Customer Coproduction in Services: The Antecedents and Consequences
| Autor: | Ching-yi Tsai, 蔡靜宜 |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 100 The importance of service has drawn much attention to its unique aspect of involving customers into the service processes of designing, producing, and delivering. Through coproduction, customers can examine and create customized consumption experiences for themselves whereas service firms can increase productivity and lower labor costs. Explicitly, coproduction has become the key to success in services. Numerous marketing literatures have devoted to this research area, yet several gaps remain to be filled. First, marketing academics have highlighted the importance of coproduction, but there exists limited empirical research. Second, majority of studies define coproduction as a behavioral construct whereas the psychological indicators of individuals to undertake coproduction have been neglected. Third, literature has distinguished in-role from extra-role behaviors. However, few studies have discussed the interplay of coproduction and customer citizenship behavior (CCB), the behavior that eventually brings profit to service firm. Therefore, the objectives of this dissertation include: (1) undertaking the psychological perspective and proposing motivation as the construct mediating the relationship from antecedents to coproduction behaviors, (2) empirically examining the impacts generated by external attractions and internal readiness on evoking customer coproduction motivation, and further influencing coproduction and CCB, (3) discussing the relationship between in-role and extra-role behaviors in a coproduction setting. This study is grounded in relationship marketing, social exchange theory, role theory, and customer readiness literatures. A multi-step process was adopted to test the conceptual model, beginning with a pilot study of in-depth interview and pretests on 104 participants; followed by one cross-sectional quantitative study. A convenience sampling method was used to distribute the questionnaires through various channels including e-mail and face-to-face interview. The service settings for this study focus on the high-contact services, such as healthcare and hairdressing services, in which face-to-face coproduction is essential and influence the final outcomes. A total of 490 questionnaires were collected for analysis. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. Results suggest that coproduction motivation plays a critical role in driving coproduction behaviors and CCB. In addition, customer readiness (as internal readiness) is more important in evoking customer coproduction motivation than relational bonds (as external attractions). The results also provide evidences on the influences generated by the in-role behaviors on the extra-role behaviors under coproduction settings. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of customer coproduction behaviors in service interactions for both academics and managers. It contributes to the literature by being one of the few to incorporate a psychological construct, coproduction motivation, in the relationship of antecedents and coproduction behavior. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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