The Multilevel Nature of Customer Experience Research: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda

• Author: Marije Teerling,Anne‐Madeleine Kranzbühler,Robert E. Morgan,Mirella H.P. Kleijnen
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12140
• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Date: 01 April 2018

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 20, 433–456 (2018)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12140

The Multilevel Nature of Customer

Experience Research: An Integrative

Review and Research Agenda

Anne-Madeleine Kranzb¨

uhler, Mirella H.P. Kleijnen, Robert E. Morgan1

and Marije Teerling2

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and VODW, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1Cardiff

Business School, Cardiff University, Colum Drive, CardiffCF10 3EU, Wales, UK, and 2Eneco Group, Postbus 1014,

3000 BA Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Corresponding author email: anne.kranzbuhler@vu.nl

Over the last threedecades, customer experience (CE) has developed from a burgeoning

concept to a widely recognized phenomenon in terms of both researchand practice . To

account for the complexity of consumption decisions, the CE literature encompasses

both the rational information processing approach to consumer decision-making and

the experiential approach, which includes emotions, feelings and sub-consciousness.

The authors classify and examine CE research on two levels. Studies on static CE an-

alyze experiences during touchpoints at one point in time, while studies on dynamic

CE assess how experiences evolve over time. Furthermore, both static and dynamic CE

research take place fromtwo distinct theoretical perspectives: the organization and the

consumer.As both theoretical perspectives essentially deal with the same phenomenon –

the organizational perspective with the creation of CEs and the consumer perspective

with the perception of customer experiences– there is potential for a productive symbio-

sis between them. The authors propose that connecting insights from both perspectives

can contribute to a better understanding of what constitutes a CE for consumers and

how firms can effectively manage it. First, the authors discuss the development of CE

and argue that it has evolvedinto a broad and fragmented ‘umbrella construct’. Second,

after distinguishing and defining static and dynamic CE, they systematically evaluate

the state of knowledge in both the organizational and consumer perspectives. Finally,

they develop an agenda for future research that integrates the consumer perspective

into organizational CE research.

Introduction

Competitive advantage is the focus for much man-

agement and organizational research. Yet the bases of

differential advantage between competitors are often

marginal, subject to change, and open to imitation

(D’Aveni et al. 2010; McGrath 2013). This is largely

attributable to the growing commoditization of goods

The authors are grateful for comments provided by Tim Ed-

wards on an earlier draft of this paper.

and services (D’Aveni et al. 2010; Pine and Gilmore

1998). In seeking to explain emerging sources of

competitive advantage,customer experience (CE) has

been identified as a compelling antecedent. Increas-

ingly, scholars argue that firms’ differential advan-

tage is derived from CE (Pine and Gilmore 1998;

Verhoef et al. 2009). Both practitioners and scholars

agree that a favorableCE positively affects marketing-

relevant outcomes such as customer satisfaction, loy-

alty and word-of-mouth behavior (e.g. Mascarenhas

et al. 2006; Pullman and Gross 2004). Despite this

consensus, the CE phenomenon is limited by a lack

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434 A.-M. Kranzb¨

uhler et al.

of conceptual clarity, explained by a diverse set of

theories, and founded upon divergent empirical con-

clusions.

The concept ‘customer experience’ was introduced

by Holbrook and Hirschman (1982). They postu-

lated that consumers are not purely rational problem-

solvers. Therefore, the cognitive weighing of value

and price can only explain a small fraction of con-

sumer behavior. They proposed substituting the ear-

lier information-processing theory with an experi-

ential approach emphasizing emotions, feelings and

sub-consciousness. The aim was to capture holisti-

cally the consumption experience, which is not only

cognitive, but also hedonic, symbolic and aesthetic in

nature. Thus, CE can be characterized as a subjective

phenomenon that is not fully controllable by the firm

(Verhoef et al. 2009).

Researchers have traditionally approached CE

from two different angles: organizational and con-

sumer perspectives. As CEs are realized through

firm–customer interactions, they are characterized as

dyadic phenomena. Distinguishing between the orga-

nizational and consumer perspectives of CE is thus

theoretically meaningful, as it cannot be assumed that

a CE is perceived by consumers as intended by the

firm. Similarly, a CE perceived as favorable by a

consumer might not have a positive impact on firm

outcomes. Consequently, we propose that connecting

insights from both perspectives can contribute to a

better understanding of CE: what it consists of for

consumers, and how it can be effectively managed by

firms. Furthermore, our review identifies two levelsof

CE research within both the organizational and con-

sumer perspectives. Studies on static CE assess how

consumers experience one or multiple touchpoints

with a firm at one specific point in time. Research on

dynamic CE, in contrast, analyzes how consumers’

experiences evolve over time.

Research within the organizational perspective fo-

cuses on the creation of CEs, which are mainly static.

Some scholars aim to identify efficient waysto design

and manage interactions with customers and their un-

derlying processes in a way that maximizes organiza-

tional targets (e.g. Patr´

ıcio et al. 2008). Others analyze

how the physical environment of a store and its em-

ployees and their behavior affect the experiences of

consumers (e.g. Bitner 1990).

In contrast, research from the perspective of con-

sumers addresses their perceptions of those experi-

ences. Studies on static CE focus mainly on factors

that are beyond a firm’s control and how they affect

CE; these include aspects of the environment (e.g.

other customers) (e.g. Hui and Bateson 1991) and the

individual (e.g. underlying consumer goals and moti-

vations) (e.g. Van Kenhove et al. 1999), all major CE

influencers. Taking a dynamic approach, other stud-

ies identify howsatisf action cumulates throughout the

customer journey (e.g. Verhoef et al. 2004), and how

negative moments or time perceptions affectdynamic

CE over time (e.g. Tsai and Min 2011). Specifically,

consumers can evaluate their journey cognitively, af-

fectively and through their senses. The role of cog-

nition receives rather limited attention within the CE

studies we reviewed;instead, research centers primar-

ily on howconsumers affectively evaluatetouchpoints

and how this varies overtime. Also, scholars increas-

ingly focus on the role that basic senses play when

evaluating encounters with a firm (Krishna 2012);

contextual factors such as music or scent in a store

stimulate the senses and thus contribute to creating

experiences.

There is extensive research on the consumer per-

spective, whilethe organizational perspective appears

rather limited. Surprisingly, research on both can be

found in mostly unconnected streams of literature.

This, in turn, has led to a divergence in the concep-

tualization of the CE construct (Verhoef et al. 2009).

The goal of the present review is to laythe foundation

for aligning both perspectives on CE and contribute

to the emerging bridging of firm and customer re-

search (Brach et al. 2015). We offer a threefold con-

tribution: First, based on a systematic and replicable

article selection process, we provide a focused and

targeted review of the CE literature primarily from

the consumer perspective. Second, we advance a bet-

ter understanding of the CE construct and its differing

conceptualizations by identifying two levelsof CE re-

search and developing a conceptual framework that

connects them. Third, after providing a review of the

existing literature on the two levels of CE, we derive

an agenda for further research aimed at integrating

the currently disjointed organizational and consumer

perspectives.

Literature review method

In line with Tranfield et al. (2003) and Bailey et al.

(2015), we conducted a systematic literature review,

adopting a well-respected evidence-based approach

from medical science for our purposes: the Preferred

Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-

Analysis (PRISMA) Protocol (Shamseer et al. 2015).

This protocol was administered as follows.

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