How Customer Participation can Drive Repurchase Intent

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of customer participation in the service delivery process by designing and testing an empirical model with the customers’ point of view in mind. Data are collected in the context of professional financial insurance services. The proposed model is analyzed with partial least squares (PLS) path modeling in SmartPLS 2.0 software. The results of the study show that customer participation produces positive effects on customer satisfaction and affective commitment through the customer relational value. Affective commitment is a strong predictor of repurchase intent, but no relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intent was found. This study suggests that customer participation can be a win-win situation for customers and the service firm. Customers who create relational value with their service providers effectively enjoy their services more and are more likely to build and maintain long-term relationships with their service firm. Our findings highlight the roles of the customer and indicate the heuristic value of viewing customer satisfaction and affective commitment as consequences of customer participation. This can enhance the understanding of how encounters should be designed in order to support employees and improve the co-creation of value.