Customer Empowerment Research Articles

Customer Empowerment and Engagement Behaviours Influencing Value for FinTech Customers: An Empirical Study from India

The article aims to study the impact of consumer empowerment on customer engagement behaviours (CEBs) and their effect on customer value in the FinTech industry of India. A cross-sectional analytical study was carried out to collect data from 380 Indian FinTech app users using a survey questionnaire. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method was applied to test the conceptual model. This is one of the first research studies during the COVID-19 pandemic to show that customer-empowered behaviours predict positive CEBs such as reviews and testimonials, which then contribute to customer value. The indirect effects indicate that CEB mediates the relationship between customer empowerment and value. This study also operationalizes and validates customer engagement behaviour as a formative higher-order construct formed by four dimensions such as customers’ social media influence, form/modality, the scope and channel of engagement. To create customer value, FinTech practitioners and e-marketers should foster online communities and identify and manage customers’ need for control and empowerment for a particular service or product under study thus guiding them in designing customized marketing strategies. The study directs academicians and researchers to build engagement models that can enforce positive CEBs namely e-word of mouth, customer reviews and testimonials.

Investigation of Community Energy Business Models from an Institutional Perspective: Intermediaries and Policy Instruments in Selected Cases of Developing and Developed Countries

Community energy development and the empowerment of customers as producers are the main contributors to decentralized market solutions in energy transition policy. Despite the growing literature on community energy projects from the perspectives of various business models, drivers, and barriers, few studies display the impact of institutional factors on the community energy business model configuration. Using insights from Ostrom’s institutional framework, this study develops a conceptual framework comprising policy instruments and the intermediaries that configure the various community energy business models, and it examines this framework in the developed world of northwestern European countries (Germany, Denmark, Belgium, and the UK) and in selected cases in developing countries (Rural Central America, South Africa, Iran, and Indonesia). The findings indicate that ambitious renewable energy consumption targets and national policies in northern EU countries have resulted in political and financial incentives, as well as greater financial security than other investment markets, which encourage citizens to contribute to the proliferation of community energy. On the other hand, in the studied developing countries, top-down energy policies and a centralized energy system are insufficient for participatory energy planning. Due to unsupportive policies, a lack of appropriate regulatory frameworks, and a lack of institutional support in these countries, the initiation of community energy projects requires the presence of intermediaries such as developers who work ‘in-between’ other actors, such as energy providers, users, or regulators.

Why do consumers engage in a social media brand community: investigating the effect of psychological empowerment on commitment and loyalty

Purpose This study aims to use empowerment theory to examine the relationship between a user's engagement type (active or passive) and psychological empowerment (intrapersonal and interactional) in the context of a social media brand community (SMBC). This study also looks at the impact of psychological empowerment on brand community commitment (CC) and brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach Convenience and snowball sampling were used to select respondents from mobile phone brand communities in India. The conceptual model was tested using structure equation modelling. Findings According to the study findings, active user involvement in SMBC is strongly associated to both intrapersonal and interactional empowerment (IE), but passive user engagement is weakly related to IE. Furthermore, customer empowerment and CC have a strong impact on brand CC and brand loyalty. Practical implications SMBC is now a significant point of contact for building strong consumer–brand relationships. SMBC members who are actively involved in the community have greater emotional bonding, trust and commitment to the brand. Therefore, social media marketers should encourage their customers to get involved in a brand community and empower them by involving them in brand related decision, etc. This will help the community grow and thrive. Originality/value This study addresses a research gap by examining how active and passive members of an SMBC facilitate both focal points of psychological empowerment (intrapersonal and interactional), which increase the brand community's commitment and brand loyalty.

IKEA vs Trophy effect – an experimental comparison

Purpose What if companies try to combine the IKEA and Trophy winner effects? The purpose of this study is to understand the similarities and differences between both effects. This is not only theoretically but also practically important for the way that companies interact with their customers. Design/methodology/approach Successful work – invested either to create or to obtain a product – increases the customers’ valuation of the product. This phenomenon known as the IKEA or Trophy winner effect. This study directly compares both effects using experiments with two different products (paper planes and 3D puzzles). Moreover, this study tests whether they reinforce each other. Findings The Trophy winner effect looms larger than the IKEA effect for inexpensive items. For slightly more expensive products, this study finds a Trophy loser effect. Positive emotions of trophy winners drive the results for inexpensive products, whereas negative emotions of trophy losers drive the results for slightly more expensive products. Research limitations/implications The relevance of the IKEA and Trophy effects is influenced by the type of product. Customers’ labor invested in the product itself is of greater importance the more expensive the product is. As soon as customers interpret the interaction with other customers as competition, the effect on valuation can be substantial even for inexpensive products. Future studies could try to replicate our results with different product categories. Originality/value Although the IKEA and Trophy effects are no new phenomena in consumer psychology and behavioral economics, they have not been compared to each other or combined yet. The results are useful for researchers and practitioners alike. They yield implications for product customization and customer empowerment.

Fear of COVID-19 and green bank service purchase intention: the mediating effect of customer empowerment and customers’ perceived value of digital service transactions

PurposeThe paper intends to show the role of fear of COVID-19 and the relevance of customer empowerment (CU_EMP) and customers’ perceived value of digital service transactions (CU_PV_DST) in promoting green bank service purchase intention (GBS_PI), despite the antagonistic impacts brought in other sectors and the relevance of customer empowerment (CU_EMP) and customers’ perceived value of digital service transactions (CU_PV_DST) as important mediating variables of the relation.Design/methodology/approachThe structured questionnaire helped collect survey data from 323 small business people. The model relationship was assessed through EFA, CFA by SPSS-AMOS and SEM using bootstrapping procedures in Smart-PLS.FindingsThe findings of this study show that there is a significant effect of fear of COVID-19 pandemic (F_COVID-19P) on CU_EMP and GBS_PI. CU_EMP influences GBS_PI, whereas F_COVID-19P influences GBS_PI indirectly via CU_EMP. Furthermore, there is a substantial effect of F_COVID-19P on CU_PV_DST and GBS_PI. Thus, F_COVID-19P significantly influences GBS_PI indirectly via CU_PV_DST.Practical implicationsCapitalizing on the COVID-19 wave by empowering customers technologically, improving the legal framework and increasing the perceived value of green service by using an innovative mechanism. In addition, fostering cultural change and emphasizing altruistic values through green advertisements have been explored in this study.Social implicationsGreen services are healthier for smart/green economy and are health-protective for coping with health risks.Originality/valueThis study helps in understanding the theories used in this context by linking them to F_COVID-19P with CU_EMP, CU_PV_DST and GBS_PI and contributes to the literature of both. Furthermore, this is the only study that has used SEM to study this kind of interrelation.

Revealing the factors of re-patronage intention: true behavioral insights in hotel customers

PurposeThe rapid shift in the emerging pedagogies of customer behavior has changed the business preferences in the hotel sector. This study prioritizes the hotel's main task to develop customer re-patronage intention. Keeping in line with these factors, this study investigates the impact of customer empowerment on re-patronage intentions through customer value co-creation in the hotel sector of Pakistan. Furthermore, the study examines the moderating impact of sensation-seeking on customers.Design/methodology/approachA total of 350 potential customers participated in the online survey using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Partial least square structural equation modeling was employed using Smart PLS-3 to test the projected hypotheses.FindingsThis study reveals that empowered customers improve their behavior and involvement in value co-creation, which, in turn, increases the prospects of re-patronage intention. Moreover, sensation-seeking moderates between consumer empowerment and customer value co-creation.Research limitations/implicationsCustomer-dominant logic and sense-making theory present interesting insights where customer empowerment and value co-creation have a positively significant impact on customer re-patronage intention. Findings also elaborate on a significant mediating role of customer value co-creation activities, which is an interesting call for hotel managers to add thought-sharing ecosystems. The suggested factors add long-lasting results in terms of revenues, performance and global GDP.Practical implicationsIt provides guidance for the hotel managers through novel factors that activate the customer to augment an intention to re-patron. Moreover, it provides a direction to add sensation-seeking strategies that strengthen the effects on customer empowerment and value co-creation.Originality/valueThis study has its uniqueness in introducing an environment in hotels where customers are empowered to further actively participate in value co-creation initiatives, along with sensation-seeking acting as a stimulus among them. These factors have greatly impacted the hotel's objectives (i.e. re-patronage intention).

Mobile money as a driver of digital financial inclusion

Meeting the mobile money needs of the less privileged in developing and emerging markets opens up enormous possibilities for banks and newly emerged financial-technology firms. Many consider mobile money services a separate domain within the banking and payment sector, different from its siblings: automated teller machines, net banking, point-of-sale banking, etc. This study was conducted to investigate how mobile money services act as a reliable driver of digital financial inclusion and to determine the role of mobile money agents in the transformation from the traditional services to mobile money services. This paper presents a conceptual model based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm. We propose that the mobile money agent characteristics are the stimuli, that the mobile money customer is the organism, and that the response of the organism to the stimuli is continuous usage, which leads to financial inclusion in the developing country of Ghana. The continuous usage of mobile money services by customers encourages more engagement experiences and advocacy intentions. We provide empirical evidence suggesting that mobile money agent credibility and service quality stimulate customer empowerment. Furthermore, we argue that for the less financially empowered customer segment, mobile money agent credibility provides the needed impetus for the continuous usage of mobile money services.

Impulse buying behaviour in omnichannel retail: an approach through the stimulus-organism-response theory

PurposeThis study investigates impulse buying as a consumer behaviour outcome in omnichannel retail through the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory. For such, the authors addressed convenience and channel integration as the stimuli, the relationship among consumer empowerment, trust, satisfaction, and perceived value as the organism, and impulse buying as the response.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted with 229 customers of a Brazilian retailer that adopts the omnichannel strategy. Data were analysed by partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).FindingsChannel integration and convenience had a positive influence on consumer empowerment which, in turn, influenced customer satisfaction and trust, producing direct and indirect effects on their perception of value relative to the retailer. In addition, impulsive buying was significantly influenced by perceived value.Practical implicationsThe results indicate that retailers that use the omnichannel strategy need to be alert to the factors mentioned above. The study empirically demonstrates that investing in channel integration increases customer empowerment, which will significantly improve customer trust and satisfaction and, eventually, customer impulse buying from the retailer.Originality/valueThis work contributes to the literature on marketing and consumer behaviour by identifying factors that influence consumers' impulse buying behaviour in the context of omnichannel retail. It suggests that impulse buying may be a relevant variable to understand the reaction of consumers empowered by the integration of the marketing channels and the convenience offered to them in an omnichannel retail environment.

Converting tourists into evangelists: Exploring the role of tourists’ participation in value co-creation in enhancing brand evangelism, empowerment, and commitment

Drawing on the theory of engagement, the present study aims to examine the outcomes of participation in value co-creation in soft sports tourism, specifically hiking. To this end, the current research links the relationship marketing literature to tourism research and formulates a novel framework by incorporating tourists’ participation in value co-creation, brand evangelism, customer empowerment, and affective commitment in an integrated conceptual model. Using a quantitative research design, a total of 893 international tourists were surveyed in China. The findings revealed that participation in value co-creation dimensions positively impact brand evangelism, customer empowerment, and affective commitment. Additionally, we found that customer empowerment and affective commitment positively affect brand evangelism. We also confirmed the mediating effect of customer empowerment and affective commitment in bridging the participation in value co-creation and brand evangelism. This study offers valuable insights for brand managers regarding attracting and engaging foreign travelers with their service businesses.

A Framework for Customer Engagement Behaviour in the Financial Services Industry : A Critical Review of Evidence

In the post-COVID era, while the use of technology-enabled contactless financial services is growing, it is more critical than ever to match the rising customer expectations by aiding customers in making the best decisions and fulfilling their aspirations. The paper’s objective was to critically review published research on the antecedents of non-transactional customer engagement behaviors (CEBs), such as relationship quality, emotions, customer empowerment, and the influence of the CEBs on customer loyalty and advocacy in the financial services industry. Relevant online databases were comprehensively searched through Boolean search, reviewed critically, and synthesized narratively. The guidelines of PICO (participants, interventions, comparisons, outcomes) were followed. The final results indicated that an empowered, satisfied, highly pre-dispositional customer possessing different affective states and trust reciprocated positive engagement behaviors (CEBs). The positive CEBs build attitudinal loyalty and advocacy behaviors that create value in the long term. This review guided on managing customer tendencies to positively and emotionally engage with the product and brand in many ways, such as reviews and testimonials, to curtail switch-over behaviors, encourage customer advocacy, and loyalty behaviors.

What Causes Product Returns in Online Purchases? A Review and Research Agenda

The growth in e-commerce is an opportunity, but the resulting product return is a challenge. The complex and multidimensional nature of product return influences the manufacturer, product, retailer, channel, return policy, logistics service provider, customers, or any combination thereof. Compared to other economies, the level of product return is high in an emerging economy like India, which prompted this structured literature review. The literature pointed to the product return as a ‘moment of truth’ involving emerging practices like buy online return in store (BORIS), wardrobing, renting, bracketing, home-try programs, subscription than buy, and sending of curated choices to customers, which drastically change purchases as well as returns. The return policy, dynamic pricing, website design and usability, product category, and inventory visibility influence product returns. Fraudulent returns are of concern compared to legitimate returns. Customer attitude, informationseeking behavior, post-purchase dissonance, individual and group decisions, and different temporal variables make customers sensitive to return. Additionally, the product utility, competitive and comparative value, perceived fairness, and customer empowerment also influence returns. Switching physical processes to online creates an additional challenge. A comprehensive understanding of product return in online purchase situations is expected to create value for customers and agents in the value chain. Effective information sharing across the value chain and within an organization can adjust the inevitable product returns to an optimal level and ensure multi-channel interoperability.

How do the various components of interaction orientation affect export performance?

Interaction orientation is a key element in modern marketing practices because it emphasizes focusing on individual customers as opposed to emphasizing customer segments. However, the majority of the literature has examined its use only in a B2C context rather than in a B2B context. Interaction orientation is comprised of several components: customer concept, interaction response capacity and customer empowerment. To help improve our understanding of interaction orientation in a B2B context, we decompose the components and utilize PLS-SEM analysis to identify how each component influences satisfaction with export performance. We also investigate how the degree to which the exporter and importer have complementary capabilities influences the firm’s customer concept. Finally, we examine the moderating effect of exporter intensity on the relationship between the customer concept and satisfaction with export performance. Using a novel dataset based on a survey of 92 export managers in an emerging market, Romania, we find that the decomposed interaction orientation components have distinct effects on satisfaction with export performance. Specifically, we find that interaction response capacity positively influences customer empowerment, which in turn positively influences the customer concept. Moreover, the customer concept positively influences complementarity of capabilities, which is positively related to satisfaction with export performance. Our results further show that exporter intensity has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the customer concept and satisfaction with export intensity. The theoretical and managerial implications of our findings are also discussed.

CUSTOMER EMPOWERMENT: MANAGERIAL PRACTICE TO INVOLVE THE CUSTOMER AND EXPLOIT HIS KNOWLEDGE IN ORDER TO IMPROVE HIS SATISFACTION - DJEZZY COMPANY CASE-

Today, companies have changed their strategies in management and marketing because of new phenomena such as: ICT, deregulation, focus on service, mega-alliances and new roles of consumers, these phenomena have led companies to adopt a global and collaborative relational approach.Keeping customers, ensuring loyalty and satisfying them have become a major challenge for companies. To get closer to the customer, associate him and win these challenges; customer empowerment emerged as a new practice to involve him in the business and exploit his knowledge to gain a competitive advantage.This research proposes a conceptual framework of customer empowerment, this emerging managerial practice aims to demonstrate the role of customer involvement through this managerial approach can improve his satisfaction.After having proposed the conceptual framework of the key concepts of this study; the mobilized method to demonstrate this central object is as follow: the study of an existing case within the Algerian company under projection, with a qualitative approach by choosing interview and oriented survey within the department of Commerce. This study concluded that the customer empowerment is essential in a hyper competitive context to be closer to the customer, to know his needs, to exploit his skills in order to surpass the pinnacle of the temporal satisfaction.

The Model of Customer Empowerment in the Field of Renewable Energy: A Case of Tunisian Consumers

This awakening of consciousness on the part of today’s consumers has given rise to the concept of consumer empowerment which states that the current consumer has become a stakeholder and influence in their purchasing decisions. Thus, the current consumer is asking deeper questions, such as environmental rights, animal rights, the rights of future generations, and the rights of the community. This paper proposes an explanatory model of empowerment emanating from new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which participated in the crystallization of the concept by giving more power and control to Tunisian consumers. A model was developed from qualitative research based on individual interviews to explore in-depth the world of Renewable Energies Consumption (REC).

Effect of channel integration quality on consumer responses within omni-channel retailing

PurposeThe aim of this research is to explore the influence of channel integration quality on consumer perception and response from the individual customer perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected 517 online questionnaires from residents in Taipei (Taiwan) and Shenzhen (China) in 2020 based on quota sampling. The empirical study employed structural equation modeling.FindingsBased on the empirical results, the primary path indicated that channel-service configuration positively affected experience quality, which mainly positively affected customer engagement. The secondary path showed that channel-service configuration positively affected experience quality, which positively affected customer empowerment. Furthermore, experience quality and relationship proneness are mediating variables concerning the impact of channel integration quality on customer responses.Research limitations/implicationsThis study had time and budget limitations; thus, 517 questionnaires were collected from Taipei and Shenzhen. If the budget allows, it would be better to collect 1,000 questionnaires in total (500 from Taipei and 500 from Shenzhen).Practical implicationsRetailers should realize the core of omni-channel retailing, which is no longer concentrated on the “quantity” of channels but on consumers. When omni-channel retailers integrate online and offline channels, the retailers should try to understand what consumers want and then provide similar and diverse products and services in different channels so that consumers have more choices.Originality/valueThe novelty of this research is the investigation of the mediation effect of channel integration quality and consumer responses on retailers and consumers, and enriching current research on omni-channel retailing from the bottom-up perspective, as well as a comprehensive study on the two types of channel integration quality and two types of consumer responses.

Developing creative service ideas through hotel customer engagement for open innovation: Focused on empowerment and motivation processes

While the enhanced connectivity between customers and hospitality brands via online platforms dramatically increases the potential for customer engagement in innovation processes, existing research has not focused on how to facilitate open innovation knowledge creation via customer engagement. The purpose of this research is to explore open innovation processes by examining the impact of customer empowerment and social recognition rewards on both open innovation engagement intentions and the creativity of proposed innovation ideas. Two scenario-based experimental studies and a field survey were conducted. The studies found that customer empowerment, mediated by intrinsic motivations, increased open innovation engagement intentions and also had a positive effect on the creativity of proposed innovation ideas. Social recognition rewards, as a form of extrinsic motivation, did not contribute to either open innovation engagement intentions or the creativity of innovation ideas. This empowerment-intrinsic motivational process for open innovation engagement was confirmed in a field survey.

الدور الوسيط لبهجة العميل في العلاقة بين تمکين العميل ونوايا إعادة التعامل مع شرکات الاتصالات (دراسة تطبيقية على عملاء شرکات الاتصالات للهاتف المحمول )

Abstract: This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effect of customer empowerment on customer delight via re-patronage intentions. Data were collected from 384 customers of Mobile Service Providers in Egypt. Path analysis is employed to test the research hypotheses using Warp PLS5. The findings reveal that the two dimensions of customer empowerment named informational empowerment and perceived control significantly impacted customer delight which positively influenced re-patronage intentions. Customer delight significantly mediated the relationship between customer empowerment and re-patronage intentions.

Services and Their New Realities

Companies providing services operate in a dynamic business environments. They require understanding and appreciating the new service realities. They should devise and implement appropriate strategies to sustain the competition. The objective of the study is to analyze the strategies. New service realities include shifting customer relationships, customer empowerment, and customer co-creation. The study aims at a conceptual analysis of the literature. Service companies require satisfying both customers and employees to remain competitive. Companies should aim to prevent service failures from occurring, rectify service failures once they have occurred to the satisfaction of customers, involve employees at each stage, and ensure that employee enthusiasm and motivation are high. Findings of the study suggest that proper understanding of the new service realities will allow companies to develop strategies, implement the strategies, and execute the strategies effectively. All such initiatives provide a direction for service companies to excel, delight their customers, and build long-term customer relationships.

The influences of cooperative climate, competitive climate and customer empowerment on service creativity

To extend the relationship between customer empowerment and creativity, this study explores the mediating effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (individual level). The study aims to clarify whether cooperative and competitive climates influence service creativity through intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (across level). A matching sample of 333 coaches and customers from 30 stores in the fitness industry was used to examine the study hypotheses by employing Mplus 8.3 statistical software. The results show that (1) customer empowerment and cooperative climate have significant positive effects on service creativity (that is, the service creativity of coaches); (2) the intrinsic motivation of coaches mediates the relationship between customer empowerment and service creativity; and (3) the intrinsic motivation of coaches mediates the relationship between cooperative climate and service creativity, but the mediating mechanism of extrinsic motivation does not exist in the relationship between competitive climate and service creativity.

Governance of profit and loss sharing financing in achieving socio-economic justice

PurposeThis study aims to explore the governance practices of profit and loss sharing (PLS) financing in connection to the socio-economic development objective of the Islamic financial institutions (IFIs).Design/methodology/approachThe study context included IFIs from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. A two-stage research methodology was used. In the first stage, top ten IFIs – three Islamic commercial banks, three Islamic rural banks and four Islamic micro finance institutions – were considered for in-depth interviews. Formal interview protocol was followed to record and transcribe interviews. In the second stage, a questionnaire survey considered 26 IFIs. Unit of measurement was individuals working at the mid and top level from the selected organisations.FindingsThe governance process of providing and managing PLS financing involves several critical factors, such as the financing duration, instalment timing, contract approval and cost, basis of sharing, risk management, customer empowerment and Sharīʿah compliance. Contrary to the existing belief, the authors found that PLS financing is primarily available for shorter period of time (three years) and it is unavailable for start-ups. Also, newer IFIs rely less on PLS financing than the older IFIs. In addition to worrying about the higher risk of return, IFIs considered government regulation on PLS to be tighter in terms of provision and rescheduling.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to investigating IFIs in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This limitation is covered by taking samples from three types of IFIs.Practical implicationsFor IFI practitioners, these findings are expected to improve their confidence in undertaking more progressive efforts in adopting governance policies that contribute to greater socio-economic justice.Social implicationsIf the governance good practices are implemented by all IFIs, a higher degree of social welfare and customer awareness can be achieved.Originality/valueAcross all types of IFIs, this study’s results confirm that PLS is less preferred for long-term and start-up financing. These findings should be the ingredients to push research on PLS further, as these findings grossly violate the theory. Fulfilling these gaps could strengthen the nexus between PLS and socio-economic justice.