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服務主導邏輯之共同生產:前置因素與結果因素

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resources (Grönroos and Voima, 2013). Thus, the quality of customer interaction is a driver

of co-production and value co-creation (Ballantyne and Varey, 2006). Based on the above

discussion, the factors of openness, flexibility, and customer orientation of the service

provider create a suitable climate for co-production. Therefore, the quality of customer

interaction motivates customers to engage with service providers in the value-adding and

co-production processes (Sashi, 2012). Thus:

H2: Quality of customer interaction will have a positive effect on co-production.

2.5 Decision-making Uncertainty

Decision-making uncertainty refers to the lack of necessary information for making

decisions with target outcomes (Daft and Lengel, 1986). Gao, Sirgy, and Bird (2005) define

this antecedent as the difficulty that is experienced by decision maker when predicting the

consequences (i.e., benefits and costs) of a particular decision. Previous studies find that

such uncertainty may be due to the lack of information (Van Birgelen, De Ruyter, and

Wetzels, 2000), the perceived risk (Delgado-Ballester and Munuera- Alemán, 2001; Jacobs,

Hyman, and McQuitty, 2001), the complexity of products (Howcroft, Hewer, and Hamilton,

2003; Patterson, 2000), the lack of familiarity with a product, and the prior experience on

purchasing a product (Heide and Weiss, 1995; Tam and Wong, 2001).

Customers may have difficulties in evaluating investment services even after availing

such services. The information gaps that customers perceive before, during, and after the

purchase of a product or service, as well as the conditions that perpetuate such gaps, generate

decision-making uncertainty in credence services (Heide and Weiss, 1995). Such conditions

prompt customers to engage in co-production to gain some control (Jap, 1999). Uncertainty

is an important contextual factor on which close relationships are built and developed

(Noordewier, John, and Nevin, 1990). Gençtürk and Aulakh (2007) indicate that highly

uncertain situations increase the effects of cooperative norms on organizational performance.

In other words, customers should adapt to the changing environment by promptly responding

and adjusting to rapid changes through co-production under the condition of high decision-

making uncertainty. Thus:

H3: Decision-making uncertainty will have a positive effect on co-production.

2.6 Co-production and Relational Benefits

Relational benefits refer to those benefits customers receive from long-term

relationships above and beyond the core service performance (Gwinner et al., 1998).