Customer Participation Behavior in High- Versus Low-Contact Services: The Multiple Roles of Customer Trust

ABSTRACT

In light of the changing roles of customers from service co-producer to value co-creator, the customer participation literature has conceptualized two types of participation behavior: co-production and value co-creation. However, there is a dearth of knowledge concerning both the antecedents of customer co-creation behavior and the outcomes of such behavior in relation to customer-perceived value and loyalty. Anchored in the trust-commitment theory, the present research (a) examines the effect of how a customer's trust in the service personnel could affect his/her cooperative behavior over the service design and delivery processes; and (b) investigates how the potential impact of a customer's trust in service personnel on his/her co-design and co-delivery behavior could be made contingent upon the customer's trust in the service brand and the types of high- versus low-customer-contact service contexts. Filling the aforementioned research gaps, the present research contributes to advance our knowledge of the roles played by trust at different levels of analysis in facilitating customer participation behavior and improving our appreciation of the customer contact service contexts when designing the service organization for maximizing service value and sustaining brand loyalty over time.