Customer co-creation in hotel service innovation

Purpose With increased competition in service sector due to dynamic nature of customers’ taste and preferences, service providers have realized the importance of co-creating with customers across various stages of new service development. Co-creating with customers require a focused attention on the psychological variables that influence customers to participate in developing a new service. However, availability of scant literature creates difficulty in comprehending co-creative hotel service innovation practices, especially in developing country like India. The purpose of this paper is to explore the inter-relationships among the customer participation in hotel service innovation variables with the help of interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach. Design/methodology/approach ISM approach is used to determine the direction of customer participation and categorization of psychological variables with their driving and dependence power. Identification of related variables was done through a review of literature initially and arrived at a common consensus through brainstorming sessions with academicians and hotel industry experts. Findings The results indicate that a few variables possess higher driving power that include: consumer innovativeness, customer participative behavior, customer socialization, willingness to co-create, role clarity, customer ability and their interlinking. Thus, the research contributes in the development of relationship among various identified variables of customer participation in service innovation (CPSI) using ISM. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that hoteliers should co-create with customers to develop new services by understanding their psychological variables that play a crucial role determining their active participation in new hotel service offerings. Practical implications This study suggests that hoteliers should co-create with customers to develop new services by understanding the enablers of customer participation in co-creative hotel service innovation. Hoteliers can have hierarchical map of their customers for co-creating at different stages of service innovation or can segregate the variables as per their driving and dependence power for enhanced applicability of the variables. Further, the observed inter-relationships among the CPSI variables can guide the managers in planning and implementing identified relationships for successful implementation of co-creative service innovation. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge this study is the first to provide an integrated model using ISM and Matrix Impact Cross-Reference Multiplication Applied to a Classification (MICMAC) analysis with a goal to identify and classify various key enablers of customer participation in co-creative hotel service innovation in India. The authors believe that this study will enhance the understanding of the psychological factors influencing customer-firm co-creative service innovation activities and help the academicians and industry practitioners to select right enablers for customer participation in co-creative hotel service innovation. Thus, this study will be the foundation for studying co-creative service innovation using the ISM and MICMAC approaches.