• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.51-73
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• 2012

Social network services based on openness, connectedness, and mass participation are reshaping many aspects of how companies conduct business and create value for their customers. For instance, Facebook and Twitter are expected to play a pivotal role as a new communication channel through which companies-forge close relationships with their customers for co-creation of value for mutual benefits. Given the potential of social network services, it is not surprising that many companies have strategically invested in social network services to reach out to customers. Despite the growing interest in social network services as a platform to connect companies and their customers, few guidelines exist about how managers can effectively utilize social network services in forging relationships with their customers. As such, scholars should pay greater attention to how firms can successfully develop relationships with their customers on social network services. In particular, this study employs the S-O-R (stimulus-organism-response) framework as a theoretical lens to develop a research model that explains customers' participation in the value co-creation platform that companies opened on Twitter. According to the S-O-R framework, certain types of individuals' behaviors can be best understood based on a causal link from environmental stimulus to organism, and response. We apply the S-O-R framework to understand how ubiquitous connectivity (stimuli) can influence customers' experience (organism) with companies on Twitter, which in turn influence their participation behavior (response). Two steps have been undertaken to empirically test the research model. First, we conducted a content analysis of tweets written by customers who follow companies on Twitter. As a result, we found event/promotion participation, company support, and giving feedback as three specific types of customer participation behavior. Second, we conducted a web-based survey to test research hypotheses in the research model. Participations in the survey were solicited to customers who followed companies on Twitter. As a result, a total of 115 respondents have completed the survey. Data were analyzed using the partial least square (PLS) technique. The results of data analysis suggest that ubiquitous connectivity (stimuli) had strong positive effects on perceive usefulness, perceived enjoyment, and perceived intimacy (organism). Perceived intimacy showed positive effects on customer participation behavior (response), such as event participation, company support, and giving feedback. Perceived enjoyment was found to have strong positive effects on company support and giving feedback. On the other hand, perceived usefulness did not have significant impacts on the three types of customer participation behavior.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.81-108
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• 2005

Recent market environment shows a new relationship between customer and company, which you could not observe in the past. Customers now are used to various benefits through the participation of marketing process. It is no wonder that customers visit company web site, gather a lot of information about the product on the website, and express their satisfaction and opinions about the product. Furthermore, these activities are being made ubiquitously. Despite the fact there are a lot of customer participation in the Internet environment, Customers Participation has been given little attention in the academic literature. This study explores the effect of the properties of Internet infra on customers participation. The implications of this study are as follows. First, by reviewing the literature on the performance and process of customers participation in the marketing activities, this study identifies why customers did not participate in the marketing activities under non-Internet environment. Second, this study identifies the properties of Internet infra influencing customers informative participation. Third, we suggest some managerial strategies for enhancing the performance of a company by customer participation. Consequently, we suggest managerial implications for completely different marketing strategies in response to customers participation in the marketing activities under the digital environment.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.47-74
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• 2015

Purpose By participating in the business ecosystems, customers make both positive and negative impacts in the ecosystem. In particular, users of platform businesses participate in the business ecosystem as partial employees who voluntarily create and manage content. According to the organizational behavior literature, employees' psychological ownership toward the organization has an influence on the organizational competitiveness. Thus, with an assumption that customers gain psychological ownership toward the business that they participate in, it is important to analyze the process and the factors that influence their psychological ownership. This study proposes a research model that describes the process: customers undertake customer socialization, which then lead them to participate in the business-level and the business ecosystem-level activities. Through the participation, customers gain psychological ownership toward the business. Design/methodology/approach Based on a structural equation model, this study analyzes the data regarding the factors in the research model. Data was collected by surveying college students who represent themselves as Facebook and DaumKakao users. By analyzing the collected data, the relationships are validated between customer socialization and customer participations (i.e., both business-level and business ecosystem-level participation), and between the participations and customers' psychological ownership. Findings Based on the validation, this study confirms the importance of managing customers' psychological ownership and offers customers' participation by their socialization as a solution for increasing customers' psychological ownership. Also, this study proposes the business ecosystem research model as the general research framework for future research and expands the scope of strategic management from the individual level strategy to the business ecosystem wide perspective.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.19-47
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• 2006

This study explores the effect of the properties of digital infra on customer participation to explain how customers' initiatives impact the marketing process in the digital environment. Also the effect of the accumulated information through customers' information sharing on their initiatives in the marketing activities can be discovered. These effects can be better understood by developing comprehensive model and employing large sample empirical test. Study1 identifies the properties of digital infra which overcomes the limitations of off-line environment in customers' participation - Information openness, connectedness, community interaction and structure clarity - and how these properties activate customers' participation in the marketing process. Study2 shows the process structure of reverse marketing activities in the digital environment. These findings deliver the fact that customers' initiatives in the marketing activities will be accepted generally under the digital environment. Consequently, this study suggests some managerial implications for completely different marketing strategies in response to customers' initiatives in the marketing activities under the digital environment.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.75-104
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• 2016

Purpose The business ecosystem perspective offers a new lens in which to view customers. Customers as the member of business ecosystems influence firms by participating in both the firm level activities and the business ecosystem level activities. For example, customers participate in the business ecosystems by forming interest groups, allowing their voice to be heard the within business ecosystems. Customers can also, turn public opinion around and foster the business ecosystems favorable to firms. On the other hand, as an extreme case of customer participation, customers can engage in community activities to boycott the purchase of products or services from certain firms or business ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach This study views content creation and feedback activities as customer participation in the firm level. On the other hand, word-of-mouth (WOM) and boycott activities are considered as customer participation in the business ecosystem level. This study presents a research model regarding the relationships among customer socialization, customer participation, and psychological ownership. The proposed model is validated through an empirical analysis on online platform business ecosystems. Findings When the two business ecosystems are compared, different results were drawn. In the Facebook ecosystem, boycott and psychological ownership did not have a significant relationship. However, in the Kakao ecosystem, the two had a significant positive relationship. The mediating effect of the business ecosystem type sheds a light on the mission, purpose, vision, and other values associated with the theory of the business on the customer-firm relationship. Further implications for theory and practice were discussed in this study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.1438-1449
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• 2008

The current research investigates customers' voluntary participation, using a sample of 446 consumers who visit fashion retail stores. The main focus of this study is to test a social exchange CVP model, including three antecedents of customers' perceived justice through mediators of service satisfaction and brand commitment. In support of the proposed model, I identify fully mediated relationships from interactional justice to the three CVP via service satisfaction and brand commitment and partially mediated relationship from distributive justice to the three CVP through brand commitment. No mediated relationship found for procedural justice neither through service satisfaction nor brand commitment to the CVP behaviors. The results generally support that the significantly indirect effects of perceived justice to the three CVP and satisfaction and commitment are the important mediators in between. The concept of justice can be interpreted in light of the normative value of social exchange relationship.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5721-5727
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• 2012

In this study, we examine the effect of customers's participation and satisfaction on performance of IT project. This study collected data from the project team members of the next-generation internet banking project in K Bank. We found that customers's participation has positive effect on their satisfaction of IT project and the satisfaction also has a positive influence on performance of IT project. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.120-131
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the structural relationship between customers' perception of authenticity, justice, customer commitment, and customer behavior in franchise coffee shops. To test the hypotheses of the study, a total of 428 customers in Korea were considered in an empirical analysis using a two-step structural equation model (SEM) approach. In particular, employees' authenticity had relatively great influence on customers' continuous and affective commitment and their justice had greater influence on customers' normative commitment. Also, customers' continuous commitment, normative commitment, and affective commitment significantly influence customer participation behavior, while normative commitment and affective commitment have a significant effect customer citizenship behavior. Research thus far divided justice and authenticity into separate concepts and examined relation with customer commitment or behaviors but the present study put cognitive process of justice and emotional process of authenticity on the same line and evaluated their different influence on customer commitment and behaviors, thereby verifying that not justice perceived by customers induced desirable customer behaviors but authenticity they felt with their heart played a more superior role in customer commitment or behaviors. This means that authentic services rather than justice induce customers' positive behaviors.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2020

In this study, the structure model including the role of servicescape focusing on service participation and customer experience in theme park service is demonstrated empirically. The servicescape construct of theme park service includes three factors such as ambient atmosphere, functionality and layout, and sign, symbols etc. Customer service participation includes suggestion, passion and citizenship. And the emotional and convenience factors are included to customer experience. As an analysis result of examining the 241 respondents of university students, some implications were described. Customer satisfaction is greatly influenced by customer's participation in theme park service, and customer's participation has a significant effect on improving customer satisfaction by inducing customer experiences. It is desirable to consider servicescape priority in order of signs and symbols, ambient atmosphere, functionality and layout factor. The customer's participation in service is a passion for participation, citizenship, and suggesting for problems or improvements. Therefore, participants in planning and designing servicescape in the future, including IT services, should be creative in the direction of inducing various participations of customers and creating positive experiences for customers. In order to apply these findings to the composition of servicescape, the participation of various experts is required. Also, the expertise and competences of various fields must be gathered for each issues, and a more creative and scientific approach is required.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.71-90
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• 2003

Virtual communities have been suggested to play important roles such as attracting customers, building customer loyalty, and leading to commercial transactions. Little research in marketing has focused on virtual communities in spite of its importance indicated by many practitioners and conceptual studies. More specifically, little research has empirically examined factors of customer participation and its consequences. This research investigate if customers' participation motives in virtual communities affect their sense of community and if sense of community affects customers' loyalty towards and purchase intentions from the website offering the community service. One hundred ninety six questionnaires were collected from individuals who have participated in and have been involved in online activities in various virtual communities. Major results of this research can be summarized as follows. First, participation motives employed significantly affected customers' sense of community and more specifically, perceived ease of use and perceived playfulness had a large influence on the customers' sense of community. Second, customers' sense of community positively affected their loyalty toward the community and more specifically, membership and emotional connection had a large influence on loyalty. Third, customers' sense of community did not affect directly their purchase intentions. Fourth, customers' loyalty toward virtual communities had a significant, positive, although marginal, influence on their purchase intentions.