Quality of channel integration and customer loyalty in omnichannel retailing: The mediating role of customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness

The aim of this study was to understand how omnichannel integration quality affects customer loyalty through customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness and to verify the relationship between customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness in omnichannel retailing. Data was collected through a questionnaire with 378 available respondents. PLS-SEM was exerted to examine the model. The results disclosed the positive influence of omnichannel integration quality on customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness, which consequently impacted customer loyalty. Also, the positive influence of customer engagement on relationship program receptiveness was proved. Further, the role as mediators of customer engagement and relationship program receptiveness was explored. This study contributed to the omnichannel literature by confirming that psychological and behavioral customer engagement plays a vital role in omnichannel retailing. This study also helped omnichannel retailers understand that providing a seamless, consistent and reassuring environment can facilitate customer engagement and thereby gain customer loyalty.     

FsQCA versus regression: The context of customer engagement

The purpose of this study is to address the strengths and weaknesses of the Fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method by contrasting it with traditional multiple regression analysis. To achieve our objective, we utilize the context of customer engagement and explore how both methodological approaches can explain the factors that lead customers to engage with brands/firms. We test the association between customer engagement and its antecedents by using both methods, fsQCA and multiple regression analysis (MRA), and compare the findings. MRA results show a significant relationship between customer engagement and perceived interactivity, perceived identification, perceived value, and brand involvement, a negative relationship with perceived fairness, while the relationship with customer satisfaction and perceived value is not statistically significant. On the other hand, fsQCA revealed eight different combinations of these antecedents that lead to high levels of customer engagement. Although multiple regression analysis (MRA) certainly has its own merit, our findings indicate that this methodological approach does not capture the complexities extant in real life. This method's strength of providing generalizable results is also its weakness as relationships cannot always be generalized as shown in our study. As such, at a minimum, fsQCA should be used as a complementary approach when authors employ MRA. We suggest ‘at a minimum’ because fsQCA possesses sufficient explanatory power to be employed by itself to offer a rich perspective on the relationships of interest. We also make several noteworthy contributions to the customer engagement and service marketing literatures.     

Examining customer engagement and brand intimacy in social media context

Customer engagement (CE) is critical for firms to cultivate and improve customer brand experience in the customer journey. However, few studies are available on the effects of customer-based driving forces on CE in a defined brand experience context. Given the multidimensional nature of CE, the interrelationships among CE dimensions and various dimensional effects on the customer–brand relationship, represented by brand intimacy, have not been thoroughly explored. To address these research gaps, this study explores three customer- and context-based forces that drive CE in social media contexts from a consumer’s perspective. CE is operationalized as a second-order construct consisting of three dimensions (i.e., consumption, contribution, and creation) to reflect its multifaceted nature. An online survey was used to collect data. The results suggest that customer-based forces, advice seeking, and self-image expression exert positive influences on behavioral CE dimensions. The effect of a context-based factor, that is, fashion involvement, is salient only when gender difference is integrated. Moreover, the three facets of behavioral CE affect brand intimacy to different extents. Brand intimacy is the most affected by creation followed by consumption. The research findings contribute to the literature on CE and brand intimacy and also offer practical insights on marketing communications and segmentation.     

Exploring the drivers of customer engagement behaviours in social network brand communities: towards a customer-learning model

Customer learning is regarded as a process that alters either individual cognition or the outcomes of socialisation. Understanding how the learning process works enables a brand firm to identify a customer’s latent needs. Prior studies have primarily focused on effectively positioning brand knowledge in the minds of customers, but that linear learning process does not apply to the interactive and proactive social media setting. Based on the uses and gratifications perspective, this study proposes a customer-learning model and analyses 373 online questionnaires using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The empirical results confirm that learning motivation and collaborative learning are two core components of customer learning that have positive influences on satisfaction, which in turn has a positive influence on customer engagement behaviours (CEBs) and loyalty. In addition, learning motivation is the driver of collaborative learning. Finally, CEBs also have a positive influence on loyalty. This study also concludes that the social network brand community is an informative customer-learning platform that is characterised by interactivity, collaborative learning and co-creation. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.     

The influence of customer experience with automated games and social interaction on customer engagement and loyalty in casinos

Drawing on experiential marketing theory, This study examines the relationship between casino customers’ experience with automated games and their engagement and loyalty responses to casinos. Social interaction as a proxy of visiting motivation is modelled as a moderator in the relationship. Customer behaviours include word-of-mouth, visiting frequency, and average spending. The study focuses on Australian land-based casino members with automated game experience. The results show that customer experience with some features of automated games had a positive and significant impact on customer engagement with the casino, which led to positive loyalty. Automated game experience also had an indirect effect on customer loyalty. Social interaction exhibited a significant moderating effect on the relationship between customer engagement and visiting frequency. Discussion and implications of these findings for the literature and practitioners conclude the paper.     

How customer engagement in the live-streaming affects purchase intention and customer acquisition,E-tailer's perspective

In the emerging retail market, e-tailers operating in developing economies have to cope with the rapid use of the Internet, new electronic purchasing methods and online selling platforms. However, e-tailers do not understand the effect patterns in which customer engagement on purchase intention and customer acquisition. From e-tailers’ perspective, this study explores how customer engagement behaviors are related to both purchase intention and customer acquisition. We obtained live streaming data in the mature e-tail live streaming market environment and found empirical evidence supporting the conceptual framework through regression model analysis. The analysis results show that the specific indicators of the customer engagement are not all positively related to customer purchase intention and customer acquisition, and it is worth noting that the influence of “like” behavior on customer acquisition is no statistical significance. This is expected to encourage e-tailers to rethink their focus on customer acquisition and sales enhancement digital strategies as they operate in emerging markets.     

Your receipt is in the bag: Service and temporal effects as factors of customer engagement formation during acquisition

The current study examines how customer engagement initially develops during customer acquisition. The study utilizes a factorial design with videos to represent positive/negative experiences over the course of a potential acquisition. Findings suggest a positive acquisition experience leads to positive customer engagement. Findings also reflect a strong recency effect in that the last interaction of the service encounter provides the strongest impact on customer engagement. As a result, analysis leads to the recommendation that managers focus more on specific events and less on a cumulative impact in order to develop positive customer engagement during acquisition.     

Exploring the influence of envy on service engagement

Consumer retention is central to service firm objectives and is often the focus of firm initiated activities. However, consumer-driven processes that operate independently of firm initiated activities also influence retention. By understanding the consumption goals of service consumers, management can encourage behavioural engagement with service offerings and improve retention outcomes. Positional services provide opportunities for social status enhancement (e.g. higher education) and attract consumers seeking the positional benefits offered. Service consumers compete for positional benefits and monitor their success relative to other service consumers via positional comparisons. Envy, an emotion with benign and malicious types, is experienced if the positional comparison with another service consumer is unfavourable and influences behavioural engagement. This study proposes and qualitatively tests a conceptual model linking positional comparison and envy to changes in consumers’ behavioural engagement with a service depending on the type of envy experienced. The findings support benign envy as a motivator for increased behavioural engagement with a service. The study also supports the existence of a ‘positional’ service category in which envy is an endemic emotional theme influencing behavioural engagement in these service environments. A two-tiered approach to the management of envy involving positional goal recognition and appraisal based tactics is recommended.     

Engaged,but with what? Objects of engagement in technology-aided B2B customer interactions

ABSTRACT

Using new technologies in customer interactions is a popular way of trying to increase customer engagement. It is, however, unknown how such efforts by marketers’ affect engagement, and particularly to what that engagement relates to. By analysing interview and observation data, the engagement manifestations of customers of a B2B company using virtual-reality technology were studied. The results show that customer engagement can be targeted at not only brands or firms but also the service the firm offers or the technology that enables the service. It is argued that the different objects of engagement can coexist and support each other but engagement with the firm is less susceptible to fluctuations. Marketers should be aware of what triggers customer engagement and what it is targeted at.     

Assessing the influence of goal pursuit and emotional attachment on customer engagement behaviors

This study draws on customer-dominant logic and self-expansion theory to examine the drivers of customer engagement behaviors in the context of emerging online interest communities. The engagement behaviors seen in online communities are operationalized into four types: augmenting, co-developing, influencing, and mobilizing. Goal pursuit (gratifying-the-self, enabling-the-self, and enriching-the-self) and emotional attachment to the community are found to be the key antecedent factors of these behaviors. The attainment of gratifying-the-self has a direct influence on these behaviors, whereas the attainment of enabling-the-self and enriching-the-self influences them via emotional attachment to the community.     

Exploring customer experience during channel switching in omnichannel retailing context: A qualitative assessment

Customer channel switching behaviour in the digital revolution is becoming more complicated and difficult to comprehend. This study follows the interpretative approach to examine customer intention behind channel switching behaviour and the customer experience during the channel switching journey in the omnichannel context. To explore the phenomenon, we conducted twenty-three in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions with millennial customers of electronic goods omnichannel retailers. We found two new reasons for channel switching—the influence of social groups and perceived self-efficacy of the switching behaviour. Key factors affecting channel choices during switching are product attributes, trust/perceived uncertainty, social influence, customer characteristics, review culture, and time constraints. Customers expressed mixed emotions during the journey, which affected their choices during channel switching. We further proposed a framework to explain channel switching behaviour under the social cognitive theory. The study furthered the reasons for channel switching and the customer experience during switching. To the best of our knowledge, this study is pioneering, in examining the phenomenon in the omnichannel retailing context. Based on the findings, the study provides suggestions to enhance customer experience optimisation and retention strategies for omnichannel retailers.     

Loyalty programs,loyalty engagement and customer engagement with the company brand: Consumer-centric behavioral psychology insights from three industries

Firms make large investments in loyalty programs (LPs) to build customer relationships with customer loyalty as one of their primary goals. Despite the popularity of LPs, their effectiveness is questioned and the subject of academic debates in relation to outcomes such as profitability. Moreover, extant research has not investigated if customers engage with LPs through LP perceived value and how LP engagement improves LP loyalty, brand loyalty, and customer engagement (CE) with the company brand. This study examines, from a consumer-centric behavioral perspective, LP engagement (LPE) behavior, and how LPE behavior impacts brand and LP loyalty, as well as CE. We introduce LPE behavior, a relatively new concept, in the form of a multi-dimensional set of hierarchically-ordered dimensions. We show a differentiated view of the relationship between the antecedents of brand loyalty as well as LP loyalty and CE. External, convergent and discriminant validity are confirmed by testing our model with a representative sample (n = 593) of the U.S. LP population with participants being members of either a grocery retail chain, department store chain, or airline frequent flyer LP. We show that perceived LP value engages customers with LPs. Subsequently, LPE behavior improves LP loyalty and brand loyalty as well as CE with the company brand.     

Feel the VIBE: Examining value-in-the-brand-page-experience and its impact on satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours in mobile social media

A critical issue for marketing managers is how best to orchestrate branded social media consumption experiences via mobile applications. This is important because in a mobile first world, these experiences are perceived to be valuable to consumers which in turn facilitate positive consumer behaviour toward the brand. So far, marketing literature offering managerial guidance on this issue remains limited. To this end, this study investigates for the first-time consumer perceptions of ‘Value-In-The-Brand-Page-Experience’ (VIBE), a multidimensional construct, in an emerging market setting of China. China represents an appropriate contextual condition to study given its high mobile penetration and its integration within consumer's lifestyle. This study further examines the impact of VIBE on customer satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours toward the brand via a survey of 714 Chinese consumers. The results substantiate the VIBE framework which contributes to the sparse conceptual development of value perceptions in mobile social media. Furthermore, it confirms the existence of a value–satisfaction–customer engagement behaviour chain. The findings are managerially relevant and focus on leveraging the components of VIBE. These components act as key mechanisms for unlocking customer satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours for brands in the domain of mobile social media.     

Exploring antecedents of customer citizenship behaviors in services

Social exchange theory explains how a party in social interaction provides the other party with reciprocal rewards. Applying this concept to the customer context, this study empirically investigates determinants of customer citizenship behaviors (CCBs) in services. For the generalizability of the study across various service providers, the data were collected based on Bowen’s (1990) classifications of services. With a total of 665 usable customer responses, structural equation modeling was adapted to test the theoretical research model. This study reveals that customers’ perceived support and justice from the service provider positively influence affective commitment toward the organization, resulting in CCBs. The results show that customers’ perception of organizational support has the partial mediation effect between customers’ perception of organizational justice and their affective commitment. Furthermore, customers’ affective commitment partially mediates the relationship between customers’ perceived organizational justice and CCBs, but fully mediates the effect of customers’ perceived organizational support on CCBs.     

The interrelationships among service quality,customer satisfaction,and customer loyalty: Examination of the fast-food industry

The purpose of this study was to use customers’ perspectives to develop a conceptual model for improving service quality and enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. The 197 samples were selected from customers of leading fast food franchise enterprises in Taiwan. The research results indicate that service quality positively influences customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Service quality positively influences customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. The research findings indicate that managers need to ensure they have efficient service quality to enhance customer satisfaction and customer loyalty levels.     

Psychological comfort in service relationships: A mixed-method approach

Psychological comfort reflects the customer's peace of mind and a sense of ease during a service encounter that helps in maintaining strong relationships. However, the role of psychological comfort (PC) in retail service relationships is not fully explored. To fill this research gap, this study presents a unique conceptual model grounded in the stimulus organism response (S–O-R) framework to empirically explore the stimulating effect of customer experience on psychological comfort (PC), which influences relationships quality and customer retention as the response. To evaluate the model a quantitative survey was administered on 432 bank customers followed by in depth interviews of 10 bank employees. It was found that customer experience stimulates customer's PC that leads to relationship quality and retention as the response. It was also found that relationship duration influences the customer experience-PC relationship. The theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.     

Effects of customer feedback level and (in)consistency on new product acceptance in the click-and-mortar context

We propose that feedback level and inconsistency jointly affect potential customers' acceptance of new products. We conducted two studies, one with a two-by-two design in which feedback level and inconsistency were constructed as binary categories, and the other with a continuous design of feedback level and inconsistency. We found that (1) higher feedback level and lower inconsistency increase customer acceptance; (2) feedback inconsistency moderates the relationship between feedback level and customer acceptance; and (3) extremely negative feedback has more significant impact than do moderately negative or extremely positive ones.     

Customer engagement in the context of retail mobile apps: A contingency model integrating spatial presence experience and its drivers

This study develops and investigates the mechanisms through which retail mobile-app cognitions—i.e., interactivity and vividness—are translated into spatial presence experience and subsequently result in customer engagement under the parasol of the hierarchy-of-effects model and the situated cognition theory. The contingency roles of need for cognition and domain-specific interest as individual intrinsic tendencies and issue-specific motivations, respectively, are also scrutinized. A dataset obtained from a survey of 558 customers is employed to estimate the proposed research model. The results indicate that interactivity and vividness significantly stimulate the spatial presence experience, i.e., feelings of “being there” in the mobile-app environment; in turn, this drives customers to become more engaged and contribute to retailers that provide such experiences. The moderating roles of the two motivations are also identified.     

Understanding the user satisfaction and loyalty of customer service chatbots

The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot is emerging as a significant corporate customer-facing application, potentially increasin customer service efficiency while reducing costs. However, little work has sought to assess the quality of service they provide consumers. This study applies the e-service quality by incorporating conversational AI quality to predict users' satisfaction and loyalty to customer service chatbots. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 219 users responding about their perceptions of customer service chatbots. The findings indicate that AI chatbot service recovery quality and AI chatbot conversational quality significantly influence user satisfaction. On the other hand, core AI chatbot service quality and satisfaction significantly influenced chatbot user loyalty. This study contributes to researchers and practitioners by proposing and evaluating a more comprehensive chatbot e-service quality that combines both fundamental (core service and service recovery qualities) and human-like (conversational quality) aspects of e-service. The results are of value in devising future AI chatbot services and related strategies.     

Performance-only measures vs. performance-expectation measures of service quality

There is a long debate over the superiority of performance-only measures vs. performance-expectation measures of service quality. This paper analytically derives the superiority conditions of the measures in predicting customer satisfaction. The conditions show that the superiority of the measures is determined by two factors. One is the strengths of linkages between the constructs (expectation, performance, and customer satisfaction) in the customer satisfaction formation process, and the other is customer heterogeneity in the evaluation of constructs in the process. The source of customer heterogeneity implies that the superiority is affected by the procedure for measuring service quality because the degree of customer heterogeneity in the evaluation of perceived and expected service quality may vary according to the measurement procedure.