Customer buying experience in multichannel retailing : Transition fluency during customers’ interactions with click-and-mortar furniture and interior design retailers

Meaningful, memorable and unique customer experiences are proved to influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, creating value for companies. However, due to changing multichannel environment and the lack of common understanding of customer experience phenomenon, many retailers struggle to provide their customers with exceptional experiences. This study took on a challenge to conceptualise customer buying experience in multichannel context. The aim of this study was to explore what relevance experience of the multichannel customer during his/her transitions between online and offline retail channels has in customer buying experience. The focus was placed on customer interactions with click-and-mortar furniture and interior design retailers. Multi-method qualitative research design was chosen to explore the phenomena and seek the support for the conceptual framework developed in the literature review. Qualitative data was collected through ten individual semi-structured interviews with consumers and two consumer focus groups, which resulted in 7 hours 12 minutes of audio material. Despite the challenges of approaching such an intangible topic, both data collection methods gave useful insights into the topic of customer buying experience formation. The data was mainly in line with the suggested theoretical model, but also succeeded to develop the model further, bringing the components of customer buying experience closer to service quality components, and emphasising even more the role of channel integration and omnichannel strategies. Basing on the results of this study, several hypotheses for future quantitative research can be proposed. The managerial implications of this study may be useful in the field of specialised multichannel retailing

Customer Experience Management in Business Markets : Strategic Roles of Target Experiences

Customer experience management (CXM) has the potential to be one of the most important tools for business-to-business (B2B) firms responding to the increased commoditization of goods and services. CXM holistically extends the traditional ways of differentiation, addresses the shortcomings of relationship management practice, and encourages firms to find new business opportunities along the customer journey. However, there is a lack of conceptual development showing how the strategic goals of CXM materialize into valuable business customer experiences. Therefore, this dissertation presents a study of target experiences, i.e., the different experiences that provider-firms aim for, and their roles in strategic CXM, through which firms aim to create value in business markets. In doing so, it draws attention to service providers’ deliberate participation in experience creation while acknowledging the multifaceted nature of customer experience. This study took an abductive approach, combining various theoretical preunderstandings of the phenomenon with empirical exploration. The empirical research took the form of an explorative field study of 41 B2B firms and their CXM efforts. Data was collected through in-depth interviews structured around the extant literature on B2B CX and CXM, with CX managers as the key informants. Data analysis was performed using an informant-centric coding method; thematic grouping of codes and further conceptual development were aided by the CX literature, different perspectives on value and customer value proposition, and the concept of strategy as an analytical lens. The findings highlight the different properties of target experiences set by B2B firms that are significant for strategic CXM, including: granularity, or how nuanced the articulated target experiences are; attribution, or which actor’ experiences within the customer firm are taken into account; and scopes, i.e., whether target experiences are considered at the touchpoint level, the customer journey level or the level of customer's business. Furthermore, the study deliniates providers’ CXM activities directed at facilitating CX, understanding CX, and structurally and culturally aligning the organization for CX, thus mapping out CX management in B2B firms. Finally, the findings elucidate the strategic roles of target experiences: they guide CXM actions; promote a shared CX mindset; and help create a beneficial position for the firm in the market. Moreover, the study finds that the granularity of employed target experiences drives CXM into either responsive or proactive cycles. This dissertation also links the study findings to a general model of value creation, connecting CXM activities of B2B firms to value co-creation processes and discussing target experiences in terms of experiential value propositions. Thus, it provides a new understanding of CX management as an experience-based competitive strategy in business markets. The present study contributes to the CX literature in three ways: by expanding the discussion on the qualities and especially granularity of target experiences set by B2B firms; by providing a robust and flexible representation of CXM; and by building an understanding of the roles of target experiences in strategic CXM. The study also highlights the link between CXM, target experiences, and value creation, with an emphasis on individual and noneconomic experiential value, thus contributing to the literature on value and value propositions and broadening the scope of value propositions considered in business markets. It also opens up avenues for future research into target experiences and the issues relevant to CXM in business markets. The findings of this study have important implications for CXM practice. First, the findings suggest that the use of nuanced target experiences can improve the outcomes and accountability of CXM efforts. Second, understanding how a firm can propose experiential value in business markets using target experiences can help B2B firms strategize and balance their resources in the face of a rapidly changing organizational environment. Moreover, in terms of societal implications, successfully implementing CXM can improve the social experience of work: making CX a priority allows for cultivating genuine care in business environment and can improve employee wellbeing. At the national level, the research findings constitute a starting point for the development of viable CX management strategies for international business markets, which can give Finnish B2B service providers a competitive edge.Asiakaskokemusjohtaminen yritysten välisessä liiketoiminnassa : Tavoitekokemuksen strateginen rooli. Yhä useammat B2B-yritykset hakevat kilpailuetua asiakaskokemuksella. Asiakaskokemuksen johtaminen onkin mahdollisesti yksi yritysten välisen liiketoiminnan tärkeimmistä työkaluista, sillä se laajentaa perinteisiä kilpailukeinoja, vastaa suhdejohtamisen puutteisiin ja auttaa yrityksiä löytämään uusia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia asiakaspolun varrelta. Asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen käsitteellistämisessä on kuitenkin vielä puutteita B2B-markkinoinnin tutkimusalalla. Ymmärrystä puuttuu erityisesti siitä, kuinka yrityksen strategiset asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen tavoitteet toteutuvat ja kääntyvät arvokkaiksi yritysasiakaskokemuksiksi. Näin ollen tämä väitöskirja käsittelee tavoitekokemuksia, eli erilaisia kokemuksia joihin palveluntarjoajat tähtäävät, ja näiden tavoitekokemusten rooleja strategisessa asiakaskokemuksen johtamisessa osana arvon luontia B2B-markkinoilla. Näin tutkimus tunnustaa asiakaskokemuskäsitteen monimuotoisuuden ja kiinnittää huomion siihen, miten palveluntarjoaja tietoisesti osallistuu kokemusten luomiseen. Tutkimus noudatti abduktiivista lähestymistapaa, edeten vuoropuheluna teoreettisten ennakkokäsitysten ja empiirisen tutkimuksen välillä. Empiirinen tutkimus toteutettiin eksploratiivisena kenttätutkimuksena tarkastelemalla 41:n B2B-yrityksen asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen toimia ja tavoitteita. Tietolähteenä käytettiin yrityksissä toimivia asiakaskokemuksen johtajia. Aineisto kerättiin syvähaastatteluilla, jotka rakentuivat olemassa olevan B2B-asiakaskokemus-kirjallisuuden ja asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen kirjallisuuden ympärille. Data-analyysissa hyödynnettiin aineistolähtöistä koodausmenetelmää. Koodien temaattinen ryhmittely sekä käsitteellinen jatkokehitys pohjautui osaltaan myös asiakaskokemuskirjallisuuteen, arvon ja arvolupauksen käsitteiden analyysiin sekä strategian eri ulottuvuuksiin, joita käytettiin analyyttisenä linssinä. Tutkimuksen löydökset korostavat B2B-yritysten asettamien tavoitekokemusten erilaisia, strategisen asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen kannalta tärkeitä omi-naisuuksia. Näitä ominaisuuksia ovat: granulaarisuus, eli kuinka yksityiskohtaisesti tavoitekokemus ulottuvuuksineen on ilmaistu; kohdistuminen, eli miten asiakasyrityksen sisäisten toimijoiden kokemukset huomioidaan; sekä laajuus, eli rajautuuko tavoitekokemus kosketuspisteeseen, asiakaspolkuun vai asiakkaan liiketoimintaan. Lisäksi tulokset kartoittavat palveluntarjoajien asiakaskokemuksen fasilitointiin, ymmärrykseen ja organisaation rakenteelliseen ja kulttuuriseen yhdenmukaistamiseen suunnattuja toimia, ja siten tukevat systemaattista B2B-asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen kuvausta ja sen osa-alueiden tarkentamista. Tulokset myös tuovat uutta tietoa tavoitekokemusten strategisista rooleista: ne ohjaavat asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen toimia, edistävät yhteistä kokemuksellista ajattelutapaa ja auttavat luomaan yritykselle suotuisan aseman markkinoilla. Tässä väitöskirjassa empiirisen tutkimuksen tulokset linkitetään yleiseen arvonluontimalliin yhdistämällä B2B-yritysten asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen toimia arvon yhteisluontiprosesseihin ja tarkastelemalla tavoitekokemuksia suhteessa kokemuksellisiin arvolupauksiin. Siten tämä väitöskirjatutkimus tarjoaa uuden näkökulman asiakaskokemuksen johtamiseen kokemuspohjaisena kilpailustrategiana yritysmarkkinoilla. Tämä tutkimus edistää asiakaskokemuskirjallisuutta kolmella tavalla: laajentamalla keskustelua tavoitekokemusten ominaisuuksista ja erityisesti niiden yksityiskohtaisuudesta; tarjoamalla vankan ja joustavan kuvan asiakaskokemuksen johtamisesta yritysten välisessä liiketoiminnassa; ja rakentamalla ymmärrystä siitä, miten tavoitekokemukset toimivat strategisena osana asiakaskokemuksen johtamista. Tutkimus myös nostaa esiin asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen, tavoitekokemusten tavoitekokemusten, sekä arvonluonnin välisen yhteyden, painottaen yksilöllistä ja ei-taloudellista kokemuksellista arvoa. Tämä edistää arvoa ja arvolupauksia käsittelevää kirjallisuutta ja laajentaa käsitystä yritysmarkkinoilla toimivien arvolupausten ulottuvuuksista. Tutkimuksen tulokset myös avaavat oven tulevalle tutkimukselle tavoitekokemuksista ja B2B-yritysten kannalta oleellisista kysymyksistä asiakaskokemuksen johtamisessa. Tämän tutkimuksen tulokset ovat merkityksellisiä myös asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen käytännölle. Ensinnäkin, tutkimuksen havainnot viittaavat siihen, että hyödyntämällä yksityiskohtaisia tavoitekokemuksia yritykset voivat parantaa asiakaskokemusten johtamisen toimien tuloksellisuutta ja jäljitettävyyttä. Toiseksi, ymmärtämällä miten yritys voi tarjota kokemuksellista arvoa yritysmarkkinoilla tavoitekokemusten avulla, B2B-yritykset voivat rakentaa kilpailukykyisiä strategioita ja onnistuneesti kohdistaa ne toivottuihin markkinarakoihin. Lisäksi tällä tutkimuksella on yhteiskunnallista vaikuttavuutta, sillä asiakaskokemuksen johtamisen kehittäminen voi parantaa työn sosiaalista kokemusta: asiakaskokemuksen asettaminen etusijalle mahdollistaa aidon huolenpidon sidosryhmistä yrityksen kilpailullisessa kasvuympäristössä ja voi parantaa sekä palveluntarjoajan että asiakasyrityksen työntekijöiden hyvinvointia. Kansallisella tasolla tutkimustulokset muodostavat lähtökohdan toteuttamiskelpoisten asiakaskokemusstrategioiden kehittämiselle kansainvälisillä yritysmarkkinoilla, joka voi antaa suomalaisille B2B-palveluntarjoajille kilpailuetua

Customer buying experience in multichannel retailing: Transition fluency during customers’ interactions with click-and-mortar furniture and interior design retailers

Meaningful, memorable, and unique customer experiences are proved to influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, creating value for companies. However, due to the changing multichannel environment and the lack of common understanding of the customer experience phenomenon, many retailers struggle to provide their customers with exceptional experiences. This study took on a challenge to conceptualize customer buying experience in a multichannel context. The aim of this study was to explore what relevance experience of the multichannel customer during his/her transitions between online and offline retail channels has in the customer buying experience. The focus was placed on customer interactions with click-and-mortar furniture and interior design retailers. A multi-method qualitative research design was chosen to explore the phenomena and seek support for the conceptual framework developed in the literature review. Qualitative data was collected through ten individual semi-structured interviews with consumers and two consumer focus groups, which resulted in 7 hours 12 minutes of audio material. Despite the challenges of approaching such an intangible topic, both data collection methods gave useful insights into the topic of customer buying experience formation. The data was mainly in line with the suggested theoretical model, but also succeeded to develop the model further, bringing the components of customer buying experience closer to service quality components, and emphasizing even more the role of channel integration and omnichannel strategies. Basing on the results of this study, several hypotheses for future quantitative research can be proposed. The managerial implications of this study may be useful in the field of specialized multichannel retailing.</p

Study of size and shell composition effect of TiO2 core-shell mesoporous microsphere on UV absorption effectivity for photocatalytic application

Microdispersed photocatalysts based on titanium dioxide (TiO2) in the form of hollow core-shell microspheres (microcapsules) with mesoporous structure are widely demanded in modern critical technologies related to the catalysis of various chemicals, solving environmental problems, and obtaining cheap fuel. To date, a number of experimental works are known, showing that geometrical parameters of microcapsules (size, shell thickness), as well as microstructural composition (nanosized metal additives, additional inner dielectric core -- the "yolk") noticeably affect their photocatalytic activity. At the same time, a valuable physical description of the optical properties of porous microcapsules has not been presented in the literature so far. Using the finite element method, we perform a full-wave simulation of the optical field inside a hollow microsphere whose shell is assembled from multiple TiO2 nanoparticles to form an irregular nanoporous structure. We give a physical explanation of the published experimental data on the optical activity of titanium-dioxide microcapsules and show that the existing theoretical models do not always give a correct interpretation of the observed empirical behaviors

BioAmbients: an abstraction for biological compartments

AbstractBiomolecular systems, composed of networks of proteins, underlie the major functions of living cells. Compartments are key to the organization of such systems. We have previously developed an abstraction for biomolecular systems using the π-calculus process algebra, which successfully handled their molecular and biochemical aspects, but provided only a limited solution for representing compartments. In this work, we extend this abstraction to handle compartments. We are motivated by the ambient calculus, a process algebra for the specification of process location and movement through computational domains. We present the BioAmbients calculus, which is suitable for representing various aspects of molecular localization and compartmentalization, including the movement of molecules between compartments, the dynamic rearrangement of cellular compartments, and the interaction between molecules in a compartmentalized setting. Guided by the calculus, we adapt the BioSpi simulation system, to provide an extended modular framework for molecular and cellular compartmentalization, and we use it to model and study a complex multi-cellular system

Understanding and Managing Customer Experiences

Peer reviewe

Customer buying experience in multichannel retailing: Transition fluency during customers’ interactions with click-and-mortar furniture and interior design retailers

Meaningful, memorable and unique customer experiences are proved to influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, creating value for companies. However, due to changing multichannel environment and the lack of common understanding of customer experience phenomenon, many retailers struggle to provide their customers with exceptional experiences. This study took on a challenge to conceptualise customer buying experience in multichannel context. The aim of this study was to explore what relevance experience of the multichannel customer during his/her transitions between online and offline retail channels has in customer buying experience. The focus was placed on customer interactions with click-and-mortar furniture and interior design retailers. Multi-method qualitative research design was chosen to explore the phenomena and seek the support for the conceptual framework developed in the literature review. Qualitative data was collected through ten individual semi-structured interviews with consumers and two consumer focus groups, which resulted in 7 hours 12 minutes of audio material. Despite the challenges of approaching such an intangible topic, both data collection methods gave useful insights into the topic of customer buying experience formation. The data was mainly in line with the suggested theoretical model, but also succeeded to develop the model further, bringing the components of customer buying experience closer to service quality components, and emphasising even more the role of channel integration and omnichannel strategies. Basing on the results of this study, several hypotheses for future quantitative research can be proposed. The managerial implications of this study may be useful in the field of specialised multichannel retailing.siirretty Doriast

Design and characterisation of SPAD based CMOS analog pixels for photon-counting applications

Recent advancements in biomedical research and imaging applications have ignited an intense interest in single-photon detection. Along with single-photon resolution, nanosecond or sub-nanosecond timing resolution and high sensitivity of the device must be achieved at the same time. Single- Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs) have proved their prospectives in terms of shot-noise limited operation, excellent timing resolution and wide spec- tral range. Nonetheless, the performance of recently presented SPAD based arrays has an issue of low detection efficiency by reason of the area on the substrate occupied by additional processing electronics. This dissertation presents the design and experimental characteriza- tion of a few compact analog readout circuits for SPAD based arrays. Tar- geting the applications where the spatial resolution is the key requirement, the work is focused on the circuit compactness, that is, pixel fill factor re- finement. Consisting of only a few transistors, the proposed structures are remarkable for a small area occupation. This significant advancement has been achieved with the analog implementation of the additional circuitry instead of standard digital approach. Along with the compactness, the dis- tinguishing features of the circuits are low power consumption, low output non-linearity and pixel-to-pixel non-uniformity. In addition, experimental results on a time-gated operation have proved feasibility of a sub-nanosecond time window

Investigation and characterization of the homeobox gene MEIS2 in acute lymphoblastic leukemia

MEIS2 is a member of the homeobox gene family, that are known to play a pivotal role in embryogenesis as well as organogenesis. An overexpression of MEIS2 has been reported for several solid neoplasms as well as acute myeloid leukemia with t(8;21). Information about the role of MEIS2 in acute lymphoblastic leukemia is scarce (ALL). Here, we could show an overexpression of MEIS2 in bone marrow samples of patients with ALL in comparison to healthy controls. Our data suggest that MEIS2 expression in ALL patients is regulated by promotor methylation. Further, we could observe a proliferation inhibition and reduced clonogenic capacity upon lentiviral mediated MEIS2-knockdown in ALL cell lines. We could demonstrate that the effect is not mediated through apoptosis but rather a cell cycle arrest in the G0-phase. Furthermore, MEIS2 knockdown led to differentially expressed genes, which are involved in B- and T-cell activation, EGF-, FGF-, TGF-beta-, VEGF- signaling as well as the RAS-pathway. Altogether, our data suggests a role of MEIS2 in the leukemogenesis of ALL