The role of customers on the co-creation of Service Climate in a restaurant setting: A Qualitative Study

Abstract: The benefits of customer co-creation of value in the service delivery process have been well established through recent literatures. However, despite the fact that there has been an increase in the awareness of the importance of customer behaviors in the service delivery process, little research has been done to investigate the role of customers and their influence in co-creating the service climate within organizations. This study captures the impact and effects of customer behaviors on the perceptions of employees towards the service climate of their respective restaurant firms.The overall objective of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the role of customers in co-creating the service climates inside restaurant firms where co-creation of services occurs. For conducting this study, I have used the semi-structured interviews for data collection from six respondents (three customers and three employees) from three different restaurants within the city. Results indicate that customers’ participative and citizenship behaviors such as giving feedbacks, employees’ job appreciation and praise during direct interactions, advocacy through word of mouth, and sharing of knowledge and seeking of information that could benefit the firm influenced employees’ perception of their work climate. The results also showed that employees transfer these positive attitudes to their fellow employees through affective group tone through which the overall working climate within restaurants is improved.I believe that this study will be helpful to future scholars and researchers who wish to conduct further research on this particular topic as the findings from this study have increased the understanding of the role of customers in the co-creation service climates within restaurant organizations. The paper also discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings from this research at the end of the paper.