Despite the proliferation of coproduction concepts in various B2C contexts, knowledge on how coproduction shapes customer relationships is still surprisingly limited, as prior studies find mixed results and are bound to a short-term perspective. The present study addresses these limitations by providing first insights into the underlying psychological processes that explain differences in the short- and long-term relationship consequences of positive and negative coproduction perceptions. Drawing from the multiple inference model, this research shows how customers’ ambivalent attributions of a firm’s coproduction motives (i.e., firm-serving and customer-serving) affect customer satisfaction, willingness to pay, and spending behavior over time. The results of a latent growth analysis based on a longitudinal field study (n₁ = 12,662; six waves) show that coproduction can harm customer relationships in the long-run, as the detrimental effects of firm-serving motive attributions are temporally more persistent than the favorable but ephemeral effects of customer-serving motive attributions. An additional experiment (n₂ = 931) and field study (n₃ = 360) confirm the generalizability of the key findings and provide new managerial insights into how firm-specific characteristics of a coproduction concept (i.e., coproduction intensity, design freedom, monetary savings) influence customer attributions different coproduction motives and thereby shape customer relationships over time.

尽管联合生产概念在各种 B2C 环境中不断涌现，但关于联合生产如何塑造客户关系的知识仍然非常有限，因为之前的研究发现结果好坏参半，并且仅限于短期视角。本研究通过提供对潜在心理过程的初步见解来解决这些局限性，这些心理过程解释了积极和消极共同生产感知的短期和长期关系后果的差异。根据多重推理模型，本研究表明，随着时间的推移，客户对公司合作生产动机（即公司服务和客户服务）的矛盾归因如何影响客户满意度、支付意愿和消费行为。基于纵向实地研究（n ₁ = 12,662；六波）的潜在增长分析结果表明，从长远来看，合作生产可能会损害客户关系，因为为公司服务的动机归因的有害影响在时间上比为公司服务的动机归因更持久。客户服务动机归因的有利但短暂的影响。另一项实验 (n ₂ = 931) 和实地研究 (n ₃ = 360) 证实了关键发现的普遍性，并提供了新的管理见解，以了解联合生产概念的企业特定特征（即联合生产强度、设计自由度、货币储蓄）影响客户归因，不同的合作生产动机，从而随着时间的推移塑造客户关系。