L’objet de cette thèse est d’apporter une contribution à la fois théorique et opérationnelle concernant la mesure de l’expérience vécue comme élément clé d’un véritable management de l’expérience client.Partant de la pratique, la démarche prend appui sur des recherches provenant de différents champs disciplinaires : économie et gestion des services, qualité, stratégie, marketing, management de la performance et apprentissage organisationnel.Nous proposons un modèle du management de l’expérience client comportant quatre dimensions en interaction : l’expérience voulue (par les dirigeants), l’expérience attendue (par les clients), l’expérience proposée (par l’entreprise), l’expérience vécue (par les clients).Nos propositions de recherche s’intéressent à la mesure des écarts entre l’expérience vécue et les autres dimensions. L'enjeu ne réside pas uniquement dans une description des écarts pouvant exister entre les objectifs fixés renvoyant à la théorie professée en matière d’expérience client (e.g. quelle expérience souhaite-t-on faire vivre aux clients ?) et la perception par les clients des réalisations renvoyant à la théorie d’usage de l’entreprise (e.g. quelle est l’expérience réellement proposée et comment celle-ci est-elle perçue par les clients ?). Il s'agit aussi d'analyser comment les entreprises peuvent réduire les écarts en s’engageant dans une démarche d’apprentissage organisationnel conduisant à un management de l’expérience client réussi. / The purpose of this thesis is to make both a theoretical and operational contribution, concerning the measure of the lived experience as a key factor to an effective customer experience management.Based on practice, our approach relies on research from different academic fields: economics and service management, quality management, strategy, marketing, performance management and organizational learning.The customer experience management model we offer has four interacting dimension: intended experience (by the managers), expected experience (by the customers), offered experience (by the company), lived experience (by the customers).Our research proposals are concerned with measuring the differences between the lived experience and the other dimensions. The issue is not only a description of the gaps that may exist between the objectives, referring to the espoused theory in customer experience (eg what is the experience we want to create for our clients?) and the customer’s perception of the achievements, referring to the theory-in-use of the company (eg what is the experience actually offered and how do customers perceive it?). The intention is to also examine how companies can reduce such gaps by engaging in a process of organizational learning leading to a successful customer experience management.

A comunicação boca a boca está fortalecendo-se e popularizando-se, principalmente a partir do advento das mídias sociais. A cultura da população em buscar informações referentes a produtos e serviços está cada vez mais forte, uma vez que a dose de incerteza na compra é grande, em especial em serviços ou serviços aplicados a produtos, por sua intangibilidade. Dessa forma, a comunicação boca a boca tradicional ou via mídias sociais tem se intensificado, tanto na busca quanto na emissão de opiniões. Neste contexto de mercado, uma das formas de uma empresa se tornar competitiva no mercado é criando um relacionamento a longo prazo com seus clientes, facilitando a existência de uma identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Partindo do cenário de serviços, este estudo tem o objetivo de avaliar as relações simultâneas entre três conceitos: experiência do consumidor com o serviço, identificação do consumidor com a empresa e o comportamento de recomendação deste consumidor. Este estudo teve por propósito avaliar estas relações, e, para isso, validou escalas para mensuração destes conceitos no contexto brasileiro. Foi aplicado um questionário online com 500 respondentes, sendo que o pré-requisito era que o respondente escolhesse um estabelecimento (bar ou restaurante) com o qual se identificasse. A análise de dados incluiu uma análise fatorial exploratória e uma confirmatória, dando seguimento à modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE por meio do software LISREL) para analisar a relação entre os três conceitos. Como resultados, encontrouse que tanto a identificação do consumidor com a empresa quanto a experiência do consumidor com o serviço possuem impacto no comportamento de recomendação, neste estudo, representado pelas dimensões de frequência e motivação para recomendar. Entretanto, ambos possuem maior impacto na motivação de recomendação do que na frequência. Ao comparar a identificação do consumidor com a empresa e a experiência do consumidor com o serviço, o primeiro possui uma maior influência nos constructos de recomendação, indicando que ainda que ambos tenham impacto no comportamento de recomendação, a criação de um relacionamento forte e embasado na identificação do consumidor com a empresa se torna um diferencial para a mesma. Com relação à validação das escalas utilizadas no estudo, tem-se que uma das escalas utilizadas para mensurar o constructo de identificação não possuiu validade convergente nem divergente, indicando sua fragilidade para seu uso na academia. / Word of mouth communication is becoming stronger and more popular mainly from the advent of social media. The consume culture of seeking for information about products and services has become very popular, especially when it is about services or services applied to products. The main characteristic of the services is its intangibility, which leads to a higher amount of uncertainty prior to purchasing. Thus, word of mouth communication via traditional or social media has been growing significantly both in pursuit and in issuing opinions. In this context, in order to gain competition, companies should focus on creating and developing a long term relationship with their clients, facilitating the identification of the consumer with the company. Based on the service scenario, this study aims to assess the simultaneous relationships among three different concepts: customer experience with the service, consumer-company identification and the consumer recommendation behavior. Therefore, validating the scales to measure these concepts in the Brazilian context was necessary to achieve the goals of this study. 500 people participated in an online survey about those three concepts. In the beginning of the survey, the respondent had to choose an establishment (a bar or a restaurant) with which he/she identified. Data analysis included an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, followed by the structural equation modeling (SEM using the LISREL software) in order to analyze the relationship between those three concepts. As a result, it was found that both concepts (consumer-company identification and consumer experience with the service) have a positive impact on the recommendation behavior of the consumer, represented on this study by the dimensions of frequency and motivation to recommend. However, both concepts had a greater impact on the motivation for recommending than on the frequency of recommendation. By comparing the performance of those two antecedents, consumer-company identification showed a greater influence on the dimensions of the recommendation behavior, indicating that although both concepts have an impact on this behavior, developing a strong relationship with the consumer becomes a differential for the establishment. Regarding the validation of the scales, one of the scales used to measure the construct of consumer-company identification did not possess convergent nor divergent validity, indicating its weakness to use it in other academic studies.

abstract: In two thematically related chapters, I explore the benefits incurred as companies actively respond to consumers who share positive word of mouth in digital environments (eWOM). This research takes a multi-method approach by first addressing the psychological impact of company response on the sharing consumer, followed by an examination of real behavioral consequences in a social media setting. Across six studies in Chapter 1, I find support for a conceptual model indicating that consumers who receive a company response to their positive eWOM experience greater satisfaction compared to no response, leading to increased intentions to engage in future positive eWOM on behalf of the company, both through social media and online review websites. Furthermore, I find that consumer perceptions of response personalization lead to judgments of company effort and that these two elements mediate the effect of response on consumer satisfaction. In Chapter 2, using a dataset of firm responses to positive consumer feedback on Twitter (tweets) from 79 apparel retailers, I find that company responses to positive consumer tweets can generate consumer engagement behavior in the form of continued interaction. Company responses that use consumer-oriented language increase the likelihood of consumer interactivity. However, this effectiveness depends on whether the consumer's audience is the company or their broader network of followers. I also show that, in some conditions, companies achieve higher consumer engagement by personalizing responses with the consumer's name. Together, the findings from these two chapters point to the need for companies to strategically practice positive eWOM management, both to promote consumer engagement behaviors and to avoid the negative outcomes associated with unresponsiveness. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2017

Augmented reality (AR) has emerged as a new interactive technology that enables marketers to craft an immersive experience for customers. The technology complaints the physical environment with virtual objects, and thus have the unique power to put the (virtual) product in the hands of the consumer. This provides marketers with a new option for reaching out and engaging with customers. Although the AR market is estimated to grow exponentially by the year 2023, little is known about how AR-applications on smart devices influence customer experience. This thesis addresses the research gap by exploring how IKEA Place, an AR-application, influences customer experience. By using a conceptual framework of online customer experience we explore how different antecedents influence the experience with AR. Furthermore, the study also highlight the differences between a website and an AR-application, and thus give a more nuanced understanding about AR. As the majority of the research on AR-technology has a quantitative approach, this study was done through a qualitative study using a quasi-experimental design. The empirical result indicates that aesthetics, ease-of-use, telepresence and assortment influence customer experience extensively. Moreover, the result also suggests that hedonic value influences the augmented experience more than the utilitarian, and thus customers do not perceive the application to fulfil their utility needs.

A comunicação boca a boca está fortalecendo-se e popularizando-se, principalmente a partir do advento das mídias sociais. A cultura da população em buscar informações referentes a produtos e serviços está cada vez mais forte, uma vez que a dose de incerteza na compra é grande, em especial em serviços ou serviços aplicados a produtos, por sua intangibilidade. Dessa forma, a comunicação boca a boca tradicional ou via mídias sociais tem se intensificado, tanto na busca quanto na emissão de opiniões. Neste contexto de mercado, uma das formas de uma empresa se tornar competitiva no mercado é criando um relacionamento a longo prazo com seus clientes, facilitando a existência de uma identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Partindo do cenário de serviços, este estudo tem o objetivo de avaliar as relações simultâneas entre três conceitos: experiência do consumidor com o serviço, identificação do consumidor com a empresa e o comportamento de recomendação deste consumidor. Este estudo teve por propósito avaliar estas relações, e, para isso, validou escalas para mensuração destes conceitos no contexto brasileiro. Foi aplicado um questionário online com 500 respondentes, sendo que o pré-requisito era que o respondente escolhesse um estabelecimento (bar ou restaurante) com o qual se identificasse. A análise de dados incluiu uma análise fatorial exploratória e uma confirmatória, dando seguimento à modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE por meio do software LISREL) para analisar a relação entre os três conceitos. Como resultados, encontrouse que tanto a identificação do consumidor com a empresa quanto a experiência do consumidor com o serviço possuem impacto no comportamento de recomendação, neste estudo, representado pelas dimensões de frequência e motivação para recomendar. Entretanto, ambos possuem maior impacto na motivação de recomendação do que na frequência. Ao comparar a identificação do consumidor com a empresa e a experiência do consumidor com o serviço, o primeiro possui uma maior influência nos constructos de recomendação, indicando que ainda que ambos tenham impacto no comportamento de recomendação, a criação de um relacionamento forte e embasado na identificação do consumidor com a empresa se torna um diferencial para a mesma. Com relação à validação das escalas utilizadas no estudo, tem-se que uma das escalas utilizadas para mensurar o constructo de identificação não possuiu validade convergente nem divergente, indicando sua fragilidade para seu uso na academia. / Word of mouth communication is becoming stronger and more popular mainly from the advent of social media. The consume culture of seeking for information about products and services has become very popular, especially when it is about services or services applied to products. The main characteristic of the services is its intangibility, which leads to a higher amount of uncertainty prior to purchasing. Thus, word of mouth communication via traditional or social media has been growing significantly both in pursuit and in issuing opinions. In this context, in order to gain competition, companies should focus on creating and developing a long term relationship with their clients, facilitating the identification of the consumer with the company. Based on the service scenario, this study aims to assess the simultaneous relationships among three different concepts: customer experience with the service, consumer-company identification and the consumer recommendation behavior. Therefore, validating the scales to measure these concepts in the Brazilian context was necessary to achieve the goals of this study. 500 people participated in an online survey about those three concepts. In the beginning of the survey, the respondent had to choose an establishment (a bar or a restaurant) with which he/she identified. Data analysis included an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, followed by the structural equation modeling (SEM using the LISREL software) in order to analyze the relationship between those three concepts. As a result, it was found that both concepts (consumer-company identification and consumer experience with the service) have a positive impact on the recommendation behavior of the consumer, represented on this study by the dimensions of frequency and motivation to recommend. However, both concepts had a greater impact on the motivation for recommending than on the frequency of recommendation. By comparing the performance of those two antecedents, consumer-company identification showed a greater influence on the dimensions of the recommendation behavior, indicating that although both concepts have an impact on this behavior, developing a strong relationship with the consumer becomes a differential for the establishment. Regarding the validation of the scales, one of the scales used to measure the construct of consumer-company identification did not possess convergent nor divergent validity, indicating its weakness to use it in other academic studies.

A comunicação boca a boca está fortalecendo-se e popularizando-se, principalmente a partir do advento das mídias sociais. A cultura da população em buscar informações referentes a produtos e serviços está cada vez mais forte, uma vez que a dose de incerteza na compra é grande, em especial em serviços ou serviços aplicados a produtos, por sua intangibilidade. Dessa forma, a comunicação boca a boca tradicional ou via mídias sociais tem se intensificado, tanto na busca quanto na emissão de opiniões. Neste contexto de mercado, uma das formas de uma empresa se tornar competitiva no mercado é criando um relacionamento a longo prazo com seus clientes, facilitando a existência de uma identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Partindo do cenário de serviços, este estudo tem o objetivo de avaliar as relações simultâneas entre três conceitos: experiência do consumidor com o serviço, identificação do consumidor com a empresa e o comportamento de recomendação deste consumidor. Este estudo teve por propósito avaliar estas relações, e, para isso, validou escalas para mensuração destes conceitos no contexto brasileiro. Foi aplicado um questionário online com 500 respondentes, sendo que o pré-requisito era que o respondente escolhesse um estabelecimento (bar ou restaurante) com o qual se identificasse. A análise de dados incluiu uma análise fatorial exploratória e uma confirmatória, dando seguimento à modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE por meio do software LISREL) para analisar a relação entre os três conceitos. Como resultados, encontrouse que tanto a identificação do consumidor com a empresa quanto a experiência do consumidor com o serviço possuem impacto no comportamento de recomendação, neste estudo, representado pelas dimensões de frequência e motivação para recomendar. Entretanto, ambos possuem maior impacto na motivação de recomendação do que na frequência. Ao comparar a identificação do consumidor com a empresa e a experiência do consumidor com o serviço, o primeiro possui uma maior influência nos constructos de recomendação, indicando que ainda que ambos tenham impacto no comportamento de recomendação, a criação de um relacionamento forte e embasado na identificação do consumidor com a empresa se torna um diferencial para a mesma. Com relação à validação das escalas utilizadas no estudo, tem-se que uma das escalas utilizadas para mensurar o constructo de identificação não possuiu validade convergente nem divergente, indicando sua fragilidade para seu uso na academia. / Word of mouth communication is becoming stronger and more popular mainly from the advent of social media. The consume culture of seeking for information about products and services has become very popular, especially when it is about services or services applied to products. The main characteristic of the services is its intangibility, which leads to a higher amount of uncertainty prior to purchasing. Thus, word of mouth communication via traditional or social media has been growing significantly both in pursuit and in issuing opinions. In this context, in order to gain competition, companies should focus on creating and developing a long term relationship with their clients, facilitating the identification of the consumer with the company. Based on the service scenario, this study aims to assess the simultaneous relationships among three different concepts: customer experience with the service, consumer-company identification and the consumer recommendation behavior. Therefore, validating the scales to measure these concepts in the Brazilian context was necessary to achieve the goals of this study. 500 people participated in an online survey about those three concepts. In the beginning of the survey, the respondent had to choose an establishment (a bar or a restaurant) with which he/she identified. Data analysis included an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, followed by the structural equation modeling (SEM using the LISREL software) in order to analyze the relationship between those three concepts. As a result, it was found that both concepts (consumer-company identification and consumer experience with the service) have a positive impact on the recommendation behavior of the consumer, represented on this study by the dimensions of frequency and motivation to recommend. However, both concepts had a greater impact on the motivation for recommending than on the frequency of recommendation. By comparing the performance of those two antecedents, consumer-company identification showed a greater influence on the dimensions of the recommendation behavior, indicating that although both concepts have an impact on this behavior, developing a strong relationship with the consumer becomes a differential for the establishment. Regarding the validation of the scales, one of the scales used to measure the construct of consumer-company identification did not possess convergent nor divergent validity, indicating its weakness to use it in other academic studies.

Background: Due to arising shifts in customers’ digital expectations, businesses need to adapt current strategies to dynamic environments in order to stay competitive in today’s digital era. These shifts, which are to set new directions for entire industries, is also known as a digital transformation. To digitally transform a firm entails both opportunities to thrive and challenges to face. The technological advances create a need for new roles and skills to be mastered. In addition, the rise of the sharing economy has led to the need for certain industries to adapt accordingly, including the car rental industry. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the identification of necessary internal and external factors that firms need to consider in order to digitally transform their services. Further, this study aims to provide guidelines for firms aspiring to transform their service to become a MSP. Methodology: This study has adopted a qualitative research strategy and the design of a single case study of a car rental company. In order to collect empirical data, semi- structured interviews were conducted within related fields. Conclusion: The authors of this study have identified prominent internal and external factors within the fields of digital transformation and MaaS. In addition, the authors have come to the conclusion that the identified factors possess different levels of impact within each perspective, which is illustrated through a constructed analysis model. To conclude, this study has contributed with guidelines regarding possible strategies a traditional car rental company could implement in order to transform its business to become a MSP.

Today’s society is earmarked by developments in technology so drastic, that our lives are continuously changed, impacted and remolded. When thinking about how many impressions one goes through during a single day, the results will be uncountable. And at an increasing pace, many of these impressions are shifting to the digital realm. This thesis acknowledges these rapid changes in the modern world of marketing, particularly the digital aspects of it. Yet while a great amount of research has been conducted to more closely understand digital marketing and how to conduct it, a significantly little amount of research has been spent focusing on the customer. This while the path that a customer takes from need to purchase may have grown to be more complex than ever. Not all the impressions that a customer gains on a certain product or brand come solely from the company behind it. As such, we decided to focus on exploring this customer journey – a relatively nascent theme in the field of marketing research. More specifically, we aim to answer the following research question: How is the customer purchasing decision affected by the customer’s interaction with touch points throughout the customer journey? Our main purpose was to arrive at a model as an answer to the research question, that could be used as a foundation for future research studies. We were intensely curious at gaining a better understanding of the customer journey and what the customers experience as they are touched by different influential channels during their travel from need to purchase. Our study shows that it is possible to synthesize the state of current research on the topic of the customer journey and support it with empirical data gathered from interviews with a variety of customers. Central to our thesis are the following two definitions that we have constructed based on current literature: The customer journey is the individual experience that a customer has when interacting with touch points in the path from a pre-purchase to a post-purchase setting. Touch points are moments of contact between customer and company that individually and collectively influence customer experience. The third critical element is that of the customer experience, which we don’t explicitly define, but implicitly construe as a distinct construct with a powerful impact by serving as the catalyst between touch points and customer actions and perceptions.The result is a conceptual model of the customer journey that we feel could be a foundation for future research on the customer journey to build upon and perhaps one day could serve as an overarching model for marketing as a whole.

The buying process has become an important outcome for firms to adapt to the changes in B2B buying. With an increased focus on delivering new customer experiences, firms are finding themselves with lots of customer data that needs to be analyzed. Prior literature has found that technology such as artificial intelligence could be the next logical step in marketing for analyzing and managing customer data but sees slow adoption. This study examined how artificial intelligence can be used to attract and retain B2B customers in the buying process. Empirical data was collected as a multiple caste study with semistructured interviews from B2B salespeople, sales managers, CEOs, CFOs and administrators. The data were analyzed through a thematic analysis. Participants expressed a strong interest in efforts that could affect the relationship such as better engagement, enhanced user experience and information to better meet the needs. Throughout the buying process, many of these efforts could influence the final decision and is believed to be critical in attracting but also maintaining customer relationships. These results have implications for implementing artificial intelligence at firms since it creates a better understanding of the customers' wants and needs and how to correspond to it digitally. Based on the empirical findings, this study contributes with a model that shows the relation of artificial intelligence, customer data and the buying process.

This bachelor thesis explores a virtual try-on interface in the context of the fashion product category. It is argued that virtual representations of product offerings can stimulate consumers’ purchase intentions, and thus, enact an online transaction. The purpose is to investigate how market-based AR/VR influences the behavior of consumers along the customer journey. A qualitative research approach was undertaken to answer the exploratory question. The context of the empirical bachelor thesis is the virtual try-on Synsam Style Lab where two qualitative research methods were conducted. These methods consisted of a document study on Synsam Style Lab and three synchronous online focus group interviews that laid the foundation of the thematic analysis. The purpose of conducting these qualitative research methods was to shed light on whether or not Synsam Style Lab could facilitate consumers’ online buying decision process. Consumers who saw convenience in Synsam Style Lab often expressed reasons related to the theme Alleviate. On the contrary, if consumers interaction with Synsam’s virtual try-on yielded negative experience, then their reasons were often in connection with the theme Insufficiency.  The context of this bachelor thesis is restricted to the fashion eyewear segment and does not represent the total fashion industry. Only members of Generation Y, also known as millennials, participated in the synchronous online focus group interviews. Therefore, incorporating the perspectives of other demographics could contribute to a diversified discovery of findings. Previous research has not explicitly investigated the influence of AR/VR applications on consumers’ engagement in a fashion retail setting. Hence, this bachelor thesis provides new dimensions within the field of market-based AR/VR applications.