Customer Participation in the Support System for Small Grocery Retailers
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Date
2004Author
Dawson, John
Terashima, Kazuo
Metadata
Abstract
In the previous research (Terashima and Dawson, 2004), we discussed a support system for small
grocery retailers in order to regenerate them. The purpose of this paper is to show a mechanism which
increases customer value of the support system by focusing on customer participation, because increasing
customer value has a high priority as the next step for the system. In this paper, we first show that customer
participation can be related to customer value through service quality. Then, we review the literature on
customer participation in service and retail fields, and make clear the features and problems. After the
review, we make clear the significance of a trial of AKR in which the delegates of consumer groups take
part in assessing and choosing the buying items. Depending upon the example, we propose a new idea on
the role of customer in service provision which is “customer as managerial staff” in the background system,
and we also introduce a new idea “indirect participation” about customer participation. At the same time,
we consider the importance of the cooperation with other organizations like consumer groups and the
forming of good images. Finally, based on these considerations, we propose a wider framework to
maximize the effect produced from customer participation. We conclude this paper with contributions to
management and research.