The role of customer participation in creating economic and social value in tourism business ecosystem (case study: customers of active companies in the tourism industry)

Today, the strategic focus of firms has shifted from the individual performance to the development of a business ecosystem-based strategy. A business ecosystem consists of interdependent systems that are connected by bases from different members of an ecosystem, such as customers, suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders. In other words, the entry and exit of each member affects the performance of other members. Among members of business ecosystems, this study focuses on customers and the impact of customer participation in creating economic and social value in the business ecosystem. One of growing industries in developing countries of the service economy is tourism industry, and its development has numerous economic, social and cultural benefits. Today, this area has currently proved to be of great importance to the economic, social and cultural developments in Iran, and there is a important role in the continuation of tourism and the future of this industry by the tourists. For this purpose, the role of all customers of tourism offices in the west of the country, as a statistical community in creating value in the business ecosystem was examined. This research is simultaneously descriptive research,. In this research our data was collected through a questionnaire. The results show that customer participation has significant positive impact on in creating economic and social value in the business ecosystem. Motivation and sociological factors are also known to be two influential drivers in customer engagement. Also, sub-variables such as gender, client province and the number of visits to travel agencies in a period of a year had the moderating effect on some of the main research relationships