THE RISING VALUE OF CUSTOMER CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

Abstract

Purpose- Customer citizenship behavior (CCB) is an increasingly important behavior in the digital marketing context. This behavior positively affects company performance and also provides benefits for other customers. In this study, CCB is handled in the context of mobile applications through mobile food ordering applications example in order to understand its reflections in the digital world. The aim of this study is to propose a conceptual model that shows how customer citizenship behavior can be revealed in mobile applications. Methodology- The population of research consists of customers who experience mobile applications used to order food from various restaurants and cafes. It is aimed to reach these customers through an online survey method. The questionnaire will be created through the adaptation of the scales accepted in the consumer behavior literature; it will also include questions for understanding demographics. In the first part of the survey, in addition to information such as age, gender, education level, and monthly average income, questions such as whether they used a mobile food ordering application before, which mobile application they last used, how long, and how often they used this application will be asked. It is planned to include scale expressions to be used for testing hypotheses in the second part of the questionnaire. With the help of the data to be obtained as a result of the online survey analysis, scale validity and reliability tests will be carried out, and the relationships predicted in the relevant model will be tested with the structural equation modeling. In this context, SPSS and AMOS programs will be used. Findings- Within the scope of the study, a conceptual model is presented to explore the emergence of customer citizenship behavior in the context of mobile food ordering applications. This model focuses on the customer experience in these applications as a starting point. In this conceptual model, customer experience dimensions are discussed as education, entertainment, escape, and aesthetic factors. It is estimated that these experience factors are positively related to customer satisfaction; it is predicted that customer satisfaction will also positively affect brand commitment and mobile application commitment. It is thought that this two-way customer commitment will eventually lead to customer citizenship behavior towards the relevant application and restaurant brand. It is believed that as a result of testing the presented propositions, useful findings will be obtained for businesses to gain competitive advantage. Conclusion- The proposed model will make significant contributions to both service businesses such as restaurants/cafes, mobile application developers, and customer citizenship behavior researchers. The findings regarding the relationship between the dimensions of experience and satisfaction will contribute to the regulations and improvements to be made in the relevant sector in an increasingly difficult competitive environment. Understanding the commitment of customers who are satisfied with their experience to the brand and/or mobile application shows a way to establish a long-term relationship between the customer and the business and to make this relationship sustainable. The study will also contribute to the industries in which businesses using food ordering applications operate, by exploiting new potential markets for online purchasing, obtaining an improvement strategy for online services, and making new investment decisions. In addition, this study will contribute to the fields of marketing and consumer behavior by expanding the literature on mobile food ordering applications and customer citizenship behavior, about which there is no intensive literature study yet, although there has been an increasing interest in the digital world recently. These contributions will continue by drawing attention to the variables within the scope of the proposed model, examining the relationships between them, and obtaining the findings through the relevant tests to be carried out in the future. Keywords: Customer citizenship behavior, customer experience, commitment, satisfaction, mobile food ordering applications. JEL Codes: M10, M30, M31