Exploring the Influence of Customer Participation on Employee Service Innovation Behavior: the Mediating Effect of Customer Psychological Empowerment and the Moderating Effect of Organizational Innovation Climate

Previous studies have found out the positive relationship between customer participation and employee service innovation behavior. In the era of the experience economy, moreover, customer participation is an effective method to solve the lag problem of employee service innovation. Using questionnaire data collected between April and July 2016 from 20 service enterprises in Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Quanzhou of China, we carried out an empirical analysis of the mechanism of the influence of customer participation on service innovation behavior from the perspective of customer psychological empowerment and organizational innovation climate, on the basis of cognitive evaluation theory. We found that the higher the degree of customer participation, the better the front-line employee service innovation behavior in service enterprises. The enhancement of the level of front-line employee service innovation mainly relies on the promotion of options, right to know, influence, and other dimensions of customer psychological empowerment. In addition, organizational innovation climate positively moderates the relationship between customer psychological empowerment dimensions and employee service innovation, indicating that the mediating effects of customer psychological empowerment dimensions on employee service innovation behavior are state dependent. The findings of this study provide a significant decision-making reference for service enterprises to prevent the lag of employee service innovation.