325 / 372
臺大管理論叢
第
26
卷第
2
期
325
social environments influence service experience still remain unexplored. Moreover, as
customers often visit service sites with friends or family, future research may investigate the
effect of inner group interactions on focal customer’s service experience.
2.4 Customer Participation
Recent research has highlighted the critical role of co-production in creating value for
customers. Co-production refers to “engaging customers as active participants in the
organization’s work” (Auh et al., 2007). It has become a vital tenet of a proposed service-
centered logic for marketing (Vargo and Lusch, 2004), which can strengthen service
effectiveness (Bendapudi and Leone, 2003). By involving customers in co-production,
service firms can lower costs and customize individual customer’s needs at the same time
(Bendapudi and Leone, 2003; Etgar, 2008). While most research explores co-production
under high-contact service contexts, a keener understanding of co-production in low-contact
service contexts should be further investigated because customers of low-contact services
might view co-production as service firms’ means of shifting their workload onto customers’
shoulders. In addition, the role and influence of other customers in the process of
co-production should be further explored. Future research could also examine the possible
moderating roles of customers individual differences and culture variables on the
relationship between co-production and service outcomes.
2.5 Self-service Technologies
Self-service Technologies (SSTs) have become an integral part of service experiences in
many service industries. Types of SSTs can be divided into four categories, including kiosks,
Internet, interactive voice response, and mobile services (Castro et al., 2010; Lin and Hsieh,
2011). Given the importance of SSTs in customers’ interactions with service firms, some
studies examined the critical role of SSTs in affecting customers’ perceptions, while others
focus on the possible service outcomes, such as SST service quality. As prior studies mainly
focus on the influence of SSTs on customers’ experiences, a promising avenue for further
research is to examine the impact of SSTs on service empoyees and their performance in
service delivery. In addition, since service delivery can often be categorized into employee-
based, SST-based, and a mix of both (Parasuraman et al., 2005; Reinders et al., 2008), future
research can further investigate the optimal mix of employee-based and SST-based service
options for service firms.