Adoption of technology-based services: the role of customers’ willingness to co-create

Abstract

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically evaluate an adoption model for technology-based services (TBS) that integrates a customer's willingness to co-create (WCC) as mediator complementing the well-known individual differences and innovation characteristics in predicting customer adoption of TBS. Design/methodology/approach-The manuscript uses structural equation modeling to analyze survey data from two empirical studies (n ¼ 781 and n ¼ 181). Findings-The empirical results show that WCC represents a key mediator between established antecedent predictors (innovation characteristics and individual differences) and the likelihood of TBS adoption. Additionally, the analysis reveals that WCC can even better explain and predict adoption intention of TBS than the commonly used individual differences and innovation characteristics. Finally, the results also suggest that a lack of customers' WCC may help to explain persuasion-decision discrepancies within TBS adoption. Research limitations/implications-As the data of this manuscript pertains to the mobile apps market, future research might test the modified technology adoption model in other TBS contexts as well. While the studies used cross-sectional data, it would be interesting to assess the differential influence of WCC across the stages in the adoption process using longitudinal data. Practical implications-The findings on WCC provide managers with a new set of factors (apart from known antecedent predictors like individual differences and innovation characteristics) to optimize TBS adoption. Originality/value-This manuscript is the first to examine an adoption model for TBS that integrates a customer's WCC. Furthermore, the findings provide first empirical evidence that WCC can help to explain persuasion-decision discrepancies within TBS adoption.

Consumer Expectation from Online Retailers in Developing E-commerce Market: An Investigation of Generation Y in Bangladesh

“…They went through the learning curve of social media interaction on their own accord and learnt to value others' opinions (Palfrey & Gasser, 2013). To the benefits of the businesses and marketers, Gen Y follows a participatory culture (eMarketer, 2011) and feel important when they provide feedback about the brands to co-create products and services that they use (De Vries & Carlson, 2014;Heidenreich & Handrich, 2015;Randall & Bhalla, 2014). This attribute affirms the need for this research to recognize the expectation of Gen Y to develop a much desired online market in Bangladesh.…”

A rolling stone gathers no moss: the effect of customers' perceived business model innovativeness on customer value co‐creation behavior and customer satisfaction in the service sector

“…This is because customers have only limited resources to engage in value co‐creation and need to decide about the proper allocation of these resources. In this respect, the core challenge lies in motivating customers to engage in value co‐creation (Bettencourt et al, ; Heidenreich and Handrich, ). In particular, the restaurant sector might feature many alternative service providers with services of a similar quality.…”

“…Therefore, additional signals of quality, such as CPBMI, might influence the customers' decision to engage in co‐creation. Recent research by Heidenreich and Handrich () shows that a customer's willingness to co‐create value is related to individual differences and innovation characteristics of the business. Perceiving a business as innovative is a signal which shapes a customer's perception that a business is creative and progressive (Henard and Dacin, ) and will make proactive use of information and ideas for future business model development.…”

“…Hienerth et al () carried out a multiple case study showing that several changes are required in established business models to facilitate a higher degree customer integration. Despite these structural mechanisms, it must be considered that customer co‐creation behavior does not only rely on their operational ability to interact with an organization, but also on each customer's willingness (Heidenreich and Handrich, ). In their conceptual integration of business model design and SDL, Clauß et al () propose that both structural and relational levels of customer interaction influence customer value co‐creation behavior.…”

Service Providers’ Willingness to Change as Innovation Inductor in Services: Validating a Scale

“…More than that, current literature on service innovation admits the client to act as a co-creator of value (Grönroos, 2011) whose readiness, technologization and connectivity affect the experience for service development (Verleye, 2015). While some works focus on explaining how clients act during service delivery to co-create innovation with service providers through measuring the customers' willingness to co-create (such as Handrich & Heidenreich, 2013;Heidenreich & Handrich, 2015), on this paper, we focus on the role played by the actors in charge of dealing with clients' inputs for innovation on service development. In this sense, we believe that the service provider also plays an active role as vector for innovation in mobilizing his personal and organizational skills to transform the prior customer's reality (Gadrey, 2000).…”