Deconstructing B2B, co-creation and service deployment in East Asia: evidence from Taiwan and PRC manufacturers

Abstract

Academia and governments have been advocating service deployment as an upgrading strategy for manufacturers for some time now. Existing research findings show that customer co-creation may be a key to service strategy success. However, prior studies have focused on relatively resource-rich and advanced Western contexts. This research examined co-creation’s role on service deployment performance and the conditions that encourage co-creation in the manufacturing business-to-business context of Taiwan and the PRC. The results indicate that co-creation fully mediates the relationship between a firm’s service deployment and customer-perceived value. Additionally, a firm’s product-service significance, capability specificity, supply chain mode and customer-perceived environmental turbulence may significantly influence co-creation.

Keywords:

• B2B manufacturing
• customer co-creation
• customer-perceived value
• service deployment
• Taiwan
• the People’s Republic of China