that helps them create or design the ingredients of the service experiences they will eventually consume (Ruiz-Molina et al., 2018). And it is within this context that the concept of value co-creation via online media gains traction. Indeed, the services literature is increasingly showing interest in co-creation via online media (e.g. Chou et al., 2022; Jeseo et al., 2024; Nadeem et al., 2025; Yeh et al., 2025).

It is through interactive, joint, collaborative or personalized activities with the brand or brand-related stakeholders, then, that consumers co-create value (Dretsch et al., 2024). Within this context, to emphasize the multi-agent nature of co-creation in online (interactive) environments such as social media, Vargo and Lusch (2016) expanded their SDL concept, modifying its sixth foundational premise, which emphasized “the customer,” to reflect the idea that value is created by “multiple actors” (Zadeh et al., 2023). Therefore, from this understanding, value co-creation in the services field and in the online context can be considered a complex process resulting from interactions between consumers and other agents (Stevens et al., 2024; Tuunanen et al., 2024). Here, “agents” can mean service providers, online platforms that consumers use to make their reservations or find information and inspiration regarding possible future service consumption, or other consumers interacting and sharing information via online media (Kim et al., 2019). Against this backdrop, the literature has recently shown interest in investigating the interactive nature of value co-creation in different service contexts and, from an SDL perspective, with different agents (Dreher and Ströbel, 2023), noting that further research is called for (Tuunanen et al., 2024).

Thanks to online media, consumers can take an active role in creating the image of service brands (Alzate et al., 2022; Borges-Tiago et al., 2021). This is because, through the value co-creation that happens in these media, consumers take part in a process that enhances the brand image in their eyes and encourages a commitment to the brand in question (Bouchriha et al., 2023). Aligning with this point, the literature has analyzed the effect of co-creation with service brands via online media on brand image (e.g. Bouchriha et al., 2023; Ghorbanzadeh and Sharbatiyan, 2024), the effect of co-creating online experiences via user-generated content platforms on tourist destination image (e.g. Lam et al., 2020) and the role of user-generated content in creating brand image in the services field (e.g. Alzate et al., 2022; Borges-Tiago et al., 2021; Glyptou, 2021; Siddiqui et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021).

Such findings lead us to conclude that SDL is fit-for-purpose as a theoretical lens through which to view the relationship between value co-creation and service brand image (Glyptou, 2021). All of the aforementioned studies, however, focus mainly on consumer co-creation with just one type of agent (the brand itself, user-created content platforms or other consumers), not taking into account co-creation, overall, with a variety of different agents. It is this overall perspective that the present study seeks to offer, thereby responding to the future line of research proposed by Lam et al. (2020) to comparatively determine the effect of co-creation via online media controlled by service providers vs online media not controlled by them.

On the theoretical level, the literature contends that the online platforms consulted by consumers prior to their consumption of a service enable them to participate in a value co-creation process that can lead to an improved brand image (Zhang et al., 2018). Notwithstanding, there is limited research looking at what happens prior to the pre-purchase phase as it is typically defined; hence, the literature has also yet to address – certainly, empirically – the role that co-creation during the dreaming phase may play in building service brand image. Given the important role that this phase has been shown to play in shaping consumer behavior, such a lacuna points to the need for greater knowledge about the effect of online value co-creation during the dreaming phase (Dai et al., 2022; Fotis, 2015). Seeking to address this research gap, the present study aims to better understand the effect of consumer co-creation during the dreaming phase – with the service firm, with online platforms or with other consumers – on service-firm brand image via online media. This objective also responds to the future lines of research proposed by Barreda et al. (2020), regarding the need to identify constructs that positively contribute to the formation of brand image in online media; by Furrer et al. (2024), to achieve a deeper understanding of how technology can help improve the customer journey); and by Törmälä and Saraniemi (2018), to analyze the respective roles of multiple actors as co-creators of brand image, as viewed through SDL.

In today’s globalized context, it is essential for firms to take national culture into account in their strategies (Schumacher et al., 2023). National culture can be defined as “the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede et al., 2010, p. 6).

In the case of service firms, the literature recommends that they take into account the cultural preferences of their customers – and the differences between them – to adapt their marketing strategies accordingly, as these differences influence consumers’ attitudes and beliefs (Huang et al., 2024; Tsiotsou, 2019). In the specific case of the value co-creation process, this can be affected by the cultural environment of the consumer, as context plays an important role in the brand–consumer interactions that enable value to be created, as emphasized in the SDL concept (Grott et al., 2019). How such interactions are perceived will differ from culture to culture, as will their outcomes (Ruiz-Molina et al., 2023). Therefore, it is essential to factor in how consumer national culture may influence the value co-creation process (Grott et al., 2019).

The most widely used conceptualization in studies dealing with cultural differences in the field of services and with marketing is that of Hofstede et al. (2010) (e.g. Mariani et al., 2020; Sabiote-Ortíz et al., 2013). Hofstede’s framework distinguishes between six cultural dimensions: individualism vs collectivism; power distance; uncertainty avoidance; masculinity vs femininity; long-term orientation; and indulgence vs restraint. In the literature dealing with online consumer behavior in relation to culture, arguably the most popular dimension from this framework is that of uncertainty avoidance (Sabiote-Ortiz et al., 2013, 2016). This is concerned with the degree to which an individual’s society is culturally predisposed toward tolerance of uncertainty, divergent views and ambiguity (as opposed to seeking safety and predictability by avoiding risk) (Lin, 2022).

Uncertainty avoidance plays a fundamental role in the context of services and, more specifically, in the use of online media in the service offer, mainly due to the intangible nature of services and the risk inherent in online interactions (Sabiote-Ortíz et al., 2025). Therefore, unsurprisingly, the literature has identified that consumers’ uncertainty avoidance influences their perception of service-firm brands in the online context (e.g. Sabiote-Ortíz et al., 2012, 2013; 2016), the formation of brand image in the services sector (e.g. de la Hoz-Correa and Muñoz-Leiva, 2019, Frías et al., 2012), the online co-creation process (Chepurna and Rialp Criado, 2021) and the consequences of co-creation (Grott et al., 2019; Sabiote-Ortiz et al., 2025).

In view of these considerations, the present study seeks to determine whether the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance moderates the effect of online value co-creation (with the service firm, with online platforms or with other consumers) on service-firm brand image. To the best of our knowledge, this moderating relationship has not been investigated in the extant literature, to date, despite calls for deeper study of the role that national culture may play in value co-creation processes (Ranijbaran et al., 2022).

On the individual level, uncertainty avoidance can be defined as the degree to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situations and create institutions and beliefs to avoid or minimize them (Hofstede et al., 2010). In the case of high uncertainty-avoidance consumers (i.e. risk-averse), they endeavor to minimize risk by consulting others for advice (Huang, 2018), and they seek out group interactions that offer solutions based on recommendations (Lee and Hyun, 2016). Consequently, high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers seek more sources of information (Huang, 2018) – to reduce the stress and uncertainty that decision-making can generate (Coves-Martínez et al., 2023; Tsiotsou, 2019) – compared to low-uncertainty-avoidance individuals. They are also more likely to trust unbiased sources of information – from fellow consumers, for instance – than sources controlled by service providers (de la Hoz-Correa and Muñoz-Leiva, 2019). Consumers with this high uncertainty-avoidance profile will plan meticulously (Michopoulou and Moisa, 2016) and carefully evaluate the value-for-money aspect of their purchasing decisions (Hollebeek, 2018; Sabiote et al., 2016). On online platforms and, more generally, on review sites and social media, users can consult other consumers’ perceptions regarding the quality–price ratio offered by service providers and even rankings and ratings that classify this ratio based on reviews shared by other consumers (Casaló and Romero, 2019). This type of content offers a sense of security to consumers who present a high level of uncertainty avoidance and who trust the impartial information provided by people who have already had the experience they are looking for (Lee and Hyun, 2016).

In addition to offering this reassurance, online platforms and reviews from other consumers can also act as a source of inspiration (Rubio et al., 2021) through co-creation. This is because, on the one hand, online platforms hold advantages for consumers such as frequent information updates, multiple options, detailed descriptions of services and, above all, a high level of interactivity (Chen et al., 2023). On the other hand, fellow consumers use different platforms to share information and opinions about their service experiences, resulting in value co-creation processes for both those who share their thoughts online and for readers or observers of such insights (Lam et al., 2020).

This positive dynamic can be interpreted through the lens of SDL, which suggests that consumers who participate in value co-creation activities with online platforms will form a more realistic and deeper brand image (Shen et al., 2018), while the literature argues that brand image can be co-created, thanks to user-generated content (e.g. Glyptou, 2021; Iglesias-Sánchez et al., 2020; Lam et al., 2020; Stojanovic et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2017). Therefore, this study proposes that, for high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers, during the dreaming phase, it will be their online value co-creation with online platforms and with other consumers that will prompt them to perceive a more appealing service-firm brand image. This hypothesis adopts a novel perspective, given that the extant literature has yet to empirically study the effect of value co-creation with online platforms or other consumers on brand image. Authors such as Zhang et al. (2018) and Lam et al. (2020), however, do propose further investigation into the value co-creation that takes place on online platforms and how this affects service brands.

By contrast, in the case of low-uncertainty-avoidance consumers, they will pay less attention to the possible risks associated with purchasing services (Sabiote et al., 2016), as they are willing to tolerate a higher level of risk and ambiguity (Filieri and Mariani, 2021). In broad terms, this means that this kind of consumer will be less concerned with the search for detailed service information and less influenced by information provided by third-party sources such as review platforms (Huang, 2018). Thus, they will be relatively uninterested in consulting information other than that provided by sources directly managed by service providers, which they consider to provide all they need to help them in their decision-making (de la Hoz-Correa and Muñoz-Leiva, 2019). During the dreaming phase, these low-uncertainty-avoidance consumers are therefore likely to choose to co-create value only with the firm’s own online media. This preference is justified by the literature, which argues that consumers can find inspiration for new services in corporate sources, such as the websites or social media pages of service firms (Fotis, 2015). These consumers can also participate in virtual tours that are made accessible to the public via firms’ online media (Bilgihan and Bujisic, 2015), or interact online with the firm’s employees (Cao et al., 2023).

Through all such contact with the service firm during the dreaming phase, value can be co-created, with the potential to impact positively the firm’s image (Borges-Tiago et al., 2021).On this premise, it is proposed that, for low-uncertainty-avoidance consumers, during the dreaming phase, it will be their online value co-creation with the firm that generates a more appealing service-firm brand image. This proposition contributes to the literature, as no previous study has analyzed the relationship between online value co-creation with services in the dreaming phase and brand image. Thus, it responds to the call for further research into the influence of value co-creation on brand image, as proposed by authors such as Zhang et al. (2019).

The following research hypotheses are therefore proposed:

In view of the benefits of online value co-creation for service firms, it is important that they have a practical understanding of how to consistently foster and sustain that co-creation (Roy et al., 2020). With this aim in mind, strategic online reputation management may constitute a valuable strategy (Peco-Torres et al., 2023). The literature recognizes that online reputation management is a valid means for firms to build co-creation with consumers, as it affects the degree to which those consumers will be willing to engage in conversations about the firm (both with other customers and directly with the firm itself) (Li et al., 2017). More specifically, in the services context, strategic online reputation management is highly relevant to co-creation in the dreaming phase because the information and insights it provides can help managers to more effectively curate the kind of content to which consumers will be exposed, starting from the very earliest stages of their decision-making process (Cillo et al., 2021).

Strategic online reputation management can be defined as the firm’s systematic cultivation, monitoring and evaluation of content about its products and services that is generated by users and posted in online media, and its active engagement with the sentiment of that content to preserve its online reputation (Cigarrán et al., 2016; Cillo et al., 2021). Strategic online reputation management therefore entails, first, encouraging consumers to express their opinions about the firm in online media (De Pelsmacker et al., 2018; Levy et al., 2013). In the services context, this strategy, if well implemented, will generate more user-generated content about the service firm in online media, including online platforms and review platforms, and this greater online coverage, in turn, can help improve the value offered by such media (Casaló and Romero, 2019). It can also serve as a source of inspiration for consumers that facilitates their co-creation both with online platforms and with other consumers in the dreaming phase.

Second, strategic online reputation management also involves responding to consumer feedback in a timely and personalized way (Levy et al., 2013). Responding (and being seen to respond) to reviews, for instance, signals that the firm cares about its clients (Shin et al., 2020), which will help generate trust and ease among consumers (Perez-Aranda et al., 2019). Crucially, however, it will also render it more likely that potential consumers will be willing to co-create value with the firm from the very beginnings of their decision-making process – that is, in the dreaming phase (Shin et al., 2020) – as they observe how the firm displays such care for its consumers. Lending weight to this idea, Li et al. (2017) showed that the frequency and speed with which firms responded to online reviews positively influenced future consumers’ participation behaviors on social networks, and Casaló and Romero (2019) found that perceived support from the firm, in the form of valuing clients and showing care for their well-being, encouraged consumers to co-create with it. In short, if the firm can develop “personal” interactions with consumers in online media, this increases opportunities for co-creation with potential consumers (Shin et al., 2020). Therefore, it can be affirmed that, when firms systematically and thoughtfully respond to feedback posted online by past clients, this interaction encourages potential clients to want to engage in online media conversations about the firm, too. Such interactions are a helpful way to achieve value co-creation in the dreaming phase, be it with the firms themselves, with online platforms or with other consumers (Iglesias-Sánchez et al., 2019).

Finally, strategic online reputation management also requires the firm to analyze the opinions that consumers post about it in online media (Niu and Fan, 2018) and take action to improve performance in light of those opinions (Baka, 2016). Thus, encouraging users to generate online content is not enough, nor is it enough for the firm to be seen to respond to comments and reviews. Firms must also endeavor to leverage the insights that existing consumers provide via their online media interactions, analyzing them to better understand how consumers feel and what their preferences are, to achieve adequate value co-creation with potential clients. This deeper understanding of consumers’ needs, supported by strategic online reputation management, will empower service firms to post the online media content that consumers past, present and future are looking for (Cillo et al., 2021). It will also feed into actions to improve and/or adapt the services provided, which will ultimately help the consumer build more trust in the brand and, thus, feel more inclined to co-create with it through its online media (Iglesias-Sánchez et al., 2019).

In light of these considerations, this study proposes that strategic online reputation management will influence consumers’ value co-creation with the service firm, with online platforms or with other consumers in the dreaming phase. This is because the actions implemented by the firm as a result of its online reputation management will deliver more online content about the firm that is generated by consumers – posted on online platforms, social networks and consumer review sites – and will be sourced by potential consumers in the dreaming phase; greater firm–consumer interaction in the dreaming phase; and service-firm online media content and services that are informed by, and improved to respond to, the needs of the consumer.

In short, strategic online reputation management will ensure that, in the dreaming phase, consumers take away a good first impression of the firm, which will encourage them to interact with its online media directly or consult other online resources about it (such as online platforms or review platforms) (Cillo et al., 2021). However, there is a lack of literature dealing with the relationship between strategic online reputation management and value co-creation in the dreaming phase (be it with service providers, online platforms or other consumers). This is despite the existence of studies that call for a greater understanding of the consequences of strategic online reputation management (e.g. Lopes et al., 2024; Niu and Fan, 2018) and the antecedents of value co-creation in the services context (e.g. González-Mansilla et al., 2023).

The following research hypothesis is therefore proposed:

The proposed research model is presented in Figure 1.

The hotel sector was chosen as the focus of the study because it is a highly competitive service sector in which marketing activities implemented via online media are of particular importance (Lee, 2024). Furthermore, the literature highlights that, within services more generally, the hotel sector holds a particular relevance, as research dealing with this sector provides important benchmarking practices for the services industry (Bordian et al., 2023). The population under study here comprised Spanish and British consumers who had consumed at least one hotel stay during the 12 months immediately preceding the fieldwork and had interacted online with other users, with online platforms and with the hotel’s online media in advance of making any decision about using its services. The rationale for selecting Spanish vs British consumers for the sample in which to analyze the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance was that the two cultures score very differently in the indicators relating to Hofstede’s uncertainty-avoidance dimension (86 for Spain and 35 for the UK) (The Culture Factor, 2024). This combination can be considered appropriate for a comparative study of two national cultures (Sabiote-Ortíz et al., 2016). The participants were recruited through an internet user panel, forming a final sample of 607 consumers (310 Spanish and 297 British), once atypical cases had been eliminated using the Mahalanobis distance measure (Hair et al., 2018). This sample size can be considered adequate, being larger than those used in similar studies that apply multigroup analysis with Spanish and British samples in the services field (e.g. Alcántara-Pilar et al., 2015, 2017; Coves-Martínez et al., 2023; Grott et al., 2019; Sabiote-Ortiz et al., 2012, 2013, 2016). To reaffirm the adequacy of the sample size, G*Power software was also used, which demonstrated a test power of 99% (Matosas-López, 2024). All in all, the results offer a reasonable degree of generalizability. Table 1 presents the sample characteristics.

Respondents were required to respond to a questionnaire featuring items relating to value co-creation in the dreaming phase (with the firm, with online platforms or with other consumers); service-firm brand image; and strategic online reputation management. All the items were measured on seven-point Likert scales that were adapted to the present study from previous works ( Appendix).

To measure value co-creation with the firm, with online platforms or with other consumers, three scales based on Frías-Jamilena et al. (2017) were used. To measure the firm’s brand image, a scale developed by Boo et al. (2009) was chosen. Finally, strategic online reputation management was measured on a scale based on the work of De Pelsmacker et al. (2018). All these scales had previously been validated in the services field.

Figure 1 shows the proposed research model, which reflects the relationships explored in the hypotheses. It also indicates that strategic online reputation management, value co-creation in the dreaming phase and brand image are all first-order constructs. When conducting a cross-cultural study, the scores derived from the different sub-samples must be comparable (Sabiote-Ortíz et al., 2016). In this case, a bias in the extreme response styles derived from comparison of the two – culturally different – samples was verified. Hence, to eliminate this bias, the “within-group standardization” (adjustment across variables) method was used. This entails adjusting the means by the group standard deviation, which eliminates any bias due to response styles between and within each group (i.e. within each of the two cultures) (Fischer, 2004).

Once the data had been standardized, the adequacy of the model and measurement scales was verified with a multigroup SEM analysis (AMOS V.26 software), distinguishing between two groups of consumers: (Spanish vs British). Starting with the psychometric properties of the proposed model, these were estimated using maximum likelihood and bootstrapping (Yuan and Hayashi, 2003). These methods were chosen because the multivariate normality test of the variables under study proved significant. Assessing the model’s goodness of fit, the normed chi-square value was 3.79, which is within the limits accepted by the literature. The RMSEA value (0.07) can be considered acceptable as an indicator of global fit, while the incremental fit values were also found to be adequate, as follows: IFI (0.92), CFI (0.92) and TLI (0.91). Overall, then, the model fit can be said to be acceptable.

To analyze the convergent validity of the scales (Table 2), first, the value of the loading between each latent variable and its indicator was analyzed, along with the composite reliability or R² of each item. For both the British and Spanish sub-samples, the values were significant, presenting a value greater than 0.7 in the case of the loadings and greater than 0.5 in the case of the R², as recommended by the literature (Hair et al., 2018).

Turning to the internal consistency of the scales, for both the British and the Spanish sub-samples, the composite reliability and variance-extracted values were above, or close to, the reference thresholds of 0.70 and 0.50, respectively (Hair et al., 2018). Finally, the discriminant validity between the model variables was tested, proving affirmative as the confidence interval of the estimated coefficient of the correlations between the different variables did not include the value “1” (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). Furthermore, the correlation between the variables was not greater than 0.80 (Bagozzi, 1994).

The relationships reflected in the research hypotheses were then analyzed (see Figure 2 for a summary of results). First, H1 proposed that, during the dreaming phase, the effect of consumers’ value co-creation with the firm’s online media on service-firm brand image is moderated by the individual’s uncertainty avoidance. This study found that, for high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers (in this case, the Spanish), value co-creation with the firm in the dreaming phase exerts no significant effect on service-firm brand image (standardized coefficient: 0.08; confidence interval: −0.32–0.43; p-value > 0.05). For low-uncertainty-avoidance consumers (here, the British), value co-creation with the firm does have a significant effect (0.58) on service-firm brand image (confidence interval: 0.34–1.07; p-value ≤ 0.01). H1a and H1b therefore find empirical support.

H2 postulated that, during the dreaming phase, the effect of consumers’ value co-creation with online platforms on service-firm brand image is moderated by the individual’s uncertainty avoidance. The present findings show that, for high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers (the Spanish), value co-creation with online platforms in the dreaming phase does exert a significant effect (0.49) on service-firm brand image (confidence interval: 0.14–0.92; p-value ≤ 0.05). For low-uncertainty-avoidance consumers (the British), value co-creation with online platforms exerts no significant effect on service-firm brand image (standardized coefficient: 0.01; confidence interval: −0.22–0.22; p-value > 0.05). H2a and H2b also therefore find empirical support.

H3 contended that, during the dreaming phase, the effect of consumers’ value co-creation with other consumers on service-firm brand image is moderated by the individual’s uncertainty avoidance. The findings of this study indicate that, for high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers (the Spanish), value co-creation with other consumers in the dreaming phase exerts a significant effect (0.21) on service-firm brand image (confidence interval: 0.03–0.41; p-value ≤ 0.05). For low-uncertainty-avoidance consumers (the British), value co-creation with other consumers does not exert a significant effect on service-firm brand image (standardized coefficient: 0.24; confidence interval: 0.00–0.44; p-value > 0.05). H3a and H3b thus also receive empirical support.

Finally, H4 proposed that strategic online reputation management exerts a positive and significant impact in the dreaming phase on consumers’ online value co-creation (a) with the firm, (b) with online platforms or (c) with other consumers. This hypothesis also received empirical support, as follows:

• For Spanish consumers (i.e. high uncertainty avoidance), strategic online reputation management has a positive and significant effect in the dreaming phase on their value co-creation with the firm (standardized coefficient: 0.84; confidence interval: 0.75–0.92; p-value ≤ 0.01), with online platforms (standardized coefficient: 0.84; confidence interval: 0.73–0.94; p-value ≤ 0.01) and with other consumers (standardized coefficient: 0.69; confidence interval: 0.60–0.77; p-value ≤ 0.01).

• For British consumers (i.e. low uncertainty avoidance), strategic online reputation management has a positive and significant effect in the dreaming phase on their value co-creation with the firm (standardized coefficient: 0.81; confidence interval: 0.68–0.96; p-value ≤ 0.01), with online platforms (standardized coefficient: 0.74; confidence interval: 0.61–0.84; p-value ≤ 0.01) and with other consumers (standardized coefficient: 0.75; confidence interval: 0.66–0.83; p-value ≤ 0.01).

This study sought to determine how service-firm brand image may be strengthened through online value co-creation between the consumer and the firm, online platforms or other consumers, taking into account the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance and the firm’s strategic online reputation management.

In fulfilling these objectives, the results of this study make several contributions to the literature. First, this research shows that, in the dreaming phase, the consumer’s uncertainty avoidance does moderate the relationship between their online value co-creation with the firm and the firm’s brand image, as this relationship is significant only for consumers from low-uncertainty-avoidance cultures. This result aligns with the findings of authors such as Cao et al. (2015), regarding how consumers can be inspired to consume a new service as a result of consulting or interacting with corporate online media, and de la Hoz-Correa and Muñoz-Leiva (2019), who proposed that the information published by service providers online is sufficient to generate inspiration among consumers from low-uncertainty-avoidance cultures.

Second, it is shown here that, in the dreaming phase, uncertainty avoidance also moderates the effect of consumers’ online value co-creation with online platforms and fellow consumers on brand image. In both cases, this effect is significant only for high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers. These results are in line with previous studies contending that consumers who participate in value-creation activities with online platforms form a more realistic and deeper brand image (Shen et al., 2018); the results also speak to extant literature that argues that brand image can be co-created thanks to user-generated content (Glyptou, 2021). In a similar vein, they align with research conducted by authors such as Hollebeek (2018) and Coves-Martínez et al. (2023). These authors concur that high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers plan meticulously and analyze the quality–price ratio in advance, to reduce their stress and uncertainty about the purchase. Such consumers choose to consult information sources that are not controlled by service providers, such as online platforms or reviews posted online by other consumers.

These results constitute a valuable advance for the literature as they emphasize the importance of uncertainty avoidance and value co-creation in the formation of service-brand image. To the best of our knowledge, no previous empirical study has examined the effect of consumers’ online value co-creation (either with the firm, with online platforms or with other consumers) in the dreaming phase on brand image. Thus, this work responds to the future lines of research proposed by authors such as Zhang et al. (2018), Lam et al. (2020) and Borges-Tiago et al. (2020) into the effect of co-creation on the image of service brands, the need identified by Barreda et al. (2020) to better understand the constructs that facilitate brand image formation in the online context and the future research proposed by Furrer et al. (2024) to achieve insights into how technology may be used to improve the customer journey.

Third, it is shown here that strategic online reputation management has a positive and significant influence on online value co-creation in the dreaming phase (with the firm, with online platforms or with other consumers). This finding, while in line with the literature showing that certain features of strategic online reputation management – such as the firm’s response to consumer reviews – encourage more user-generated content (Casaló and Romero, 2019) and prompt consumers to be more willing to co-create with firms (Shin et al., 2020), demonstrates this relationship for the first time. It also contributes to the future line of research proposed by authors such as Niu and Fan (2018) to understand the consequences of strategic online reputation management.

In light of these considerations, this work constitutes a step forward for the SDL theoretical framework, for the following reasons:

• It empirically demonstrates the multi-actor nature of value co-creation in the online context (Vargo and Lush 2016), being the first study to jointly examine the impact of value co-creation (with the firm, with online platforms or with other consumers) on the service provider’s brand. In taking this joint approach, it responds to the future line of research proposed by authors including Lam et al. (2020) to determine the effect of co-creation that occurs in online media controlled by service providers vs those not controlled by them, and that proposed by Törmälä and Saraniemi (2018) to explore the roles of multiple actors as co-creators of brand image, informed by the SDL paradigm. Specifically, this is the first study to analyze the effect of value co-creation with three distinct actors on a service provider’s brand.

• It is the first study to empirically demonstrate the effect of value co-creation in the dreaming phase. This phase of co-creation was proposed by Fotis (2015), and its analysis here responds to the future line of empirical research proposed by Dai et al. (2022). The inclusion of value co-creation into the dreaming phase also constitutes an advancement in the conceptualization of a core variable of SDL (Meng and Cui, 2020).

• It demonstrates for the first time the moderating role of uncertainty avoidance in the relationship between online value co-creation and brand image, consistent with the premise that, following SDL, the cultural context plays an important role in consumer–brand interactions that can generate value co-creation (Grott et al., 2019).

• It responds to calls from the literature (e.g. Barreda et al., 2020) to explain how, from the SDL perspective, brand image is formed in the online context.

• It contributes to explaining the antecedents of value co-creation within this theoretical framework, responding to future lines proposed by authors such as González-Mansilla et al. (2023) to determine what drives value co-creation in the service sector. More specifically, it demonstrates the existence of a new antecedent – strategic online reputation management – that has not been empirically investigated until now.

Drawing on the results obtained here, service firms will be better placed to understand how they can improve their brand image by adopting strategic online reputation management and pursuing co-creation via online media, taking into account cultural differences among their international clients. Specifically, it is shown that: for low-uncertainty-avoidance consumers, value co-creation with the firm in the dreaming phase contributes to achieving a more positive brand image; in the case of high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers, co-creation with online platforms and with other consumers contributes to achieving a more positive brand image; and strategic online reputation management stimulates consumers’ online value co-creation with the firm, with online platforms and with other consumers.

In the case of low-uncertainty-avoidance consumers, then, brand image is generated through the interactions that take place with the firm’s online media long before they actually consume the service. For instance, in the case of tourism service firms, managers must endeavor to strategically interact through their online media (websites, social networks, blogs, etc.) with consumers to generate among them the desire to get to know the destination where the firm is located and foster excitement at the prospect of consuming its services when they eventually come to plan their next trip (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2017). To this end, it is essential for this type of service firm to generate appealing online media content and manage their interactions with potential consumers through these media in such a way that the latter not only value the firm and its most outstanding features but also recognize the appeal of the destination itself. Service firms in general should therefore implement an online reputation management strategy to provide them with intelligence on how clients prefer to be interacted with via online media to co-create value.

More specifically, firms should strategically leverage the information that is generated about them in external online media to identify what type of online content they could produce that would inspire consumers in the dreaming phase. Returning to the tourism services example, firms should look for ways to generate and amplify online content that sparks a desire among potential consumers to fantasize or dream about the destination where the service – the hotel, for instance – is located and, specifically, about future opportunities to consume its services.

Within this type of content, service firms could generate interactive virtual tours of their facilities so that visitors can sample a taste of the complete consumer experience they could enjoy. Firms could also use chatbots to interact in real time with consumers, focusing not only on aspects related to the service but also on the entire consumer journey with the company, such as offering tips for getting the most out of consuming a service; sharing testimonials from satisfied customers; collaborating with influencers who can consume their services and create engaging online content about it; or sending out emails with visual and engaging content about the service experience, the company, exclusive offers and so on. In the tourism context, for instance, suggestions for things to see and do during a trip to the destination where the firm is located can spark considerable interest during the dreaming phase, when the potential consumer is receptive to new and inspiring ideas.

Turning to high-uncertainty-avoidance consumers, it is their interactions with online platforms and other consumers in the dreaming phase that contribute to forming brand image. To encourage such interactions, service firms need to strategically manage their online reputation by encouraging customers to post comments about their service experience in online media, systematically analyzing what is said about them online and actively being seen to respond to those comments (De Pelsmacker et al., 2018). In the dreaming phase, this activity will stimulate more value co-creation with online platforms (which will benefit from more content about the firm) and with other consumers (who will comment more extensively about their service experience). In addition, firms may also find it fruitful to collaborate directly with online platforms to publish paid content or advertisements that showcase their service and provide useful tips to consumers. They could even create an online community where consumers can interact, share recommendations about the service in question (and/or the destination, in the case of tourism services) and build a sense of connection to the firm well in advance of the pre-purchase phase.

As with all research, this study presents certain limitations that can be taken into account when formulating future lines of research. First, the study’s target population comprised only British and Spanish hotel consumers, meaning that generalization of the results to other types of firms and consumers must be made with caution. One viable line of research for the future would be to replicate the study in other types of service firms and in other geographical areas.

Second, another line of potential future research that the present authors are currently examining is to include in the research model other business strategies that may influence service-firm brand image or value co-creation (with firms’ online media, with online platforms or with other consumers), such as customer relationship management or revenue management.

A third limitation is that, although a highly competitive and representative sector of the service industry – the hotel industry – was chosen as the focus of this study, the choice of a single specific sector renders it difficult to generalize the results. Hence, it is recommended to replicate this research in the context of other types of service firms.

A fourth limitation is that the study is cross-sectional in nature. When it comes to deepening our understanding of how certain changes in business strategy may contribute to fostering consumer co-creation with different actors, longitudinal research would be extremely helpful in tracking which strategies, specifically, are most appropriate for this purpose.

Finally, we recommend further exploring the multi-stakeholder nature of value creation from the SDL theoretical perspective to verify how other agents interact, beyond the firm and consumers, to derive insights that help design a positive service experience tailored to the consumer. It would also be interesting to determine the impacts of this co-creation on variables other than brand image.

Funding statement: This work was funded by Conserjería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidades de la Junta de Andalucía under Proyectos de I + D+i en el marco del Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía (A-SEJ-462-UGR20).

Disclosure statement: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Construct/dimension/item

Strategic online reputation management (De Pelsmacker et al., 2018).

SORM1. The hotel seems to be aware of what is being said about it in online media.

SORM2. The hotel responds in a personalized way to the comments that customers make about it in online media.

SORM3. The hotel encourages guests to post comments on online media about their experiences there.

Value co-creation with the service firm in the dreaming phase (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2017)

My interactions with the hotel via online media led me to …

VCSFD 1. Want to visit and explore the destination/location in which the hotel is located.

VCSFD 2. Feel encouraged to plan the trip.

VCSFD 3. Be excited about my stay at the hotel.

Value co-creation with online platforms in the dreaming phase (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2017)

My use of online travel agencies or specialized websites (Booking, Kayak, TripAdvisor, travel agent websites) led me to […].

VCOPD1. Want to visit and explore the destination/location in which the hotel is located.

VCOPD2. Feel encouraged to plan the trip.

VCOPD3. Be excited about my stay at the hotel.

Value co-creation with other consumers in the dreaming phase (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2017)

My interactions with other users or tourists through online media (opinions, reviews, blogs, comments on social networks) contributed to.

VCCD1. A desire to visit and explore the destination/location in which the hotel is located.

VCCD2. Feeling encouraged to plan the trip.

VCCD3. Feeling excited about my stay at the hotel.

Service-firm brand image (Boo et al., 2009).

The online presence of the hotel (website, social networks, opinions on Booking and TripAdvisor) led me to feel that …

SFBI1. This hotel suits my personality.

SFBI2. My friends would think highly of me for choosing this hotel.

SFBI3. The image of this hotel is consistent with my self-image.

Source: Authors’ own work