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.

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