The impact of customer participation: the employee’s perspective

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of customer participation in a service delivery process by designing and testing an empirical model with the employees’ point of view in mind. Design/methodology/approach – Using data collected from 166 pairs of customers and service employees in the context of professional financial insurance services, this study uses partial least square path modeling in SmartPLS to analyze the proposed model. Findings – The results of the study show that customer participation produces positive effects on employees’ job satisfaction only if such participation minimizes job stress and meets employees’ relational needs. Job stress and satisfaction were strong predictors for organizational commitment, but the proposed relationship between relational value and organizational commitment was not found. Practical implications – This study suggests that customer participation can be a win-win situation for employees and the service firm. Employees who create relational value with their customers effectively enjoy their jobs more and are more likely to build and maintain long-term relationships with their service firm. Originality/value – The findings highlighted the roles of the customer and the employee and indicated the heuristic value of viewing job satisfaction and organizational commitment as consequences of customer participation. This can enhance the understanding of how encounters should be designed to support employees and improve the co-creation of value.

Linking customer participation to service employees’ work‐to‐family enrichment: The role of job crafting and OBSE

“…In effect, employees tend to sense more contextual resources (such as social support) from their customers. To create relational value and mutual social support with the customers, employees would reframe their relationships with customers as working partners (Chen, Chen, & Lin, ). Such change also stimulates them to take initiative to create helpful and energizing relationships with other people in the workplace, which are motivated by their need for human connection (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, ; Wrzesniewski et al ., ).…”

The role of customer participation for enhancing repurchase intention

“…The market has become a forum in which consumers play an active role in creating and competing for value ( Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2000). Many studies unequivocally support the goal of increasing opportunities for co-production between the firm and its customers as a means to achieve a competitive advantage (Chen et al, 2015). Customer participation has long been a focus of interest in service research, as it is an elementary aspect of services and also a source of various positive outcomes for both customers and service providers (Mustak et al, 2013).…”

“…Firms must learn from and collaborate with Role of customer participation their customers to create values that meet their individual and dynamic needs. The notion of value co-creation is particularly salient for professional financial services, which are customized, necessitate high contact, and where credence properties are important (Chen et al, 2015). Although customers do not think of themselves as members of the service organization, they participate in the service delivery process playing the role of organizational members or "partial employees" (Xie et al, 2008).…”

Customer Participation and Quality of Service in Improving Loyalty Visitors in Tourism Park

“…Customer participation variables refer to Tew and Barbieri (2011);Shelton (2012) ;Mustak, et al (2013) ;Dong, et al (2015); Chen, at al. (2015); Chang and Taylor (2016);Solem (2016).…”

“…The presence of customer participation will increase awareness of customer behavior, so that will increase customer attention. Previous empirical evidence on the relationship between the role of customer participation and service is low (Shelton, 2012: Mustak, et al, 2013Dong, et al, 2015;Chen, et al, 2015;Chang and Taylor, 2016;Solem, 2016). The results of Dong's research, et al (2015) shows that when customer participation is high, then services that include customer satisfaction will also be high.…”