Why do customers want to learn? Antecedents and outcomes of customer learning
ISSN: 0309-0566
Article publication date: 14 March 2022
Issue publication date: 6 April 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Customers often want to learn about a product/service, and companies can benefit from such a learning desire. While prior research has shed light on firm-beneficial outcomes of customer learning and explored the motivational factors of business partners’ learning behavior, less is known about the critical antecedents of individual customers’ learning behavior. This study aims to explore the key drivers of individual customers’ learning desires and identified customers with a stronger learning desire.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used both a lab experiment (Study 1, N = 148) and surveys (Study 2, N = 553; Study 3, N = 703) across different participant populations and product contexts.
Findings
This study indicated that both involvement and knowledge-sharing intention drove customer learning desire. Customer expertise further strengthened these main effects. Moreover, a stronger learning desire led to greater customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
This study identified key factors involved in customer learning desire and its potential benefits for companies. Additional research to investigate customer learning in specific environments and forms and regarding specific brands is warranted.
Practical implications
This study emphasizes the importance of supporting customer learning and encourages businesses to manage customer learning proactively. It also provides suggestions for effective learning support for targeted customer groups.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the customer learning literature by exploring key influencing factors of individual customers’ learning desires, based on self-determination theory. It also identified the role of customer expertise in shaping customers’ learning processes. Moreover, this study examined customer learning as a novel way to enhance customer satisfaction.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Xuebin Cui acknowledges the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72002096] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant 010414370113]. Xiaochi Sun received her PhD from the University of Graz, Austria. At the time of publication of this article, she works as an assistant professor at the College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China.
Citation
Sun, X., Eisingerich, A.B., Foscht, T., Cui, X. and Schloffer, J. (2022), "Why do customers want to learn? Antecedents and outcomes of customer learning", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56 No. 3, pp. 677-703. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-04-2020-0302
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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