Abstract:

Previous research indicates that customer empowerment, the integration of consumers into the decision-making mechanisms of a company, enhances consumers’ perceptions of the company. Two experiments reveal that this effect exists even when consumers are merely exposed to the empowerment campaign announcement. Moreover, the effect is stronger when companies use empowerment campaigns to create new products (vs. advertising) and when campaigns are perceived to be novel. The effect is driven by the campaign`s perceived benefit to the consumer.