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Introduction
In search of sustainable competitive advantage, service organisations are increasingly looking to ways in which they can wed clients more closely to the organisation. This is apparent in many of the, now ubiquitous, relational initiatives such as relationship managers, personalised web pages, product bundling, among other things. Another intriguing opportunity that many firms are beginning to explore is client-firm co-production - the notion of involving the customer in both the creation and delivery of the service. Services firms have for a long time known that some degree of participation is expected, if not required, of almost all customers. Such participation, however, has traditionally been considered something that services firms need to "manage", not actively encourage. Yet in a competitive market environment, firms are finding it increasingly difficult to differentiate their service offerings. Participation by customers in service production and delivery is increasingly viewed as a source of value creation ([10] Bettencourt et al. , 2002; [44] Lengnick-Hall, 1996; [57] Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2000). Increased customer involvement, therefore, provides a means by which firms can achieve deeper positions in specific market segments through increased customisation.
Co-opting customers into the creation and delivery of service, however, is accompanied by complications that are particularly acute for marketers of technical or high involvement products, such as investment services within the financial service industry. The intangible and often highly complex nature of investment products are intrinsically difficult for customers to evaluate, especially in terms of the core or "technical" service they receive. Accordingly, clients' investment skills and expertise are likely to play an important part in their ability to understand, and contribute to, effective service delivery. Since expert clients possess a richer experience base, they may process new information in greater depth ([2] Alba and Hutchinson, 1987, [3] 2000; [38] Johnson and Russo, 1984; [48] Mason and Bequette, 1998; [58] Rao and Monroe, 1988) and, thus, may feel more confident in assessing technical outcomes and questioning service providers' explanations than do novices when making decisions.
A logical conclusion, it would seem, is for investment services firms to pursue every opportunity to educate their clients. Indeed, client education activities are familiar to many investment services firms who have used them as a means for product augmentation and differentiation (e.g. client...