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This study aims to characterize how ecosystem actors shape customer experience (CX). The study also proposes implications for managers and research regarding the customer ecosystem, its actors and actor constellations in the context of CXs.

A qualitative study is conducted among activity tracker users to identify how actors within their ecosystems shape CXs. Data include 28 in-depth interviews and ten self-reported diaries.

This study delineates six actor categories in the customer ecosystem shaping CX within and beyond the service. The number of actors and their importance to the focal customer in various actor constellations form individual-, brand- and socially driven ecosystems. These customer ecosystem types show how actors combine to drive CXs.

Researchers should shift their attention to experiences emerging in the customer’s lifeworld. A customer ecosystem highlights the customer-centered actor configuration emergent within the customer’s lifeworld. It is self-constructed based on the customer’s reference point.

Managers should aim to locate, monitor and join the customer’s lifeworld to gain more insight into how CXs emerge in the customer ecosystem based on customer logic.

Customers are not isolated actors simply experiencing service; rather, they construct idiosyncratic actor constellations that include various providers, social groups and peers.

This paper extends the theory on CXs by illustrating how the various actors and actor constellations forming the customer ecosystem shape CXs.

By outsourcing or partnering with two or more firms to perform certain activities targeted toward customers, firms are engaging in service networks. This research begins to examine how customers evaluate firms in a strategic, B2B service network and how their assessment of firms involved in co‐producing after‐sales service affects their evaluations of a focal selling firm. These evaluations include the key relational outcomes of brand image, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.

The conceptual model examines the effects of partner firm performance on customers' evaluations of a focal selling firm. Key factors such as focal brand strength and the strength of the relationship between the partner firm and the focal selling firm are proposed to influence this relationship.

Post‐sale business services provided directly to the customer are likely to play an important role in building a firm's brand image and equity, whether those services are provided by the firm or its partners.

The individual firm to individual customer dyad approach that currently dominates the literature does not adequately capture the complex nature of today's B2B service relationships. This research develops a conceptual model that directly addresses the way customers evaluate service when it is performed by multiple partners.

Discovering how customers evaluate service experiences in which multiple firms co‐produce the service within a B2B service network can provide firms with the guidance needed to improve the performance of the entire network and the overall service experience of network customers.

This paper presents new theoretical developments in the area of business‐to‐business service networks. This research also addresses several gaps in the industrial marketing literature, particularly B2B services and branding.

The central tenet of this paper is that a firm's efforts to nurture a long-term relationship with a third-party logistics (3PLs) will be influenced by its strategic orientation toward its own customers. The purpose of this paper is to propose that there will be a spillover effect of a firm's relationship marketing orientation (RMO) toward its customers on the nature of a firm's relationship with its 3PL, positively impacting its logistics performance.

A survey was administered to logistics managers in Brazilian firms that employ the services of a large 3PL. The model was tested via structural equation modeling.

Results of this research suggest that a firm's RMO toward its customers has a positive impact on the long-term orientation (LTO) toward the relationship with its 3PL, ultimately improving the firm's operations performance. Additionally, the findings reveal that the positive effect of RMO on LTO is stronger for higher levels of a firm's dependence on its 3PL.

The results provide initial evidence that when a RMO is embedded in a firm's strategies toward its customers, there will be spillover effects on both the nature and outcomes of relationships with other partners, such as 3PLs. Research limitations include the survey implementation in an emerging market, and surveying clients of a single 3PL.

From the perspective of the 3PL, when selecting new clients, it is important to investigate how these potential clients relate to their own customers. In other words, 3PLs should investigate whether these potential clients embrace RMO toward their downstream customers. If that is the case, the client will be more likely to have LTO with the 3PLs with which it works.

While most studies in logistics outsourcing demonstrate that interorganizational conditions are key determinants of long-term and collaborative relationships with 3PLs, this study provides initial evidence that when a strategic orientation – RMO – is embedded in a firm's strategies and operations toward its customers, there will be spillover effects on both the nature and outcomes of relationships with 3PLs as well.

This paper's main purpose is to provide a systematic approach for mapping the value exchange in B2B relationship marketing. This approach affords a preliminary analysis in order to distinguish business customers' different value dimensions (tangibles and intangibles) and to set sights on determining suitable metrics to evaluate and quantify the value of each customer.

The paper uses a combination of qualitative research approaches, namely an exploratory case study, in‐depth interviews, and consensus expert opinion. The empirical study took place over three months to maximize the proposed approach's expediency in the practitioners' B2B environment and to increase the validity of the research findings.

In addition to developing a new framework originating in the value network approach for mapping, modeling and analyzing business customers' value network (BCVN), the findings posit a proposed systematic approach for practitioners and marketing scholars to scrutinize the multi‐dimension values of business relationship marketing.

For companies and their business customers alike, the benefits of the systematic approach proposed in this paper are an efficient analytical system giving an opportunity to B2B marketers and managers to understand their business customers' network in detail.

The implicit concept of maximizing customer lifetime value within the business customers' network appeals for an applied approach to better understand and analyze the real value of business customers to retain them.

This paper aims to explore how customer involvement unfolds in the development of a smart product. Smart product development poses new challenges to firms. In particular, the buyers’ and users’ involvement has shown novel dynamics in smart product development. These peculiarities are linked with the specific characteristics of the digital technology embedded into the smart products. This study’s rationale is to analyse the frictions arising from potential divergent objectives between the focal firm and its customers when digital technologies are embedded in traditional products.

This study adopted an explorative and qualitative approach to investigate new emerging dynamics of customer involvement during technological development. A coffee machine producer is selected as a case study to uncover new insights and a novel perspective on the phenomenon of customer involvement in smart product development. Data analysis followed an abductive approach that allowed to identify the dimensions of friction emerging during the technological development process.

The case study analysis depicts that smart product development presents novel customer involvement dynamics. In particular, this study abductively identifies dimensions of friction emerging between the focal firm and buyers/users. Friction arises in the technological interface between the actors involved. These dimensions of friction address the complexities of developing technology in terms of smart products with customer involvement. This study suggests that embedding of technology into an existing product might change how customers are involved.

Even though customer involvement in product innovation has been extensively studied in management literature, this paper focused on a new type of innovation, smart products. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies have yet empirically explored customers’ involvement while embedding digital technologies into existing products to create smart products. In particular, this study sheds light on the dimensions of friction emerging between the focal firm and the actors of the business network. This study unfolds novel contributions to the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing literature on technological development.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of online cross-recommendation of products from e-retailers on consumers’ instant cross-buying intention, and compare the effect between the contexts that the decision making on focal product is difficult and easy.

Based on the information adoption model, this paper develops a theoretical model to investigate how online cross-recommendation of products from e-retailers influence consumers’ instant cross-buying intention. Empirical data were collected from 224 online shoppers. The Partial Least Squares technique was used to test the proposed research model.

Choice confidence on focal product and perceived usefulness of cross-buying is the antecedents of instant cross-buying intention. Brand awareness of recommended product, one-stop shopping convenience, and perceived price advantage are the antecedents of perceived usefulness of cross-buying and choice confidence on focal product when the decision making on focal product is difficult, whereas brand awareness is not when it is easy to make focal product decision. Choice confidence on focal product positively affects perceived usefulness of cross-buying when it is easy to make focal product decision, whereas the effect is not significant when the decision making on focal product is difficult.

Knowledge about the effect of online cross-recommendation of products on instant cross-buying intention is scarce. This study reveals the psychological mechanism of the effect of online cross-recommendation of products on consumers’ instant cross-buying intention and finds that decision-making difficulty on focal product is an important moderator.

Customer engagement is of critical interest to both academics and practitioners. Extant literature focusses primarily on customer engagement with a single focal object, usually brands; this study takes another view to consider customer engagement with multiple focal objects (service provider and context). In addition to testing the relationship of the individual dimensions of engagement with the service provider and engagement with the context, this research elaborates on their drivers, with a particular focus on distinct engagement platforms. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A survey captures customer engagement with a service provider and a context in a higher education setting, with 251 responses collected across first- and third-year marketing courses in an Australian, mid-sized university.

Engagement with the service provider can drive engagement with the context. In turn, engagement with the service provider can be stimulated through the use of engagement platforms that enable customer-to-service provider interactions. The results show limited effects of customer-to-customer engagement platforms on engagement with the context though. The results are consistent across gender and student grade levels; some differences arise between international and domestic students.

This unique study broadens understanding of customer engagement with various focal objects and also details the flow of effects, from engagement with a service provider to engagement with the context. This research builds on conceptual discussions of engagement platforms and empirically examines their ability to facilitate affective, cognitive and behavioural engagement.

The purpose of this study is to unearth antecedents of regrettable dining experiences related to the information source, action and inaction perspectives, dining companion influence and interactions among information source, the focal customer’s valence and the dining companion’s valence on regret, leading to sequential behavioral outcomes.

Using a scenario-based experimental study, 344 qualified questionnaires were collected. Univariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression analyses were implemented.

The results of this study reveal that action regret is more intense than inaction regret during the choice-making phase; dining companion negative feedback intensifies focal customer’s regret. The significance of the information source on regret disappeared when only one party reported negative feedback; conversely, when two parties in the co-consumption experience revealed negative feedback, the relationship between information source of choice and regret was sustained.

The nature of scenario-based design may lack realism. Thus, more field experiments are encouraged to test the propositions further. This research enhances our understanding of gastronomic experiences in a negative disconfirmation context, drawing upon action/inaction regret theory, attribution theory and the expectancy disconfirmation model.

From a triad relationship perspective, this study provides valuable input on who or what will be attributed to the issues when encountering a food and wine sensory failure. Additionally, insightful recommendations are supplied on avoiding the possibility of inducing the experience of regret and how practitioners can increase the potential for a memorable dining experience.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that enriched the existing knowledge of regrettable dining experiences relating to information sources and social influence.

How do purchasing and supply management (PSM) practices create value for the business customers of a focal company? The purpose of this study is to approach the question by investigating the delivery of value over three tiers in the supply chain, that is, from suppliers to the focal company, and further to the focal company’s customers following value chain logic.

The study is carried out as a qualitative interview study in four focal companies operating in business-to-business markets. A total of 32 interviews are conducted targeted to managers and directors of sales and marketing, purchasing, product/service development and business units.

The study unveils the characteristics and interplay of supplier-oriented and cross-functional PSM practices in customer value creation. The findings indicate that cross-functional integration between purchasing and the other functions of a focal firm is most beneficial in improving supply flexibility to fulfill customer preferences, identifying new supplier offerings for the customer and facilitating time-to-market of new products.

This study enhances managers’ understanding of the characteristics of the non-financial benefits of purchasing and the role of PSM practices in customer value creation and business success. The findings are indicative of potentially successful practices in the contexts studied.

This study contributes to the supply chain management literature on the benefits of the purchasing function by highlighting the value created for the customer of a focal company. It also extends the discussion in the supply chain management literature on customer value creating interaction processes in business relationships by focusing on PSM practices.

The purpose of this paper is to provide strategic recommendations for Indian hotel administrators for improving sustainability practices: environment, economic and social with respect to the supply chain members by analyzing performance dimensions and the importance attached to them.

Importance performance analysis is a tool to analyze the perception of top-level, middle-level and first-level managers in hotels. Questionnaire is developed to collect the hotel manager’s perceptions. The snowball sampling method is used for data collection.

The paper introduces specific sustainability practices, namely, environment, economic and social factors, at the interface of the tourism supply chain (TSC). This will allow the hotels to identify the importance and performance of various sustainability practices to achieve a long-term competitive advantage. The present work finds that the responding hotel managers have given highest importance to the sustainability practices within the organization and the hotel manager’s perception of sustainability practices in the TSC will vary with respect to the supply chain members.

The effort has been made to capture specific sustainability practices across the supply chain. The paper reinstates the fact that sustainability practices are not firm specific and should be practiced at the supply chain interface. The data for the study were taken from focal organizations perspective which is the hotels.

Results provide the hotel administrators to develop appropriate strategies to improve their practices and functions by analyzing their strengths and weakness regarding their tangible and intangible assets. The identified sustainability practice attributes can act as a benchmark and drive the hotel industry toward possible cost-saving conditions by prioritizing the allocation of the resources while taking care of overall performance.

Results will help the hotel administrators to identify the better sustainability practices which will reduce the negative effects and protect the Mother Nature.

The study included hotels/resorts from tourism locations: hill station, backwaters and coastal areas, specifically in the Indian context.