@phdthesis{Bilstein2012, author = {Bilstein, Nicola}, title = {Rethinking co-production in service : conceptual and empirical investigations of the antecedents and outcomes of mandatory and optional co-production [cumulative dissertation]}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:824-opus-1099}, school = {Katholische Universit{\"a}t Eichst{\"a}tt-Ingolstadt}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The aim of the first paper is to discuss the similarities and differences of various concepts of customer participation and develop a unifying conceptualization and definition of the key constructs. This conceptualization is intended to serve as a common basis for future scientific studies and as the definitional basis for the following papers of this cumulative dissertation. In this vein, it is shown that there is a need to further differentiate between two concepts of "co-production". Thus, this paper distinguishes between "mandatory" and "optional co-production." Besides this conceptualization the paper provides a literature review on co-production. This review reveals that the impact co-production exerts on employees has found little consideration in research so far. Another gap is that only few empirical studies have examined the determinants and consequences of co-production from a customers' perspective. To address this research gap, the following three paper focus on the study of determinants and consequences of co-production. Both the second and the third paper examine the determinants of co-production in an online context (i.e., transaction-based online communities). In doing so, both papers focus on "mandatory co-production", i.e., on those functions and features that the customer must necessarily take over in the service process. Hence, users of transaction-based online communities, that want to make use of the community service, need to become active in the community and participate in co-production. In transaction-based online communities, such as auction or file sharing sites, users have the opportunity to exchange products and services via a platform made available by the community provider. Depending on the business model of the online community users often pay a transaction fee for every settled transaction. Consequently, the survival of those online communities largely depends on the active participation of its members as it directly affects the income of the community provider. As a matter of facts, it is important for community providers to know those factors influencing the members' activity in an online community. Against this background, the objective of the second paper is to identify and empirically examine those determinants that influence member participation in transaction-based online communities. Paper 3 goes one step further by also taking into account linear and quadratic effects on the one hand and examining the impact that those factors exert on the providers' revenues on the other hand. Additionally, determinants are identified that have a long term impact on co-production. In contrasts to the second paper, paper 3 applies an objective measurement of co-production which allows explaining actual rather than observed behavior. A key result of both studies is that "enjoyment" is an important factor that stimulates co-production in transaction-based online communities and also increases providers' revenues. However, paper 3 reveals that happiness has no effect on co-production in the long term. The fourth paper examines the financial consequences of an increase in "optional co-production" in the offline context. In many service processes, the customer takes over more and more tasks, which were originally performed by employees of the service provider. Customers use, for example, self-check-in kiosks at the airport to check-in instead of a personal encounter. For their additional costs associated with optional co-production customers are often compensated by a price reduction. This happens, although there are no empirical studies that provide evidence that customers' willingness-to-pay declines due to increasing co-production. Therefore, this paper scrutinizes the relationship between co-production and customers' willingness-to-pay and identifies personal as well as situation-specific variables that moderate the co-production willingness-to-pay link. Both economic and scenario-based experiments are used. The results reveal that the willingness-to-pay of those customers who take over more additional tasks in the process decreases. Moreover, "enjoyment" and "choice" are identified as important moderators of this relationship. The presence of these factors causes that customers' willingness-to-pay decreases to a smaller extent in case of optional co-production.}, subject = {Zahlungsbereitschaft; Onlinecommunity; Datenanalyse; Experiment; Strukturgleichungsmodell; Dienstleistung}, language = {mul} }