Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the customer engagement and customer self-brand connection on customer advocacy and firms’ financial performance. The research focuses on the financial sector and studies a complex organization with a uniform strategy, but which attends the public in different centers (bank branches). Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model of effects is tested using dyadic methodology, with 225 dyads (bank branch manager – average of five customers). The authors use structural equation modeling (EQS6.1) to test the relationships. Findings The results corroborate the hypotheses, with the exception of the influence of customer self-brand connection on financial performance. These analyses show that in the banking sector, where the intensive use of new information and technologies has led to a reduction in direct physical contact with the customer, the off-line experience continues to have a notable economic impact. Furthermore, investment in the brand from an experiential approach determines customer advocacy. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is twofold. This research analyzes from a theoretical and empirical perspective the impact of the customer engagement and customer self-brand connection on customer advocacy and firms’ financial performance.

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This paper studies the influence of network market orientation on Spanish born globals’ adaptation, absorption and innovation dynamic capabilities as well as their influence on the performance achieved by these companies. Based on an ambidexterity approach, which points to born globals’ need to adopt a double exploration/exploitation function, this study considers these three specific knowledge-based dynamic capabilities analysing their interrelationship taking into account their exploration/exploitation duality. Results from the testing of the structural equation model proposed confirm that network market orientation facilitates the development of dynamic, exploratory capabilities (adaptation and absorption capabilities) in born globals and that these, in turn, influence their capacity to exploit knowledge through innovations, thereby obtaining higher performance.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the central role of bank customers’ engagement as a mediating variable between customer experience and two non-transactional customer behaviors (advocacy and attitudinal loyalty). Design/methodology/approach To test the hypothesis, a model was designed with two antecedents of bank customer engagement (satisfaction and customer emotions), and two non-transactional behaviors (attitudinal loyalty and customer advocacy). The model was tested on a sample of 1,790 customers of two Spanish banks. Findings Results confirm bank customer engagement as the mediating variable between customer experience outcomes and non-transactional behaviors. Practical implications Banks should design physical spaces with an atmosphere that will have a positive impact on their customers, and pay particular attention to interactions with contact personnel and other customers present at that moment of truth. The new concept of the branch now being introduced looks to the future, transforming it into a place to attend to and advise customers, and designed to encourage and facilitate a more personal and enduring relationship. This transformation includes longer opening hours and a concept that appears to draw from the store model. Its design is more accessible, more agile, more welcoming and more digital, conceived to attract the customer’s attention from the first moment. Originality/value The contribution of this research is related to the analysis from a theoretical and empirical perspective of the mediating impact of customer engagement between customer experience outcomes (satisfaction and emotions during the service) and non-transactional behaviors (advocacy and attitudinal loyalty).