Research on the Impact of Customer Participation in Virtual Community on Service Innovation Performance— The Role of Knowledge Transfer

Abstract

Internet technology has given birth to continuous changes in business model and format innovation. With increasingly critical consumers, blowout development model and format innovation, enterprises are increasingly aware of the importance of customer participation in service innovation. At the same time, the development of information technology provides convenient conditions for communication between enterprises and customers, and online virtual community also provides a platform for customers to participate in the process of enterprise service innovation in an instant. Based on the theory of customer participation, knowledge transfer and service innovation performance, this paper explores the influence mechanism of customer participation in virtual community on service innovation performance, and analyzes the mediating role of knowledge transfer. Through the analysis of the results of the questionnaire, the relevant hypotheses are verified. The results show that customer participation in virtual community has a positive impact on service innovation performance. Customer participation helps enterprises obtain relevant knowledge such as customer needs and reduce barriers to knowledge sharing. In addition, enterprises will acquire customer knowledge about new products, which provides the possibility for the development of new products and services, thereby enhancing the enterprises’ service innovation performance. Knowledge transfer plays a part of mediating role between customer participation and service innovation performance. In the process of enterprises’ service innovation, customers mainly participate in the enterprise by means of knowledge transfer and help the enterprise improve service innovation performance.

Understanding the effect of organizational innovation environment and customer participation in virtual communities on customer creativity: A study of mediating and moderating influences

“…These findings suggest that an innovation environment that encourages knowledge sharing in an enterprise’s online community can encourage customer to generate new ideas in order to improve their personal creativity. In addition to this, customer participation in virtual community with free knowledge flow, clear task orientation and sufficient independent authorization not only improves customer creativity but also helps enterprises in obtaining relevant knowledge such as customer needs and reduce barriers to knowledge sharing ( Wang, 2022 ).…”

“…With the rapid advancement of Internet technology, it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to interact with customers in real time via platforms like virtual communities 3 . Customer participation in a virtual community improves the performance of service innovation and assists businesses in obtaining relevant information such as customer needs and lowering knowledge sharing barriers ( Wang, 2022 ). Customers primarily contribute to the service innovation process of businesses through knowledge transfer, thereby assisting in the enhancement of service innovation performance ( Xin et al, 2021 ).…”

“…It demonstrates that customer participation in the process of enterprises’ service innovation will improve the transfer of customer knowledge, which is beneficial to customer-enterprise interaction. Service innovation activities are carried out by businesses by acquiring and applying customer knowledge, thereby improving their service innovation performance ( Wang, 2022 ). Xu et al (2014) investigated the effect of customer innovation and customer product knowledge on customers’ individual innovation behavior.…”

“… Liu et al (2018) studied the moderating effect of professional success on community online interaction and customer creative quality. Several studies found that customer participation and knowledge management both have a positive impact on innovation performance ( Xin et al, 2021 ; Wang, 2022 ), with knowledge management acting as a mediator between customer participation and service innovation performance ( Xin et al, 2021 ). Therefore, we propose the following hypotheses:…”

Accessing the Influence of Consumer Participation on Purchase Intention Toward Community Group Buying Platform

“…Kelley et al (1990) argued that consumer participation connotes the behavior of information sharing between individuals in a stimulating environment. According to Belén del Río et al (2001) , consumer participation is a behavioral concept that refers to the resources provided and the behaviors given by customers in the process of service production or delivery, and consumer participation is a process-oriented behavioral concept ( Wang, 2022 ). Based on this, Groth (2005) refined the relevant research of the aforementioned scholars and pointed out that “customer citizenship behavior is the behavior that customers give in the process of service and delivery, and divided customer citizenship behavior into two categories: in-role behavior refers to customer cooperative production behavior, while out-role behavior refers to other customer participation behaviors involved in the process of service and delivery” ( Zhang et al, 2021 ).…”