Search results

This paper aims to define and frame the understanding of customer journeys, associated areas of consumer decision-making process stages and touch point categories based on an ownership perspective.

The research is based on a detailed literature review of customer journeys, in peer-reviewed marketing and retail journals, within the last decade. The Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) academic journal guide marketing discipline list was used because it only includes peer-reviewed journals, based on an internationally accepted quality ranked list.

The detailed analysis of the journals identified three groups of touch points (brand owned, partner owned/managed and outside the control of brand owner/partner) and three decision-making process stages (pre-purchase, purchase and post–purchase) that informed a clearer definition and understanding of the customer journey.

Limitations concern the ABS database was used and a ten-year date period was selected, which may exclude some relevant journal articles, particularly those written in a language other than English.

The authors have provided a revised definition of customer journey, clarified the decision-making stages and subsequent categorisation of touch points from an ownership perspective.

Customer experience research predominantly anchors the customer journey on a specific offering, implying an inherently firm-centric perspective. Attending calls for a more customer-centric approach, this study aims to develop a goal-oriented view of customer journeys.

This study interprets the results of a phenomenological study of a transformative journey toward a sober life with the self-regulation model of behavior to advance understanding of customer journeys.

The consumer's journey toward a higher-order goal encompasses various customer journeys toward subordinate goals, through which consumers engage in iterative cognitive and behavioral processes to adjust or maintain their experienced situation vis-à-vis the goal. Experiences drive behavior toward the goal. It follows that negative experiences may contribute to goal attainment.

This study highlights the importance of looking at the consumers' higher-order goals to obtain a more holistic understanding of the customer journey.

Companies and organizations should extend their view beyond the immediate goals of their customers to identify relevant touchpoints and other customer journeys that affect the customer experience.

This study proposes conceptualization of the customer journey, comprising goal-oriented processes at different hierarchical levels, and it demonstrates how positive and negative customer experiences spur behaviors toward the higher-order consumer goal. This conceptualization enables a more customer-centric perspective on journeys.

This paper aims to explore how omni-channel data flows should be integrated by specifying what data, omni-channel agents and information and digital technologies (IDTs) should be considered and connected.

A multiple case study method is used with 17 British companies. The studies are supported by 68 interviews with the case companies and their consumers, 5 site visits, 4 focus group meetings and the companies’ archival data and documentations.

This paper provides novel frameworks for omni-channel data flow integration from consumer and business perspectives. The frameworks consist of omni-channel agents, their data transactions and their supporting IDTs. Relatedly, this paper formalizes the omni-channel data flow integration in the forms of horizontal, vertical and total integrations and explores their contributions to the adaptability of omni-channel, as a complex adaptive system (CAS). It also discusses that how inter-organizational governance mechanisms can support data flow integration and their relevant IDT implementations.

The breadth and depth of the required IDTs for omni-channel integration prove the necessity for omni-channel systems to move toward total integration. Therefore, supported by CAS and inter-organizational governance theories, this research indicates how data flow integration and IDT can transform the omni-channel through self-organization and autonomy capability enhancement.

This research’s recommended frameworks provide a robust platform to formalize data flow integration as the omni-channel's core driver. Accordingly, it moves the literature from a basic description of “what omni-channel is” and provides a novel and significant debate on what specific data should be shared at what levels between which agents of the omni-channel, and with what type of relationship governance mechanism, to assure omni-channel horizontal, vertical and total integrations.

The paper focuses on extended reality technologies and their potential contribution to the improvement of services. First, it identifies extended reality technologies (AR/VR) as the most promising interfaces to enable an experiential consumption of the services. It then summarises their properties and discusses similarities and differences. Last, it maps these technologies onto a consumer psychology framework of experience to derive possible areas of future research.

The authors conduct a literature review and present a conceptual framework of AR/VR contributions on experience.

The study provides an up-to-date literature review including AR and VR applications for consumer and service experience, as well as recommendations for possible research directions.

Whereas previous contributions adopted the same, experiential approach but focused on different technology (e.g. AI) or considered multiple interfaces and their impact on the consumer journey (mostly transactions), this paper aims at digging deeper into AR/VR, while retaining an experiential view on consumption that best serves the contextualisation of AR/VR.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze differences between multichannel and omnichannel marketing, describe the advantages of omnichannel marketing and explain how retailers can best transition from multichannel marketing to omnichannel marketing.

The paper’s findings are based on a systemic review of the literature of academic studies, research-based studies by major consulting firms and case study reports of effective omnichannel retailers. The approach used is managerial and strategic.

Four stages are identified between a pure multichannel and a pure omnichannel marketing strategy. This multistage approach enables a firm to determine its current position, to view the gaps in its strategy in moving to the next level and to develop appropriate actions to move to the next higher level. This paper also identifies barriers to a firm implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy and describes how these barriers can be overcome.

This paper describes the advantages associated with omnichannel marketing and discusses a strategy to transition to omnichannel marketing. Barriers to adopting omnichannel marketing and how they can be overcome are analyzed.

This study makes a number of contributions to the literature on omnichannel marketing. It sets forth specific criteria for firms to determine their present stage on the multichannel marketing to omnichannel marketing hierarchy. This strategic approach provides firms with a roadmap to planning and implementing an omnichannel marketing orientation. The paper concludes with directions for future research and managerial implications and conclusions.

The symbolic value of wine is a relevant research topic and raises the interest in studies in both the enological and market areas. In this context, this study aims to understand the role of the symbolic value of wine and its relationship to the product purchase intention.

The study is based on a survey of 269 wine consumers from Brazil. The basic theoretical framework includes three latent constructs (symbolic value, consumer attitude and product-norm experience) and three moderators (consumer involvement, willingness to pay and consumer preference). Relations between these are analyzed using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the moderated mediation analyses using Haye’s process.

This research identified that the symbolic value is totally mediated by consumers’ attitudes and product-norm experiences. However, such a relationship occurs directly for consumers with higher involvement with the product, higher willingness to pay, and who assume that wine is their preferred alcoholic beverage.

One of the contributions is to emphasize the symbolic value of wine and highlight how the relationship with different factors can interfere and explain consumer purchase intention and can influence the strategies, actions and investments of companies in the sector.

This purpose of this paper is to analyze how consumers’ online recommendations affect the omnichannel webrooming experience based on the internet, physical and mobile channels.

Two experimental studies are implemented. Study 1 analyzes the impact of an online review on the physical interaction with the product. Study 2 modifies the moment of receiving the online recommendation and its social tie.

Webrooming improves the shopping experience. Online recommendations from anonymous customers increase confidence in the product’s adequacy, although this effect depends on the moment of receiving the recommendation and the level of confidence before interacting physically with the product. Friend recommendations reinforce preferences regardless of previous online experiences.

This research examines the effects of different types of online recommendations on offline shopping experiences, choice and confidence. Confidence is stressed as a key variable in omnichannel behavior.

The findings offer practical value for electronic word-of-mouth marketing, omnichannel marketing, as well as online and physical channel management.

This is one of the first studies that examine the impact of online consumer recommendations on shopping experiences combining online, mobile and physical channels. The results reveal the importance of recommendations’ source and moment of reception for determining consumers’ preferences, choice and confidence.

La presente investigación analiza cómo las recomendaciones online afectan a la experiencia webrooming omnicanal, basada en el canal físico, online, y móvil.

Se llevaron a cabo dos experimentos. El Estudio 1 analiza el impacto de una revisión online positiva en la interacción posterior con el producto. El Estudio 2 modifica el momento de recibir la recomendación y el vínculo social entre emisor y receptor.

El proceso webrooming mejora la experiencia de compra. Las recomendaciones online de clientes anónimos incrementan la auto-confianza sobre la adecuación del producto, aunque este efecto depende del momento de recibir la recomendación y del nivel de auto-confianza previo a la interacción física con el producto. Las recomendaciones de amigos refuerzan las preferencias, independientemente de la experiencia online previa.

Esta investigación examina los efectos de diferentes tipos de recomendaciones online en experiencias offline, le elección y la auto-confianza. La auto-confianza se revela como una variable clave del comportamiento omnicanal.

Los resultados ofrecen implicaciones para la gestión del marketing boca-oído y omnicanal, así como la gestión de la experiencia en el canal físico y el online.

Este es uno de los primeros estudios que analizan el impacto de recomendaciones online en experiencias de compra que combinan canales online, offline y móvil. Los resultados revelan que la importancia de la fuente y del momento de recibir la recomendación determinan las preferencias, elección, y auto-confianza de los consumidores.

Comercio minorista, Omnicanal, Webrooming, Auto-confianza, Boca-oído electrónico, Vínculo social

Trabajo de investigación

Building on the theoretical paradigms of consumer free-riding and cognitive dissonance, this study aims to evaluate whether consumers’ cognitive effort when making a purchase decision impacts upon the relationship between free-riding habits and postpurchase cognitive dissonance.

To explore the relationship between cross-channel free-riding, cognitive efforts and cognitive dissonance, a framework was conceptualized and empirically tested on a sample of 518 Italian consumers. Covariance-based structural equation modeling and bootstrapped mediation analysis was performed with the PROCESS macro.

Results show that the more cognitively involved a free-riding consumer is, the more he/she will experience postpurchase cognitive dissonance.

Modern consumers habitually finalize their purchase activities through multiple different channels. The abundance of e-commerce/online platforms does indeed offer consumers a plethora of alternatives to physical/offline stores. Hence, consumers have been seen to act as “free-riders.” It is becoming more and more common for consumers to seek information in physical stores and then purchase a product online more conveniently. This notwithstanding, it has emerged that free-riding consumers tend to experience cognitive dissonance – which is a sensation of emotional discomfort – after making their purchases. The causes of this phenomenon are yet to be fully unpacked.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the motivational tensions underlying mobile shopping (m-shopping) behaviours. The authors focus on consumer motivations and the pursuit of life end goals with respect to m-shopping.

Based on the means-end chain theory, hard-laddering approach was used to elicit associations between attributes, consequences and values from 251 online participants. Content analysis was used to develop a hierarchical value map “mapping” these associations to uncover underlying values for m-shopping.

Mobile shoppers are motivated by their self-actualisation needs (self-focused) and/or social needs (other-focused). Participants’ response contradictions reflected internal complexities and ambivalences during their purchasing decisions. Decisions are based on their concerns around security, time, technological or financial.

This study provides managerial insights into retail marketing and strategies. Marketers should consider creating user-friendly applications by researching the customer journey experience, heightening security measures and ensuring that added-value offers are clearly communicated to meet consumers’ personal values and motivations.

The paper presents an original conceptual contribution of personal values related to m-shopping as desires for self-empowerment, altruism and relationships with others, self-fulfilment and hedonism and possible consumer internal conflicts.

Due to increasing use of the Internet to purchase products, this article aimed to investigate how poor experiences during online purchases lead consumers to perform webrooming.

The authors performed three laboratory experiments and analyzed secondary data to investigate this issue.

The findings revealed that (a) poor online experiences increased consumers' intentions to perform webrooming (studies 1, 2 and 3); (b) frustration is a mechanism that explains why consumers choose to perform webrooming in the same or rival stores (Studies 1, 2 and 3); (c) Perceived channel integration increases consumer's intentions to perform webrooming in the same retailer (study 3).

This research contributes to webrooming literature by highlighting one more antecedent of this behavior and its psychological mechanism. To the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first one shedding light on the differentiation between webrooming in the same or rival stores. The findings also complement omnichannel literature by exploring how poor experiences and frustration change channel preferences. Finally, the article demonstrated how managers could retain consumers by improving channel integration.