Research on the relationship between the illusion of control and customer satisfaction in customer participation

The theory of illusion of control was introduced to explain why customers were dissatisfied in customer participation. Through two experiments, the customer participated situations were simulated for two groups of subjects. In these situations, customers overestimated the influences of participated behaviors to outcome. Once outcomes were not in accordance with expectations, compared with customers who did not participate, participated customers were markedly dissatisfied. However, the level of customer participation had not significant effect to illusion of control. Participated customers produce illusion of control. Consistency of outcomes between expectations moderates the relation between illusion of control and customer satisfaction. The findings provide considerable evidence for customer psychological change in customer participation.