Customer information sharing and new service development: is there a link?

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to establish the link between customer information sharing and new service development. Design/methodology/approach - Through a survey of tourism firms, 295 questionnaires were collected in three large tourism locations in Tanzania. Thereafter, the hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling (SEM) after undertaking both factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Findings - Results indicate that there is a positive association/link between customer information sharing and new service development. The link here expresses the association that exists as customers share information and the extent of use of this information for the firm benefit in facilitating new service development. Specifically, customers post service information and customer interaction behaviors positively support new service development; however, customers' pre-service information revealed no link. Practical implications - These results offer practical evidence that post service information and interaction behaviors form the groundwork for development of new services in service-related organizations. Originality/value - These results evidence that customer post service information and customer interaction behaviors form the groundwork for development new services in tourism. Hence, the study strengthens the value co-creation and innovation views in the service arena by extending knowledge in the use of both the service and the customer environment for service improvement.