The dark side of customer co-creation: exploring the consequences of failed co-created services

Abstract

Whereas current literature emphasizes the positive consequences of co-creation, this article sheds light on potential risks of co-created services. Specifically, we examine the implications of customer co-creation in service failure episodes. The results of four experimental studies show that in a failure case, services high on co-creation generate a greater negative disconfirmation with the expected service outcome than services low on co-creation. Moreover, we examine the effectiveness of different service recovery strategies to restore customer satisfaction after failed co-created services. According to our results, companies should follow a matching strategy by mirroring the level of customer participation in service recovery based on the level of co-creation during service delivery. In particular, flawed co-creation promotes internal failure attribution which in turn enhances perceived guilt. Our results suggest that in such case customer satisfaction is best restored by offering co-created service recovery.