Service innovativeness and tourism customer outcomes

Purpose: This study aims to develop/test a model that examines the effect of service innovativeness on customer cocreation, satisfaction, advocacy and behavioral loyalty intent in the travel agency context. Design/methodology/approach: To explore these issues, the authors deploy a convenience sample of 340 travel agency customers. Data analysis centered on confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings: The results identify service innovativeness as a key driver of customer cocreation, satisfaction, advocacy and behavioral loyalty intent. The authors also identified customer cocreation to mediate the association between service innovativeness and customer advocacy, satisfaction and behavioral loyalty intent, respectively, and exerted a further direct effect on these variables. Research limitations/implications: Given the cross-sectional data, further research may wish to explore the generalizability of the findings (e.g. in other sectors, cultures or by adopting a longitudinal research design that tracks the theorized relationships over time). Practical implications: The findings suggest service innovativeness as an important driver of customers’ intra- (within) and extra-or trans-(across) interaction outcomes, thereby impacting the customer experience and highlighting the significance of service innovativeness for the travel sector. Originality/value: While service innovativeness and cocreation are of significant interest, their integrative investigation in tourism has remained scant. Thus, by quantifying the influence of service innovativeness on customer-based cocreation, satisfaction, advocacy and loyalty intent, the paper adds to the emerging body of knowledge on service innovativeness in tourism.