Exploring The Relationship Between Customer Participation And Firm Performance?

Due to the intensified market competition and rapid changes in customer demand,customer participation has gradually become an important means for companies to maintain their competitive advantage.However,at present,there are different conclusions on the relationship between customer participation and business performance :linearly positive,linearly negative,inverted U-shaped,and even irrelevant.These disagreements not only affect the academia's deep thinking on this strategic issue,but also make the enterprises fell puzzled.In view of this,the meta-analysis method carries out a comprehensive quantitative analysis of 64 empirical articles published from 1985 to 2018.The research results show that from the overall effect,customer participation has a significant positive impact on business performance;from the perspective of potential regulatory effects,the relationship between customer participation and business performance is affected by contextual factors and measurement factors,specifically:(1)The relationship between customer participation and business performance is influenced by the characteristics of the company.As far as the type of company is concerned,customer participation plays a more important role in promoting the performance of manufacturing companies than in service companies.As far as the level of the company's technology is concerned,the influence of customer participation on the performance of low and medium technology companies is more significant than that of high-tech companies.(2)The relationship between customer participation and business performance is affected by regional characteristics.In terms of regional economic level,the participation performance of developing countries and regions is better than that of developed countries and regions;in terms of regional culture,the performance of customer participation in collectivistic cultural regions is more prominent than that of individual culture.(3)The relationship between customer participation and business performance is affected by the market environment.When the market environment is turbulent,customer participation has a more significant impact on business performance.(4)The relationship between customer participation and business performance is influenced by the type of customer.Organizational customer participation has a stronger effect on business performance than individual customers.(5)The relationship between customer participation and business performance is not relevant with the empirical research method used.That is to say,the similarities and differences of the empirical research methods used by the researchers will not affect the relationship between the two.(6)The relationship between customer participation and business performance is affected by the dimensions of customer participation measurement.When using the multi-dimensional measurement of customer participation,its effect on corporate performance is better than single-dimensional measurement.(7)The relationship between customer participation and business performance is affected by the type of performance measurement.When using non-financial indicators,customer involvement is more effective in promoting business performance.