The perfect combination to win the competition: Bringing sustainability and customer experience together

Abstract

Understanding the connection between how consumers perceive sustainability and how they experience the offered products or services can make a big difference for companies to stay ahead of the competition. When companies work to make their products and services align with what their customers value, like being eco-friendly and socially responsible, it may not only draw in new customers but also make the existing ones stick around. Using behavioral reasoning theory, we attempt to explore the impacts of perceived benefits and skepticism on attitude toward sustainability and the moderating role of customer experience on the relationship between these variables and loyalty. Findings (n = 660) showed that attitude toward sustainability mediates the relationship between perceived benefits, skepticism, and customer loyalty. Furthermore, our findings highlighted that customer experience moderates the relationship between attitude toward sustainability and loyalty. The details of the moderation analysis suggest that cognitive, affective, physical, and social experiences have a stronger effect than sensory experiences in reinforcing the impact of perceived benefits and attitude on consumer loyalty in a sustainability context. The article concludes with implications and research directions for further investigation.