The co-creation experience from the customer perspective: its measurement and determinants. Issue 2 (20th April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Verleye, Katrien
• Editors: Elina Jaakkola, Anu Helkkula and Dr Leena Aarikka-Stenroos, Dr
• Is Part Of: Journal of service management. Volume 26:Issue 2(2015)
• Page Start: 321
• Page End: 342
• Publication Date: 2015-04-20
• Subjects: Service innovation -- New product development -- Co-creation -- Experience -- Service co-creation -- Expectations; Service industries -- Management -- Periodicals; 658.005
• DOI: 10.1108/JOSM-09-2014-0254
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1757-5818

Abstract

Abstract : Purpose: – Companies increasingly opt for co-creation by engaging customers in new product and service development processes. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the customer experience in co-creation situations and its determinants. Design/methodology/approach: – The conceptual framework addresses the customer experience in co-creation situations, and its individual and environmental determinants. To examine the degree to which these determinants affect the customer experience in co-creation situations, the author starts by proposing and testing a multidimensional co-creation experience scale ( n =66). Next, the author employs an experiment to test the hypotheses ( n =180). Findings: – Higher levels of customer role readiness, technologization, and connectivity positively affect different co-creation experience dimensions. The impact of these dimensions on the overall co-creation experience, however, differs according to customers' expectations in terms of co-creation benefits. Therefore, the author concludes that the expected co-creation benefits determine the importance of the level of customer role readiness, technologization, and connectivity for the co-creation experience. Originality/value: – This research generates a better understanding of the co-creation experience by providing insight into the co-creation experience dimensions and their relative importance for customers with different expectations in terms of co-creation benefits. Additionally, this research addresses the implications of customer heterogeneity in terms of expected co-creation benefits for designing co-creation environments, thereby helping managers to generate more rewarding co-creation experiences for their customers.