Customer versus Member Engagement: Does Mutuality Matter?

Customer or Consumer Engagement (CE) is recognised as important to the co-creation of value within the customer experience process, particularly for service firms. Co-operative and mutual enterprises (CMEs), are service firms that differentiate from investor owned firms (IOFs), due to their mutual ownership and democratic governance. This study drew on a large sample of 856 respondents divided evenly between customers of IOFs and members of CMEs. CE was measured in relation to active, attention, co-development, enthusiasm and interaction, with loyalty (intent) and word of mouth (WOM) as dependent variables. CME members were found to be more engaged that the IOF customers, with enthusiasm and attention as the best predictors of both WOM and intent. However, both groups were equal in relation to their intent and WOM outcomes. Finding suggest that both C Es and IOFs should focus on CE, particularly the IOFs as their customers seem less engaged.