A Study On Antecedents And Performance Consequence Of Customer Involvement In Manufacturing Industry

With more and more fierce competition of global market, changing consumerdemand model and the constant development of technology, the marketing paradigm hastransformed from product-oriented to service-oriented. On one hand, enterprisersgradually figure out that their survival and development rely on the cooperation withcustomers; also, the customer capability and skill are the source of enterprise’scompetitive advantage. On the other hand, the role of the customers has been radicallychanged. More and more customers take part in the value creation activities of theenterprises and constantly demonstrate their abilities to create personalized products orservice with the enterprises. As a result, enterprises are greatly influenced by customers.So, the mode of traditional value creation which is dominated by enterprises has beenchallenged, and the new mode that encourages the customer participation has drawn thepublic attention. In the current, this paper aims to discover what kind of power factors willinfluence customers in the value co-creation activities.This research is based on a study of relevant literatures that relates to theories ofservice dominate logic, customer participation and servicisation of manufacturing industry,and finally it brings forward a model about the important abilities that affects customer’sparticipation in organizations. Secondly, this thesis makes an empirical study on thosefactors affect customers’ participation in organizations through400effectivequestionnaires. The following are the results of the research: Service orientation of theorganization has positive influence on coordinated process ability， coordinatedparticipation ability and customers’ participation. Coordinated process ability has obviouspositive influence on customers’ participation. Coordinated participation ability hasobvious positive influence on customers’ participation. Customers’ participation hasincreased the operation performance and contextual performance greatly. This thesis is notin favor of the assumption that absorbing capacity has obvious regulating influence oncustomers’ participation and performance (operation performance and contextualperformance).Theoretically, the contribution of this study is that the important abilities that affect the customer involvement in the manufacturing enterprises are put forward on theorganizational level, such as the service-orientation, collaborative process capability andcollaborative participation. While the most of the current literatures explained thecustomer involvement of service companies in the perspective of customers. This researchis also practical: it is important for the organizations to make customers to involve to thevalue creation activities. At the same time, in the management of customer involvement, itis essential for the enterprises to coordinate and choose the cooperators and participators,to promote exchange of experience and knowledge, to examine and adjust the process soas to realize the goal of organizations.