Topics about customer participation in new product development and its impact on corporate performance have received attention from the academic since the mid-1980s. The existing literature has shown that customer participation has significant effect on new product development performance, such as the speed of introducing new products to the market and the degree of innovation for each new product. Although the findings are widely recognized in the literature, very few studies systematically examine the mechanism which can help understand the relationship between these two factors. This paper mainly focuses on the mechanism with which customer participation in new product development has influence on performance. In addition, studies of this kind are often based on the experience of companies in the developed economy, very few studies tries to offer insights on this area of research in developing countries, such as China.rnThis paper asserts that relational embeddedness may play an important role of explaining the mechanism of customer participation in new product development and its performance impact. The assumption is made because in the case of customer participation the relational embeddedness is easily formed and it will affect the1 result of new product development. In other words, customer participation may affect new product development performance by mediating the effect of relational embeddedness on new product development performance.rnBased on relational embeddedness and discriminating scientific dimensions of relevant concepts, this paper empirically explains mechanisms about the impact of customer participation on new product development performance using data from Chinese enterprises. Analysis results show that the partial mediating effect of sharing activity on the relationships between information providing and new product development performance, and between participation creation and innovation performance is significant. The partial mediating effect of tie strength and interdependence on the relationship between participation creation and new product development performance is also significant. However, sharing activity has no significant mediating effect on the relationship between participation creation and time performance, and on the relationship between customer participation and new product development performance. This paper has theoretical contribution to the current literature by examining customer participation in new product development from the relationship perspective. This paper not only enriches and expands the current literature on the impact of customer participation in new product development, but also complements and improves research on the mechanism with which customer participation impacts new product development and its performance. Enterprises should manage customer participation in new product development activities in a scientific manner. They should maintain the relationship between enterprises and customers, build the mechanism of sharing information and knowledge, and cultivate the interdependence between them.%尽管顾客参与对新产品开发绩效的重要影响已经得到广泛认同,然而到目前,还尚未有文献对两者之间的影响机制进行过系统研究.在引入关系嵌入这一概念的基础上,本文旨在通过对相关概念进行科学的维度划分,运用中国企业的实证数据揭示顾客参与各维度通过关系嵌入各维度对新产品开发绩效各维度的影响机制,从而引导学者与企业家对新产品开发过程中顾客参与的作用形成更为科学的认识.结果发现:共享活动在信息提供与新产品开发绩效、参与创造和创新绩效之间的部分中介作用显著；联系强度和相互依赖性在参与创造和新产品开发绩效之间的部分中介作用也显著；共享活动在参与创造和时间绩效、共同解决问题在顾客参与和新产品开发绩效之间的中介作用不显著.最后,对本文的研究结论、启示与不足进行了阐述.
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