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Gwinner et al. (1998) suggest that these benefits can be categorized into three types, namely,
special treatment, social, and confidence benefits. Customers may receive any of these
benefits by engaging in co-production.
2.6.1 Special Treatment Benefits
Special treatment benefits refer to price discounts, faster services, or individualized
bonus services that customers receive from service providers (Gwinner et al., 1998).
Gwinner et al. (1998) identify two components of special treatment benefits, namely,
economic and customization. Customers strive to make the products match their preferences
as close as possible, which implies that a customer prefers to avail products that are different
from those being provided for other customers. Many relationship-driven service providers
aspire to customize their services to satisfy the individual preferences or needs of their
customers (Lacey, Suh, and Morgan, 2007). Co-production helps service providers achieve
such goal by allowing customers to provide direct input with regard to the provided services,
to make additional choices, and to work directly with service providers in personalizing their
services or products (Auh et al., 2007). In other words, co-production makes more
opportunities for customers to choose the components of the final service to fulfill
customers’ needs (Cheung and To, 2011). Consequently, customers may achieve the actual
degree of customization that they require from their service providers (Etgar, 2008). Thus:
H4: Co-production will have a positive effect on special treatment benefits.
2.6.2 Social Benefits
Social benefits pertain to the emotional aspect of the relationship, as demonstrated by
the familiarity of customers with service providers and vice versa, as well as in the
friendships that develop between these parties (Berry, 1995; Gwinner et al., 1998). Social
benefits are particularly relevant to the investment services industry because customers and
investment consultants engage in extensive interpersonal contact (Chan et al., 2010). Social
benefits can be generated through the co-production of one-to-one relationship (Lin and
Hsieh, 2011) because co-production improves the level of care delivered and encourages
empathetic and friendly interactions to generate relational values (Chan et al., 2010).
Moreover, co-production can lead to the development of social bonds that make the
customer-service provider relationship more resistant to service failures (Eisingerich and
Bell, 2006). For instance, investment consultants can provide a friendly and personal
connection during the co-production process to enhance the positive emotional responses of