Adoption of technology-based services: the role of customers’ willingness to co-create

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically evaluate an adoption model for technology-based services (TBS) that integrates a customer’s willingness to co-create (WCC) as mediator complementing the well-known individual differences and innovation characteristics in predicting customer adoption of TBS. Design/methodology/approach – The manuscript uses structural equation modeling to analyze survey data from two empirical studies ( n =781 and n =181). Findings – The empirical results show that WCC represents a key mediator between established antecedent predictors (innovation characteristics and individual differences) and the likelihood of TBS adoption. Additionally, the analysis reveals that WCC can even better explain and predict adoption intention of TBS than the commonly used individual differences and innovation characteristics. Finally, the results also suggest that a lack of customers’ WCC may help to explain persuasion-decision discrepancies within TBS adoption. Research limitations/implications – As the data of this manuscript pertains to the mobile apps market, future research might test the modified technology adoption model in other TBS contexts as well. While the studies used cross-sectional data, it would be interesting to assess the differential influence of WCC across the stages in the adoption process using longitudinal data. Practical implications – The findings on WCC provide managers with a new set of factors (apart from known antecedent predictors like individual differences and innovation characteristics) to optimize TBS adoption. Originality/value – This manuscript is the first to examine an adoption model for TBS that integrates a customer’s WCC. Furthermore, the findings provide first empirical evidence that WCC can help to explain persuasion-decision discrepancies within TBS adoption.