Mobile app vs. desktop browser platforms: the relationships among customer engagement, experience, relationship quality and loyalty intention

ABSTRACT

The growing use of mobile technologies is spawning firms’ adoption of mobile relationship-building techniques, including via mobile apps. However, despite the rapid rise of these technologies, little remains known regarding consumers’ mobile app- (vs. desktop browser) related behaviours, and this is therefore investigated in this paper. Specifically, we explore the effect of customer engagement (CE) and customer experience (CX) on customers’ relationship quality/loyalty intention across mobile app- (vs. desktop browser)-based interactions. Using structural equation modelling, we analyse data collected from 420 customers. The results reveal a stronger positive association between CE/CX and relationship quality/loyalty intention for mobile app- (vs. desktop browser)-based interactions, revealing the former’s strategic importance. We conclude by discussing key implications that arise from our analyses.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer behavior
• customer engagement
• customer experience
• mobile apps
• desktop browser
• relationship quality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Imran Khan

Imran Khan, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Marketing at College of Business Administration, Prince Sultan University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He received his PhD in marketing from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. His key research interest areas are customer/brand experience, and customer engagement. He has published several papers in well-reputed international journals such as Journal of Services Marketing, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Product and Brand Management, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, among others.

Linda D. Hollebeek

Linda D. Hollebeek, Ph.D., is Professor of Marketing at IPAG Business School, Vilnius University, and Tallinn University of Technology. Her research on customer-, consumer-, and stakeholder engagement has published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, and International Journal of Research in Marketing, among others. She has been named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2021, 2020), is included on Stanford University’s Top 2% of Researchers (2021, 2020), and is listed on research.com’s Top Business & Management Scientists (2021). Linda serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Service Research, is the recipient of the 2020 SERVSIG Emerging Service Scholar Award and is co-editor of The Handbook of Research on Customer Engagement.

Mobin Fatma

Mobin Fatma is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at College of Business Administration, Prince Sultan University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She has done her PhD in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Her area of interest is CSR, customer experience and consumer behavior. She has published articles in the International Journal of Bank Marketing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Management Research Review, International Review of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Social Responsibility Journal, among others.

Jamid Ul Islam

Jamid Ul Islam has earned his Ph.D. from Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, and is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Digital Business, DCU Business School, Dublin City University, Ireland. His work to-date, which has centered on customer/consumer engagement, is published in journals, including International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Service Industries Journal, Management Decision, Internet Research, Telematics and Informatics, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, and, Current Issues in Tourism, among others. His areas of interest are customer engagement, online brand communities, social networks, corporate social responsibility, and consumer behavior. Dr. Jamid is the recipient of Emerald Literati Network Awards 2018, for Outstanding Paper and Highly Commended paper, 2018. Dr. Jamid is a co-author on the Indian edition of the well-known David Aaker and Christine Moorman Strategic Market Management textbook (Wiley Publishers).

Raouf Ahmad Rather

Raouf A Rather (PhD) is Standford’s Top 2% of Scientists and Scientific Researcher, J&K, India. His research centres of customer engagement, customer experience. He published articles in top tier journals including Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Travel Research and so on.

Shadma Shahid

Shadma Shahid, PhD has earned her doctorate from Centre for Management Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India and is currently working at Canadore College, Ontario, Canada. Apart from presenting her research work in national and international conferences, her work is published in journals including, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, International Journal of Bank Marketing, among others. Her area of interest is luxury consumption, consumer behaviour, customer experience and services marketing.

Valdimar Sigurdsson

Dr. Valdimar Sigurdsson is Professor and Head of Marketing at the Department of Business Administration of Reykjavik University, Iceland and the director for the Centre for Marketing and Consumer Psychology (CRMC). He chairs the Professional Program in Digital Marketing at Reykjavik’s Open University. He holds a Ph.D. from Cardiff University, United Kingdom. Valdimar’s research interest include consumer behaviour analysis (consumer psychology), in-store marketing (retailing), digital marketing, and tourism. His publications have appeared in several academic journals such as Journal of Business Research, Computers in Human Behavior, Marketing Theory, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, and Food Quality and Preferences.