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臺大管理論叢
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intense promotional programs. S-D Logic, however, views customers not as buyers of
valuable output created by service providers, but as an integrator of inputs provided by
service providers with their other resources to create value (Lusch et al., 2008). By adopting
an S-D Logic perspective, the issue of co-production should be considered a fundamental
concern for investment services industry managers to establish a powerful mechanism
between service providers and their customers. In other words, service providers are not
founded on providing customers with a value-laden offering, but rather with the process to
create their own value. In using customer competencies, co-production should be developed
through mutual work practices to encourage and allow customers and investment consultants
to work together for the implementation of customers’ investment portfolios. Since the roles
of customers and investment consultants changes dramatically, both parties must also
recognize the new approach and their responsibilities and adjust to their new roles (Chan et
al., 2010; Wu and Lin, 2013).
This study aims to determine how customers can become effective co-producers in the
investment services industry. Co-production can be promoted by enhancing asset specificity
and quality of customer interaction. Therefore, investment consultants must reveal the
underlying customer needs and develop special services or products that can meet such
needs. Although the development of asset specificity is resource-intensive, investing in such
antecedent can promote a mutually co-productive relationship. Co-production also requires
the improvement of the interactions between customers and service providers. According to
Homburg and Stock (2004), investment consultants must have a clear understanding of their
customers, keep an open mind when serving their customers, and exhibit their flexibility
when dealing with the requests of their customers. Therefore, training programs must focus
on the listening and interaction skills of service providers for them to comprehend further the
changing needs of their customers, which subsequently motivates customers to engage in
co-production. Investment consultants must also evaluate the decision-making uncertainty
that is experienced by their customers. It is suggested that investment consultants should
invest their marketing efforts in developing a co-production platform, especially for
customers with high decision-making uncertainty.
The demand for sophisticated and customized investment services has increased
significantly over the recent years. Customers engage themselves in co-production to create
the values that satisfy their demands (Bettencourt et al., 2002). Investment consultants can
make their customers feel special by customizing their offered products in such a way that
they can meet the special needs of their customers. Moreover, through co-production,