Abstract
The thesis at hand develops a new scale to measure customer experience quality on the basis of four dimensions: service quality, atmosphere quality, flow quality, and learning quality. The American coffee company Starbucks is used as exemplary case to validate the theory empirically. Product quality is found to be a separate, but related construct to customer experience quality. The author investigates the effect of customer experiences on customer loyalty and finds that customer experience quality indirectly affects customer loyalty intentions through perceived value. The relative importance of customer experience quality for perceived value and in succession customer loyalty intentions is found to be much higher than that of product quality. Moreover, perceived wealth of the customer acts as a moderator and increases the positive effect of customer experience quality on perceived value wheras it weakens the effect of product quality on perceived value. Collectively, the results extend and clarify concepts in the evolving, but inconsistent customer experience literature. The findings enable managers to stage customer experiences more effectively and more efficiently.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1 The Evolution from Products to Services to Experiences
2.2 The Initial Conceptual Model
2.2.1 Customer Experience Quality
2.2.2 Perceived Value
2.2.3 Customer Loyalty
2.2.4 Perceived Wealth
3. Methodology & Research Design
3.1 Assigning Scales to the Individual Constructs
3.2 Pre-Testing the Scales
3.2.1 Data Collection
3.2.2 Scale Purification Process
3.2.2.1 CXQ scale
3.2.2.2 Perceived Wealth scale
3.2.2.3 Perceived Value scale
3.2.2.4 Customer Loyalty scale
3.3 Adjustments and Refinements
3.4 Testing the Measurement Model
3.4.1 Data Collection
3.4.2 Measurement Model
3.4.3 Assessing Model Fit of the Measurement Model
3.4.4 Assessing Validity of the Measurement Model
4. Data Analysis
4.1 Comparison of Competing Models
4.1.1 Interpretation of Structural Model #1 suggesting Full Mediation
4.1.2 Interpretation of Structural Model #2 suggesting Partial Mediation
4.1.3 Interpretation of Structural Model #3 suggesting No Mediation
4.2 Selection of the Best Fitting Model
5. Discussion
6. Conclusion
6.1 Theoretical Implications
6.2 Managerial Implications
6.3 Limitations & Future Research
Research Objectives and Core Themes
This thesis investigates the effect of customer experience quality and product quality on perceived value and customer loyalty intentions. It aims to develop a holistic measurement scale for customer experience quality and evaluates whether perceived wealth acts as a moderator in the relationship between these quality dimensions and customer value perception.
- Development of the new CXQ scale (Customer Experience Quality)
- Assessment of the impact of experience quality versus product quality on customer loyalty
- Empirical validation of the mediating role of perceived value
- Investigation of perceived wealth as a moderating factor in customer decision-making
Excerpt from the Book
2.2.1 Customer Experience Quality
The existing practically oriented literature on customer experiences claims that customer experiences need to be extraordinary, memorable and compelling in order to generate a competitive advantage (e.g., Pine and Gilmore, 2011; Holbrook, 2007; LaSalle and Britton, 2003; Schmitt, 2003; Addis and Holbrook, 2001). But how is it possible to measure an experience, and moreover, how is it possible to manage customer experiences?
First of all, one needs to understand the nature of customer experiences. Customer experiences blur the traditional dichotomy of goods and services by ultimately focusing on customers’ value-in-use, which is created by the orchestral combination of goods and services during the interaction between customer and company (Poullson and Kale, 2004). Customer experiences are by nature co-created by customers and lead to value perceptions both on a cognitive as well as on an affective level (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). A customer experience hereby is a holistic personal, customer specific perception of a company’s overall market offering which is generated in a wide array of situations and contains a significant amount of hedonic benefits and emotional value for the customer. According to Bruhn and Hadwich (2012), the academic literature regarding customer experiences can be classified into four streams of research: product experience (e.g., Hoch, 1989), service experience (e.g., Patricio et al., 2011), brand experience (e.g., Brakus et al., 2009), and consumption experience (e.g., Hirschmann and Holbrook, 1982). The study at hand tries to merge the parallel concepts of product experience, service experience, and consumption experience by consolidating them in a holistic quality scale.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Outlines the shift from products and services to experience-based business strategies and identifies the lack of holistic measurement tools for customer experience.
2. Literature Review: Provides a conceptual framework by synthesizing marketing, psychology, and financial economics to define constructs like customer experience quality, perceived value, and perceived wealth.
3. Methodology & Research Design: Describes the development of the CXQ scale, the pre-testing procedure, and the application of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for hypothesis testing.
4. Data Analysis: Presents the results of competing structural models to evaluate the mediation effects and the moderating role of perceived wealth.
5. Discussion: Critically evaluates the statistical findings and addresses the ambiguities in model fit indices while confirming the theoretical model.
6. Conclusion: Summarizes the theoretical and managerial implications, confirming that experience quality is a superior driver of loyalty compared to product quality.
Keywords
Customer Experience Quality, CXQ, Product Quality, Perceived Value, Customer Loyalty, Perceived Wealth, Structural Equation Modeling, Marketing Strategy, Experience Economy, Consumer Behavior, Value-in-use, Moderating Effects, Mediation, Loyalty Intentions, Starbucks
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research?
The research examines how customer experience quality and product quality influence customer loyalty intentions, mediated by perceived value and moderated by the customer's perceived wealth.
What are the primary thematic areas covered?
The study spans marketing theory, customer experience management, financial psychology (perceived wealth), and advanced statistical modeling (SEM) to link experiential quality to long-term business outcomes.
What is the main objective of the thesis?
The primary goal is to validate a new, holistic measurement scale (the CXQ scale) that can effectively measure customer experience quality and its impact on loyalty in retail environments.
Which methodology is employed in this study?
The author uses a quantitative approach, applying Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with data collected via an online survey platform to test the conceptual model and theoretical hypotheses.
What does the main body address?
The main body develops the theoretical background, details the scale purification through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and tests competing structural models to determine the best fit for the data.
Which keywords define this work?
The work is characterized by terms such as Customer Experience Quality (CXQ), Perceived Value, Perceived Wealth, Customer Loyalty, and Structural Equation Modeling.
How does perceived wealth affect customer evaluation?
The study finds that wealthier customers place less importance on product quality and more on customer experience quality, suggesting that for them, product quality becomes a qualification criterion rather than a differentiation factor.
Is the CXQ scale applicable to online businesses?
The author notes that findings were based on offline, business-to-consumer interactions (specifically Starbucks) and cautions that the scale should not be generalized to online shopping or business-to-business contexts without adjustments.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Daniel Gurski (Autor:in), 2013, How Excellent Experiences affect Customer Loyalty, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/213447
