Customer value co-creation and new service evaluation: the moderating role of outcome quality

Purpose - This study aims to examine how the degree of value co-creation affects Chinese customers' evaluations of new tourism and hospitality services, and how the outcome quality moderates this relationship under different conditions. Design/methodology/approach - The proposed hypotheses are tested using a self-reporting questionnaire-based survey and two experimental designs. Data analysis entailed hierarchical multiple regression analysis, a simple slope test and a two-way ANOVA. Findings - Three component studies assessed boundary conditions for the positive effects of the degree of value co-creation on customers' evaluations of new services. Studies 1 and 2 indicated that unequivocal high-quality outcomes amplified positive effects, which were reversed by unequivocal low-quality outcomes. Study 3 demonstrated that in Chinese contexts of ambiguous outcomes, the relationship between the degree of co-creation and new service evaluation was positively mediated by self-integration in private contexts and negatively mediated by loss of face in public contexts. Practical implications - This study identifies critical factors influencing successful service innovation in China within different contexts. Its finding of context-dependent customer engagement in value co-creation has managerial implications for facilitating favorable new service evaluations. Originality/value - This exploratory study addresses a research gap regarding service innovation, offering insights into positive and negative influences of customer value co-creation on new service evaluation, under different outcome quality conditions in the domestic Chinese hospitality and tourism sector.