What is it that makes something feel valuable to us – and how does it influence our everyday choices and habits? These are questions explored by Sture Nöjd in his licentiate thesis “Understanding value in service as a psychological process – a consumer perspective.”
In his licentiate thesis, Sture Nöjd shows how the experience of value shapes our behaviour – from shopping in-store to everyday habits.
– Value is not just something that exists in a product or a service, but something we create ourselves in our thoughts, feelings and behaviours – a psychological process, says Sture Nöjd.
Value is shaped in everyday life
Sture Nöjd has studied how people experience value in services, including in physical retail settings. The results show that value is created through an interplay between several factors – such as goals, relationships and experiences.
– What matters is not only what the service contains, but how it fits into people’s lives, goals and everyday behaviours. Value is personal, context-dependent and changeable, says Sture Nöjd.
A concrete example is why many people still choose to shop in-store rather than online.
– It can be about more than the purchase itself – being able to see the product, talk to someone, get out of the house, feel inspired or do something together with others. If that experience is assigned value, the likelihood of repeating the behaviour increases.
Digital technology can both support and disrupt
Another finding is that digital technology does not automatically create value.
– Digital technology works well when it facilitates something people already perceive as valuable, such as finding information or saving time, says Sture Nöjd. However, technology can also have the opposite effect and become disruptive when it is experienced as intrusive, complicated or shifts focus away from what people actually want to experience.
– Technology should therefore support value creation, not take it over.
Habits are driven by what we perceive as valuable
In a study of behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, he also shows how our habits are shaped by what we value.
– We repeat behaviours that give us something we perceive as important – such as security, a sense of community or efficiency. In this way, our habits are organised around different types of value.
The thesis results in an overall model of how value influences our actions – from what we perceive as valuable to how it shapes our everyday choices and behaviours.
The licentiate seminar was held on 21 August at Karlstad University.
