Abstract:

To co-create value with customers is the important method for the modern enterprise to gain the competitive advantage. As the main creator of the value, the customers could exchange information and communicate with the company through interaction, and undertake the value creation tasks that completed originally performed by the enterprise. This research explored the mechanism of customer participation in value co-creation from the perspective of resource theory and interactive mode, and the effect of the different types of customer resources and the multi-level interaction on the customer value was analyzed. Based on the investigation of 505 team tourists, the SEM method was used to test the corresponding hypothesises. The results are as follows：both human resources and relationship resources of customers have significantly positive effect on customer’s utilitarian value and hedonic value, through reactive interaction and proactive interaction; reactive interaction has full mediating effect on the relationship between relationship resource and proactive interaction; proactive interaction has full mediating effect on the relationship between reactive interaction and hedonic value. The results could benefit for the scholars and the businessmen to deeply understand the motivation and the processes of customer participation in value co-creation, and promote the multi-level interaction of customers by adopting appropriate strategies in order to increase customer value.

Key words: Value co-creation, Customer resources, Customer value, Reactive interaction, Proactive interaction