Customer participation management

Abstract

Purpose – Management of customer participation (CP) in service production and delivery is of critical concern for service managers, as CP can result in various positive but also negative outcomes. However, an integrated understanding on how service providers can manage CP is still missing. The purpose of this paper is to gather and synthesize the extant knowledge on the constituents of CP management into a comprehensive framework, and to offer an extensive agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review of existing research is conducted. A total of 181 journal articles are analyzed in five steps: attaining basic understanding, coding, categorization, comparison, and further analysis. Findings – The authors provide identification and categorizations of the customer inputs, their antecedents, the management approaches, and the outcomes of CP. To date, CP management has been addressed from three distinct perspectives: human resource management that treats customers as partial employees; operations management that focusses on customer functioning during the service process; and marketing that highlights the roles and value outcomes for customers. Research limitations/implications – The authors call for further research that addresses the relationships between the antecedents, customer inputs, management approaches, and outcomes of CP, and argue for extension of contextual diversity. The detailed research agenda provided is helpful for interested researchers. Practical implications – The study offers managerial insights on how the degree and quality of CP can be improved by applying the various management methods examined in academic research. Originality/value – As the first comprehensive review on this topic, this paper brings together the dispersed knowledge on CP, integrates it into a comprehensive framework of CP management, and paves the way for future focussed research.

The Effects of Customer Perception and Participation in Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Smartphone Industry Study

“…Mustak et al [80] pointed out that customer participation is a positive performance factor between customers and service providers, and that strengthening self-brand connections through customer participation is also one of the positive results. According to Grisaffe and Nguyen [75], it is a prerequisite for a customer to become attached to the brand in emotional form if a customer's unique interests such as social or altruistic goals are achieved through the purchase of goods or service.…”

“…Consumers are influenced by consumer experience and engagement groups involving brands [79]. Customer participation has been found to improve firm-customer relationships [80][81][82]. In the process of producing and delivering services, customers are involved in information sharing, responsible behavior, and personal interaction.…”

“…Mustak et al [80] categorized customer participation into responsible behaviors, sharing of information and knowledge, and interaction with firms or customers. According to a study [41], information flows through communication between customers and businesses strengthen their relationships with customers and build trust.…”

A Systematic Review of Artificial Intelligence and Robots in Value Co-creation: Current Status and Future Research Avenues

“…The review method is essentially based on the guidelines offered by Booth, Papaioannou, and Sutton (2012). We also follow the method by Mustak, Jaakkola, Halinen, and Kaartemo (2016) with three consecutive stages: literature search, assessing the evidence base, and analysing and synthesizing the findings.…”

How to Better Motivate Customers to Participate in the Self-Design Process: A Conceptual Model in Underlying Self-Congruence Mechanism

“…Previous research in the co-creation literature has already paid major attention to involving customer engagement in the creation of offerings through ideation, design, development and post-launch process (Etgar, 2008;Vargo and Lusch, 2008;Atakan et al, 2014;Mustak et al, 2016). In recent years, online tools and communities facilitated customer involved their co-creation efforts in the early stage (idea generation and design).…”