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Customer Delight as an Ex Ante and Ex Post Factor of Positive Customer Engagement Behavior: Interactive Value Creation in Customer Management

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Interaktive Wertschöpfung durch Dienstleistungen

Abstract

A considerable number of global developments and profound changes in the market landscape have, in the past decades, led to a fierce competition in today’s marketplace (Kim/Mattila 2013, p. 361). In order to maintain a strong and lucrative position in the market, companies have to establish a strong and loyal customer base (Auh et al. 2007, p. 359). The successful development and strategic management of lasting customer relationships, thus, have become an important priority and decisive driver of long-term competitive advantage (Gouthier/Schmid 2003; Verhoef et al. 2010, p. 247). Though, with the emergence of new technologies, the Web 2.0, and the social media, companies are being faced with unprecedented challenges. Given the possibility to easily access and exchange information, and to directly interact with the company or other customers at any time, customers today have evolved to play a more than ever active role in the market (Hennig-Thurau et al. 2010, p. 311).

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Correspondence to Julia Donsbach M. Sc. .

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Donsbach, J., Gouthier, M. (2015). Customer Delight as an Ex Ante and Ex Post Factor of Positive Customer Engagement Behavior: Interactive Value Creation in Customer Management. In: Bruhn, M., Hadwich, K. (eds) Interaktive Wertschöpfung durch Dienstleistungen. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-08518-6_10

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