Table 5.

From customer journey to competitive advantage

Established theoretical approaches			Priority future research themes and examples of research questions
‘Blurring’ of the delineation between the firm and the customer	Value creation and co-creation	• Dynamic Business Capabilities (DBC) theory (Wheeler 2002) • Channel expansion theory (Carlson and Zmud 1999) • Perceived value and customer satisfaction (Lin and Wang 2006).	Priority future research themes: • Frameworks of value creation, value fusion and value co-creation (including SDL) for apps and via apps. • Theoretical and empirical advancements clarifying how apps create value for stakeholders. • The elements of the appscape for different types of apps (conceptual research). • Co-created apps—clarifying what they are and the key success factors (conceptual research). • Value creation and co-creation resulting from apps’ technological advancements and anthropomorphic cues. • AR/VR/AI-enabled apps’ impact on value perceptions and consumer behaviour. Examples of research questions: - How do apps facilitate value creation and co-creation? How does the process differ from dissimilar types of apps and/or different consumers? - What are the mechanisms via which co-created apps generate value for consumers and stakeholders? - What are the key elements of the appscape? - What are the underlying processes and the key factors that either motivate or deter consumers from (re)using apps involving advanced technologies such as AI, AR or VR?
	Technological advancements	• Diffusion of innovation (Rogers 1995) • Automation in retail (Rust and Huang 2014) • Uses and Gratification (U&G) theory (Mcguire 1974, Eighmey and McCord 1998) • Technology Continuance Theory (TCT) (Liao et al. 2009)
Digital customer orientation	Hyper-contextualised consumer insights (including personalization and segmentation)	• CRM principles (Chen and Popovich 2003) • Customer journey (Lemon and Verhoef 2016) • The theory of buyer behaviour (Howard and Sheth 1969) • The Attention–Interest–Desire–Action (AIDA) model (Lavidge and Steiner 1961) • Recency, Frequency, Monetary (RFM) approach (Hughes 1996) • User-centric service map and user-value analysis (Kim, Lee and Park 2016).	Priority future research themes: • Strategic relevance of consumer insights generated via apps vs. other digital hubs such as web-analytics and social media • Strategic implications of personalizing apps. • App usage data and customer hyper-context information to be used to design marketing strategies and targeted campaigns. • Behavioral and intent-based segmentation via apps (links with the purchase funnel). • Distinct offline (brick and mortar) customer segments and correspondence with app usage. Examples of research questions: - How do consumer insights gathered through apps compare to web analytics and social media analytics? - What are the implications for ongoing, sustainable collection and use of consumer insights through apps? Do these implications change according to different types of apps? - What are the most effective strategies for personalizing the offer to the consumer via apps? - What types of apps result in greater potential for personalization and for which consumers? - What other segmentation approaches can be utilized to successfully segment users of apps? - Are different consumer segments identifiable in offline and other online contexts applicable to apps?
	Market intelligence	Research considering market performance and competition: • Audience concentration (Jung et al. 2014). • Media concentration (Lee and Raghu 2014).	Priority future research themes: • Understanding competitive dynamics for apps beyond the app store context. • Identifying and comparing different categories (e.g., markets and sub-markets) of apps, and clarifying how apps compete outside of the app store. • Seller- and app-level characteristics that impact success in the app store and beyond. Examples of research questions: - How can we effectively measure the market performance of apps, beyond sales ranks and customer ratings returned by app stores? - How can we better understand competition within apps’ markets? Are there any key regularities and patterns worth knowing and that can be predicted? - What are the key strategies for market survival that apps can embrace? Do these aspects change for different categories of apps?
Market orientation	Inter-functional coordination	None available.	Priority future research themes: • Factors facilitating vs. inhibiting the dissemination of hyper-contextualized consumer insights and market intelligence gathered through apps across the organization and outside of the marketing function. • Organizational behaviors and market-orientated behaviors linked to apps’ deployment as a marketing tool. • Strategic implementation of hyper-contextualized consumer insights and market intelligence gathered through apps. • Organizational responsiveness and market dynamism resulting from hyper-contextualized consumer insights and market intelligence gathered through apps and shared across the organization and outside of the marketing function. • Apps impact of business growth for different types of organization (e.g., SMEs vs. larger firms). Examples of research questions: - Which key market-orientated behaviors that can underpin the successful use of apps as marketing tool and tactic? - Do different managerial approaches and different levels of the managers’ digital marketing knowledge have a strong bearing on the successful use of apps as marketing tool? - What are the implications of market dynamism for the successful use of apps as a marketing tool? - In which industries are apps most relevant for gaining a competitive edge? - What is the impact of apps on business growth, especially for SMEs?
	Strategic implementation	None available.