Customer empowerment and engagement on sharing platform in the retailing sector: testing the mediating effects of service innovation and platform trust

Abstract This article aims to investigate the effect of customer empowerment on their engagement on sharing platform in the retailing sector via the mediating role of service innovation and customer trust. This study utilized a quantitative design emphasizing mature theory research. The research sample consisted of 457 customers of sharing platform for the retailing sector, using a partial least square-structural equation model (PLS-SEM) for hypothesis testing. The result reveals that customer empowerment positively and significantly affects customer engagement directly and via service innovation as a mediating mechanism on the sharing platform. However, trust in the platform does not mediate this relationship. It is advisable to retailers on sharing platform to create a leading position in this market by enhancing customer engagement and promoting service innovation via customer empowerment. This paper develops a conceptual framework for customer engagement on sharing platform in the sharing economy via service innovation based on giving empowerment to customers.