Understanding Customers’ Decision-Making, Perceptions, and Evaluations in the Customer Journey

The main objective of this doctoral thesis is to contribute to the field of customer experience management by contributing particular insights to a better understanding of customers’ decision-making, perceptions, and evaluations in the customer journey. Therefore, based on existing theories, four models are developed and tested empirically, which yield insights that are subject to further research. Thereby, a model is regarded as a simplified real-world illustration with constructs and hypotheses derived from existing literature, which allows a systematic analysis of relevant relationships in a specific research context in order to extend existing knowledge (e.g. Whetten 1989; Corley and Gioia 2011; Lederman and Lederman 2015). The thesis begins with an introduction (chapter I), followed by contributions to an understanding of customers’ decision-making (chapter II) and customers’ perceptions and evaluations (chapter III) in the customer journey. At the end, the thesis presents the key findings and illustrates areas for future research (chapter IV)