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This study aims to explore the customer experiences (CXs) of an under-researched luxury client segment, the ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) in three settings, yacht-made clothing services, chartering a yacht and art collection.

The author conducted 13 interviews with UHNWI, enquiring about their experiences with different services. The author collected and analyzed the data using a recommended three-step approach: in-depth interviews using soft-laddering; coding and purifying data through a systematic approach and hierarchical coding; and using the emerging consensus technique to scrutinize and validate the emerging themes.

This study revealed UHNWI drivers or purchasing and repurchasing behavior as (mis)managing expectations, personal relationships with personnel and achieving convenience-driven time savings. The corresponding conceptual framework is the UHNWI luxury CX.

This study reveals how über luxury brand managers need to carefully manage the UHNWI clientele expectations, focusing their investment on their brand personnel and the way they can save their clients’ valuable time.

This study is the first to explore UHNWI perceptions of their experience with über luxury providers across multiple contexts. This study highlights that the luxury experience, not the acquisition and owning of luxury goods, drives the UHNWI decision-making and purchase behavior.

This study aims to address the need to empirically investigate the luxury customer service experiences of the ultra-high-net-worth individual (UHNWI) segment by conducting and analyzing interviews with 20 clients flying private jets. The results lead to a conceptualization of the UHNW private aviation customer experience.

This study applied a three-step method to explore the meaning and domain of the UHNWI luxury service experience. First, the perception and corresponding attributes of customers’ experiences using private aviation services were examined through 20 in-depth interviews and by using the soft laddering technique. Second, this study coded and, subsequently, purified the data by means of a systematic comparison approach and hierarchical coding. Third, a panel of judges, using the emerging consensus technique, scrutinized and validated the emerging dimensions.

The analysis reveals the customer experience (CX) and motivations differ significantly between business and leisure use, moving from a functional toward an experiential value focus. The findings emphasize the lack of social value for the UHNWI CX and introduce time as a new value dimension.

This study provides multiple contributions to the customer experience, luxury and luxury services literature. This study enhances scholarly understandings of the holistic UHNWI CX in the context of an absolute luxury offering, thus providing a needed conceptualization of an underresearched customer segment, namely, the UHNWI. It delivers insights on the different motivations and experience UHNWI are seeking for according to the context. This study proposes a new luxury value dimension: time.

This study highlights multiple opportunities for UHNWI customer experience improvement. The findings reveal that different clients are looking for different experiences in terms of business versus leisure use. The key drivers and expectations shift from functional (price/availability/flexibility) to experiential factors (comfort/onboard experience/relationship with crew and pilot). Communication, marketing and CX management strategies and tactics need to emphasize this important distinction regarding what drives client behavior in the private aviation setting.

The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it defines UHNWI characteristics and overall experiences using the unique über-service of private aviation, thus advancing scholarly understanding of both the luxury customer and the luxury customer service experience beyond the proposed traditional drivers of luxury consumption. Second, this study expands the conceptual foundation for the UHNWI “über-luxury” service experience, which, given the importance of the UHNWI segment, is important. Third, this study contributes to theoretical knowledge by extending customer value perception in the luxury context by introducing the luxury value dimension of time. This study concludes with a discussion of its findings’ implications for luxury research and practice, providing a future research agenda with regard to UHNW.

Traditionally, international luxury marketing highlights possible disparities of cultural and value perception. The context-specific nature of traditional international luxury marketing, which ranges from educational and cultural to financial and offering-based variations, delivers little guidance to managers in the field regarding how to cater best to their highest target segment. The study aims to exemplify the relevance of global consumer culture (GCC) theory for the ultra-high-net-worth-individual (UHNWI) context. The authors' research on UHNWIs maps the DNA, so to speak, of the UHNWI customer experience (CX) by determining what drives UHNWI purchasing behavior independent of background – in other words, what matters most to this exclusive consumer segment.

Interviewing 15 UHNWIs using a means-end approach and incorporating the emerging consensus technique (ECT), the authors explored the CX of UHNWIs leading to their purchasing decisions.

The authors' analysis reveals the three main constituents of the UHNWI CX: the value of time, expectation mismanagement and the utilitarian nature of luxury. The findings highlight that UHNWIs see traditional luxury as a necessity rather than a luxury and value different factors, such as time, much more highly. The findings highlight the UHNWI homogenous nature, connecting GCC to purchasing behavior.

The authors' study delivers empirical evidence of what matters most to the UHNWI segment and drives their purchasing behavior. The authors are questioning existing luxury segmentation strategies and lay out a clear guidance on how to design and deliver effective and efficient marketing, sales and communications strategies for the elusive UHNWI segment. The research highlights that it is the experience and the three main dimensions, namely expectation mismanagement, luxury as a utility and the value of time. Following UHNWI CX DNA framework will allow luxury companies to build their marketing and client acquisition efforts on a solid understanding of what matters most to the UHNWI target segment.

The study highlights the commonalities of UHNWIs in terms of what matters most to them. Based on this, the authors develop a UHNWI CX DNA. The authors propose that traditional context-specific differences upheld by international marketing researchers might not apply to the UHNWI segment. The authors deliver evidence that UHNWI are an excellent example of the applicability of GCC theory. The only difference in perception the authors noticed was between CX evaluations of self-made UHNWIs and those who inherited their wealth in an otherwise homogenous segment.

This paper’s objective is to raise awareness of how customer experience (CX) research, a key construct of modern-day service research, needs to be revisited in view of the pandemic. Particularly, we examine whether CX-related service research constructs, models and frameworks need to be reevaluated during and after the Corona crisis and if so, how and why? Moreover, this paper contributes to CX research by analyzing the customer mindset from three perspectives: emotions, employment and expectations (EEE).

We critically review current CX practices and investigate the impact on how customers perceive services in this time of crisis.

Based on this critical analysis, we discuss implications for research and practice with reference to the example of the luxury industry with its historical emphasis on the CX. This discussion leads to related propositions and research directions through Corona and beyond.

We investigate the current customer mindset in more detail, which we divide into three main themes: emotions, employment and expectations (EEE).

Despite efforts by researchers and managers to better link marketing activities with business financial outcomes, there is general agreement that by and large chief marketing officers (CMOs) (and marketing in general) have lost strategic decision-making influence within organizations. The purpose of this paper is to understand the causes of this decline and offer recommended solutions to counteract this trend.

In-depth interviews lasting between 40 and 55 minutes were conducted with 25 chief executive officers (CEOs) of service companies located in Western Europe, North America, and Australia. In total, 13 difference countries were represented. Using Emerging Consensus Technique, we identified four main themes, which cause the goals of CEOs and those of CMOs/marketing to diverge.

The primary cause of the decline of strategic influence of CMOs and marketing overall with CEOs is a function of four key issues: first, the role of the CMO (e.g. task overload, focus on tactical issues, “outdated” skill set); second, lack of financial accountability (e.g. the inability to connect marketing efforts to financial returns); third, digital and social media (e.g. a perceived obsession with new technology); and forth, lack of strategic vision and impact (e.g. lost sight of “core” job, use of irrelevant metrics).

The findings indicate that CMOs must address the four key issues uncovered for marketing to attain/regain a role in strategic decision making. A proposed roadmap for putting marketing back on the CEOs agenda is presented to guide CMOs.

This research provides marketers with a CEO eye view of their role within organizations.

Based upon primary research, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the three main sources of frustration about the marketing scholars’ community current status quo. It delivers feasible solutions and describes, using the example of the Special Issue, how to overcome these challenges and provide the research environment all desire.

Editorial paper summarizing the Special Issue's contributions and observations from the marketing scholar community.

The three main sources of frustration for marketing scholars about the current system are, first, review and publishing processes, second, the dominant epistemological and methodological approach in academe, encouraging an increasing specialization and reliance on generating more and more quantitatively driven knowledge and finally, the lack of acceptance (and outright disdain) for research with a managerial, applied emphasis.

But it surely is not mission impossible to build the research environment that is wanted. To build the research environment the community desires and to be “back where we belong,” to be relevant means the need to do more than just engaging in lip service. Rather than complying with the system causing frustration, the paper asks all to take an active part in the change process. The paper strongly encourages all, as editors, reviewers, colleagues, mentors and supervisors to do so and take some chances. Engage in and support brave research.

The authors hope that the paper will stimulate research widely accessible to both managers, and a broader audience. This will eventually lead to a better reputation and public opinion toward marketing scholars and research.

Rather than simply stating the main frustrations of the marketing scholar community, and calling for changes, the authors demonstrate how these challenges can be overcome, and deliver platforms to communicate and lead both the conversation and the actions to achieve the research community most desire.

This paper aims to propose opportunities on how service research scholars can overcome the challenge of designing, delivering and disseminating managerial relevant studies. The proposed tactics will assist researchers and the community in general to resolve the pressing issues of both, the disconnection between theory formulation and verification and the divide between pursuing theoretical advances versus managerial usefulness.

Building on insights deriving from academic research, managerial publications and managerial feedback, the paper explores how to turn the challenges of developing managerial relevant research into opportunities.

Using communication research insights, the paper submits that, contrary to common belief, conducting managerial relevant research is not necessarily the main challenge for service researchers. The author identifies the main communications challenges according to three stages, designing, delivering and disseminating research with managerial relevance to the business community, leading to the phenomenon labeled as “lost before, and in translation.”

This paper highlights the developments leading to service research’s lack of managerial relevance perception. Using these insights, the author develops detailed chronological strategies and tactics how to change these perceptions into more favorable ones by designing, delivering and communicating research’s benefits of the research in a better, more efficient and impactful fashion, catered to the managerial audience.

The strategies and tactics outline build a practical “how-to” foundation for researcher to develop managerial relevant research, increase their publication chances and tap into new networks, data collection and funding opportunities.

This is the, to the author’s knowledge, first study to shed new light on the challenge of conducting managerial relevant research by not challenging the notion of relevance, but the way relevance is communicated, disseminated and originated.

The purpose of this study is to (a) develop a conceptual framework exploring the relationships between perceived negative firm customization, unfairness perceptions, and customer loyalty intentions, and (b) investigate the moderating effects of trust in these relationships. The study explores how customizing offers to match customers’ individual needs and how treating customers differentially provoke unfairness perceptions among those not being considered most important. While the literature discusses unfairness perceptions of pricing, promotion, and service, less is known about unfairness in customization practices.

Using a survey approach, 443 completed questionnaires we collected. Following validation of our item measures, a hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted to test the conceptual model and hypothesized linkages between our constructs.

The results demonstrate that customers’ negative perceptions of customization increase their unfairness perceptions. Unfairness perceptions drastically reduce customer loyalty intentions with trust acting as a significant moderator. Trust increases loyalty intentions even when unfairness perceptions are present. Our findings provide a foundation for understanding how firms may improve their perceived fairness. This increase in perceived fairness creates positive attributions, reduces negative customer experience perceptions and increases loyalty intentions.

Key contribution is the development and validation of a conceptual model explaining the linkages between firm customization and unfairness perceptions, firm customization and customer loyalty intentions and the moderating role of trust between these relationships. This study extends the understanding of how customization practices impact unfairness perceptions and, subsequently, influence consumers’ perceptions, intentions and behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize, construct, refine and empirically validate a multiple‐item scale for measuring customers' service experience (EXQ).

The authors present exploratory research developing a conceptualization of service experience based on a two‐stage approach: initial item generation through qualitative research, initial purification of these findings through exploratory factor analysis, and validation through the use of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The paper conceptualizes and validates the concept of customer/service experience. In total, 19 items in four dimensions of the EXQ scale were identified: product experience, outcome focus, moments‐of‐truth and peace‐of‐mind. These dimensions reflect service experience perceptions. The findings support the conclusion that the service experience has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, loyalty and word‐of‐mouth intentions. The scale demonstrates good psychometric properties based on the variety of reliability and validity tests utilized and builds upon extant research.

The research provides managers with the dimensions of service experience that influence purchase behavior and provides researchers with a sought‐after conceptualization of service experience.

The authors believe that this is the first empirically founded conceptualization and measurement of the service/customer experience.