Influences of customer personality traits on co-creational activities

Very limited research exists that studies how customer personality traits influence the participation in the value co-creation process, nor does there exists much research on the further intention to use the brand or new products and services offered by the brand. This thesis aims to fill this gap, exploring consumer personality traits, specifically extraversion, innovativeness, risk taking propensity and openness to experience, to actively engage in co creating value, in the context of mobile operators. The author develops a conceptual model of the independent variable’s – customer personality traits and co-creation – and the influence they have on the dependent variables intention to use the mobile operator or its new products or services in the future. For this study, a survey was conducted that resulted in a sample size of 196 respondents. Participants were asked to self-assess their behavior in relation to their mobile operator, and respond to some questions about their personality. The results show that not all customer personality traits influence co-creational activities. Personality traits and co-creation positively influence the intention to buy new products or services offered by the company or brand, however, co-creational activities do not have a positive effect on the intention to buy an existing product or service from the company. All hypotheses except two where therefore confirmed. These findings have implications for mobile operator firms on how to conduct their businesses regarding their target group, for managers involved in new product and service marketing, and for future research on the topic of personality trait’s influence on co-creation and innovation. This master thesis is one of a series of papers and reports published by the Center for Service Innovation (CSI). CSI is a coordinated effort by NHH to focus on the innovation challenges facing the service sector and involves 20 business and academic partners. It aims to increase the quality, efficiency and commercial success of service innovations and to enhance the innovation capabilities of its business and academic partners. CSI is funded through a significant eight-year grant from the Research Council of Norway and has recently obtained status as a Centre for Research-based Innovation (SFI).nhhma