Title: Role of service characteristics in determining the degree of customer involvement: a typology

Authors: Subhajit Chakraborty; Hale Kaynak

Addresses: Department of Management, College of Business Administration, The University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 West University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA ' Department of Management, College of Business Administration, The University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 West University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA

Abstract: Involving customers in the generation of services is important for service firms because such involvement can help firms develop their competitive quality. Services differ in their fundamental attributes; therefore, any attempt to classify services based on the degree of customer involvement must consider their attributes. No comprehensive framework is available in the extant literature to guide firms to evaluate their service offerings from a customer involvement perspective. Applying the customer contact model and the customer involvement perspective, this manuscript attempts to offer a three-dimensional typology that can be used by service firms to determine the degree of customer involvement in service generation. The three dimensions of the typology are obtained by combining the appropriate attributes from a list of nine common service characteristics. By involving the customers to a greater degree when predicted, service firms can substitute their own employee effort with customers' effort to some degree.

Keywords: service attributes; service dimensions; ease of service generation; service value; ease of assurance; service quality assurance; customer involvement; 3D typology; service design; customer contact model; customer socialisation; service classification; services.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSS.2014.061062

International Journal of Services and Standards, 2014 Vol.9 No.1, pp.3 - 18

Received: 08 Jan 2014
Accepted: 10 Apr 2014

Published online: 30 Oct 2014 *

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