Exploring customer experience, commitment, and engagement behaviours

Abstract

ABSTRACT The creation of strong customer experiences is a pivotal topic in the services marketing field, as customer experience (CX) has repeatedly been associated with customer commitment and customer engagement behaviours. However, the relationship between these constructs and their different roles – including their respective sub-components – in the customer purchase journey have received little research attention. To address this shortcoming, the authors propose a theoretical framework delineating the constructs’ relationships in a retail context. To test this framework, data were collected from Australian retail customers and subsequently analysed with PLS path modelling techniques. The results show that the explored constructs and their sub-components, although interrelated, have different performance effects. More specifically, the findings suggest that CX positively affects customer commitment, which in turn positively affects customer engagement behaviours, whereas a more nuanced picture emerges for the construct’s sub-dimensions. The study contributes to marketing theory and practice and concludes with limitations and future research directions.