The Role Of Consumers Participation Behavior To Smes Brand Equity

The association between merchants and customers is much more complex nowadays as a result of high customers' expectations. Hence, more companies are focusing on establishing consumer dialog and participation as a powerful means of establishing firm performance. To address the issue, this research aims to develop and test a version to scrutinize the effect of customer involvement on brand equity among SMEs. This study employed the theory by Thibaut & Kelley on social exchange to explain the interactions between customer-service providers in terms of value co-creation. Based on a sample of 548 customers from SMEs, results reveal that formation seeking, responsible behavior, and personal interaction have a statistically significant influence on brand equity. The results of this study make a significant input to the present literature on customer involvement in SMEs. However, the location of this study was conducted in Kuala Lumpur which marks the limitation and should be addressed by the next researchers.