Journal of Economics and Management Volume 16, No. 2 September, 2020

Customer Participation in Creating Customer Satisfaction

Li-Wei Wu

Department of International Business, Tung Hai University, Taiwan

Chen-Yu Lin

Department of International Business, Feng-Chia University, Taiwan

Fang-Sheng Shih

UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Australia

Abstract

The mechanism of service deliveries in the financial service industry has gradually transformed and developed over time, shifting from a one-way delivery of services to a situation where customers take part in the service by suggesting their desires. Such participation might positively impact service quality and result in the incensement of customer satisfaction toward the service. This study thus investigates the antecedents of customer participation, including interactional justice, customer education, affective commitment, and company support, and explores if customer participation strengthens customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it considers role identification and perceived benefits as moderators, depicting whether these variables enhance customer participation toward customer satisfaction. The study examines data after delivering surveys to customers of financial brokerage companies, considering a total of 324 entries as valid samples. Results show that customer education, affective commitment, and company support substantially increase the degree of customer participation. More interestingly, this research presents that customer participation dramatically enhances customer satisfaction toward service delivery. Perceived benefits also positively moderate the enhancement of customer participation toward customer satisfaction. These results provide insights into how Taiwan’s financial service industry could increase customer participation and further enhance customer satisfaction in service delivery.

Keywords： Interactional Justice, Customer Education, Affective Commitment, Company Support, Customer Participation, Customer Satisfaction, Role Identification, Perceived Benefits.

JEL Classifications：M3, L1.

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