Moderating Effects of Customer Co-creation and New Product Performance in the Travel Industry

Recently, it has been proposed that customers, in particular lead users of a product or service that co-create new products/services may enhance the success of those products/services. However, some research does not support this idea. Therefore, the present study re-examined this notion in the Taiwan travel industry. Well-known travel bloggers can be considered both lead users and co-creators of specified trip itineraries (here, specified trip itineraries) developed by travel agencies. A literature review, observations of the interactions among bloggers and their readers, and interviews of bloggers and managers of travel agencies are used to explore moderating factors of the effects of product co-creation on product performance; hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine the influence of these factors. The results indicate that the relationship between customer co-creation and the s new travel products performance is contingent upon the moderating effects of organizational culture and communication quality.