How can firms retain customers during recessions? To answer this question, we investigate the moderating role of consumer confidence (CC) on the effects of three types of crucial customer loyalty strategies. These strategies are value equity (VE), brand equity (BE), and relationship equity (RE), collectively called customer equity drivers (CEDs). We build on economics and marketing theories to develop our hypotheses on the concerned moderating role. A meta-analysis is used to synthesize the multilevel results of 13 service industries and to test the hypotheses. In addition, we use several robustness checks to validate the findings of the meta-analysis. The results consistently show that CC partly influences the effects of CEDs on customer loyalty and this influence varies across industries. These findings suggest that managers in service industries should consider CC as an important criterion for effectively adjusting customer loyalty strategies to their specific situation. Specifically, during recessions, when CC is relatively low, VE is effective for retaining customers, but this is more apparent for noncontractual settings than for contractual settings. Also, BE is more effective but only for noncontractual firms.

The interplay of customer experience and commitment STRUCTURED ABSTRACT Purpose -This research examines the customer experience through the lens of customer commitment and provides a framework for future research into the intersection of these emerging streams of research. Design/methodology/approach -This research contributes to theoretical and practical perspectives on the customer experience (CE) and its measurement by integrating extant literature with customer commitment and customer satisfaction literature. Findings -The breadth of the domains that encompass the customer experiencecognitive, emotional, physical, sensorial, and social-makes simplistic metrics impossible for gauging the entirety of customers' experiences. These findings provide strong support of the need for new research into CE and customer commitment. Practical implications -Given the complexity of the CE concept, managers are unlikely to track and manage all relevant elements of CE. This research provides a framework identifying empirically the most salient attributes of the CE with particular emphasis on those elements that enhance commitment to the firm or brand. This should offer insight into service design to correspond with specific commitment and experience dimensions. Originality/value -This research is the first to examine the customer experience through the lens of customer commitment-a key factor in customer loyalty, positive word of mouth and other desired outcomes for managers and marketers. We provide a framework for future research into this emerging topic. The interplay of customer experience and commitmentCustomer Experience Management (CEM) is being hailed as the next competitive battleground for firms to grow market share. In fact, research by Gartner finds that by 2017, 89%of companies plan to compete primarily on the basis of the customer experience (CE) (Gartner, 2016). Moreover, a new industry of CEM professionals has recently emerged to address the rapidly growing demand by businesses for expertise in the field.Despite this emphasis, however, there is no general consensus among managers or academics regarding what comprises the CE. As a result, it is difficult to ascertain its boundaries (e.g., how it differs from customer engagement, customer value, etc.). Consequently, there exists no consensus regarding the aspects of the CE that require assessment and metrics.This article addresses these issues by investigating the experience construct. We do this by building on the definition of CE of De Keyser et al. (2015): "Customer experience is comprised of the cognitive, emotional, physical, sensorial, and social elements that mark the customer's direct or indirect interaction with a [set of] market actor[s]" (p. 1). Specifically, we focus on customer assessment in the cognitive, emotional, physical, sensorial, and social domains as they relate to CE and, where possible, describe metrics designed to measure these assessments.Since the overriding goal of companies' efforts to enhance the CE is to engender commitment ...

Customer equity drivers (CEDs)-value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity-positively affect loyalty intentions, but this effect varies across industries and firms. We empirically examine potential industry and firm characteristics that explain why the CEDs-loyalty link varies across services industries and firms in the Netherlands. The results show that (1) some previously assumed industry and firm characteristics have moderating effects while others do not and (2) firm-level advertising expenditures constitute the most crucial moderator because they influence all three loyalty strategies (significant for value equity and brand equity; marginally significant for relationship equity), while three industry contexts (i.e., innovative markets, visibility to others, and complexity of purchase decisions) each influence two of the three loyalty strategies. Our results clearly show that specific industry and firm characteristics affect the effectiveness of specific loyalty strategies.

The impact of positive and negative emotions on loyalty intentions and their interactions with customer equity drivers Ou, Yi-Chun; Verhoef, Peter C.

The aim of this study is to examine how and when narcissism and faith in humanity simultaneously influence product reuse. Despite its critical role in promoting sustainability, scholars have paid scant attention to product reuse as a reliable aspect of sustainable consumer behavior. Moreover, research on personality traits as drivers of sustainable consumption has mostly focused on the Big Five personality traits. We posit that the effects of consumers' narcissism and faith in humanity on product reuse are explained by social exclusion and are conditional on subjective norms. We test our hypotheses using two experiments and three cross-sectional surveys. We find that while narcissism has a negative effect on product reuse, faith in humanity has a positive effect on product reuse. We also observe that social exclusion mediates the effects of narcissism and faith in humanity, and that subjective norms positively moderate the relationships between narcissism and product reuse. This study highlights the importance of product reuse as a key indicator of sustainable consumption and offers novel insights into the how and when consumers engage in product reuse.

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