Role of Customer Participation in Technology Innovation in Higher Education Institutions ( HEIs): A Qualitative Study on Value Co-Creation and Co-Destruction

Bringing innovation to organizations is not only considered to be a growth strategy but also a way to survive in the current technological era. Technological innovation involves customer participation and engagement for value co-creation and co-destruction, which raises new challenges in theory and practice. It becomes more challenging in the service industry, specifically the education sector. Limited literature is available regarding different roles played by the participating customers during technology innovation. Therefore, an empirical study was needed to explore the role(s)of customer participation in the entire process of co-creation, the drivers for customers’ positive engagement, and the reasons behind the negative engagement of customers while participating in technology innovation process. The negative engagement of the customers not only hinders the success of the co-creation process, rather it also causes co-destruction from multiple aspects. The current study followed the qualitative method to explore the phenomenon of value co-creation and co-destruction. In order to perform this task, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the representatives of Information and Communication Technologies(ICT) firms and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan. The collected qualitative data was sorted in Nvivo 13 and thematic analysis was performed. The study concluded with the identification of multiple roles/dimensions of customer participation to foster or hinder the co-creation process. The major beneficiaries of the study include ICT firms and HEIs which need to re-assess their business processes. The study also contributes to the evolving theory of value co-creation, while engaging the actors (customers).