the feeling of psychological ownership the same customers drive the whole demand (that was measured in terms of willingness to pay and purchase intention) of underlying products and called it demand “empowerment-product effect”. Psychological Drawbacks of Customer Empowerment On the other hand, companies should be very careful when using customer empowerment as it might cause reverse outcome than expected. For example, it is found that customer empowerment is the most effective if company is successful because in other way close customer-supplier relationship can just emphasis the overall dissatisfaction (Goodman et al., 1995). Recent studies show that increase in customer control may result in lower compelling choice experience (Wathieu et al., 2002). Authors add that there is a great possibility of empowered customer making wrong decisions about what can increase their satisfaction the most. As Kahneman (1994) says, it is because majority of customers are not able to accurately predict the level of satisfaction they will feel after seeing the final product. Iyengar and Lepper (2000) argue that lowering the empowerment and leaving customers with fewer options increases his/her satisfaction as it is easier for him/her to make a decision and not the other way around. Fuchs et al., (2010) discuss one more very important drawback that companies using customer empowerment might face losing the The researchers argue that by giving too – “perceived fit”. much control to the customer the final product of co-creation process might no longer reflect the expectations and needs of the larger target market. It may happen due to the fact that customers tend to include less-favoured attributes rather than commonly liked items when they have more control in new product development (Ratner et al., 1999). Real life experience from where Ben & Jerry’s flavours (like Pepperoni Pizza with Anchovy Swirl or Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich) suggested by their fans were not successful in the ice cream market just proves how customers might be “too creative”. Table 2. Benefits and drawbacks of customer empowerment Considering all mentioned above, in this paper I propose that the effects of customer involvement can be moderated by two key variables that has an impact on psychological consequences of customer empowerment: 1) The level of customer empowerment and 2) desire for customers’
the feeling of psychological ownership the same customers drive the whole demand (that was measured in terms of willingness to pay and purchase intention) of underlying products and called it “empowerment-product demand effect”. Psychological Drawbacks of Customer Empowerment On the other hand, companies should be very careful when using customer empowerment as it might cause reverse outcome than expected. For example, it is found that customer empowerment is the most effective if company is successful because in other way close customer-supplier relationship can just emphasis the overall dissatisfaction (Goodman et al., 1995). Recent studies show that increase in customer control may result in lower compelling choice experience (Wathieu et al., 2002). Authors add that there is a great possibility of empowered customer making wrong decisions about what can increase their satisfaction the most. As Kahneman (1994) says, it is because majority of customers are not able to accurately predict the level of satisfaction they will feel after seeing the final product. Iyengar and Lepper (2000) argue that lowering the empowerment and leaving customers with fewer options increases his/her satisfaction as it is easier for him/her to make a decision and not the other way around. Fuchs et al., (2010) discuss one more very important drawback that companies using customer empowerment might face – losing the “perceived fit”. The researchers argue that by giving too much control to the customer the final product of co-creation process might no longer reflect the expectations and needs of the larger target market. It may happen due to the fact that customers tend to include less-favoured attributes rather than commonly liked items when they have more control in new product development (Ratner et al., 1999). Real life experience from Ben & Jerry’s where flavours (like Pepperoni Pizza with Anchovy Swirl or Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich) suggested by their fans were not successful in the ice cream market just proves how customers might be “too creative”. Table 2. Benefits and drawbacks of customer empowerment Considering all mentioned above, in this paper I propose that the effects of customer involvement can be moderated by two key variables that has an impact on psychological consequences of customer empowerment: 1) The level of customer empowerment and 2) customers’ desire for