PurposeContemporary firms are increasingly focusing on enhancing the customer experience (CX) to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. However, despite the rapid growth of CX research from both the customer's and the firm's perspectives, the intellectual structure of CX research remains tenuous, thus requiring further investigation. Addressing this gap, the authors review and map the existing corpus of CX literature, from which important implications are drawn.Design/methodology/approachAfter inventorizing the CX literature (1997–2021), the authors apply bibliometric (e.g. co-citation) analysis to identify key CX articles and pertinent CX-publishing journals, followed by the identification of key CX research themes through network analysis.FindingsThe authors first document chief CX-publishing journals and articles and identify their respective contributions. The authors, then, derive five core CX themes, including CX through the customer journey, S-D Logic-informed CX, interactive service–based CX, CX in the servicescape and CX and consumption. The authors conclude by developing an agenda for future CX research based on the study findings.Originality/valueBy offering a pioneering analysis of the corpus of CX research (1997–2021), these analyses offer a pertinent theoretical contribution.
Monitoring buyer experience provides competitive advantages for suppliers as buyers explore the market before reaching a salesperson. Still, not many B2B suppliers monitor their buyers’ expectations throughout their procurement journey, especially in MSMEs and SMEs. In addition, the inductive research on evaluating buyer experience in buyer–supplier relationships is minimal, leaving an unexplored research area. This study explores antecedents of buyer experience during the buyer–supplier relationship in MSMEs and SMEs. Further, we investigate the nature of the influence of extracted precursors on the buyer experience. Firstly, we obtain the possible antecedents from the literature on buyer–supplier experience and supplier selection criteria. We also establish hypotheses based on transaction cost theory, resource-based view (RBV), and information processing view. Secondly, we employ an investigation based on the social media analytics-based approach to uncover the antecedents of buyer experience and their nature of influence on MSMEs and SME suppliers. We found that buyer experience is influenced by sustainable orientation, management capabilities (such as crisis management and process innovation), and suppliers’ technology capabilities (digital readiness, big data analytical capability).
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