The difference between customer
initiated touchpoints versus firm
initiated touchpoints and their synergy
effects towards purchase probability
Table of content
• Introduction to the topic
• The problem: research gap
• The solution: my study
• Conceptual model
• Data transformation and analysis remarks
• Results
Introduction to the topic
• Personal customer journey of 29011 (potential) customers
• From the 1st of June 2015 to the 31th of September 2016
The problem: research gap
Customer journey Touchpoints Customer vs firm
initiated touchpoints
Synergy effects
For example Barwitz & Maas (2018)
Ramaseshan (2016) Wiesel et al. (2011) Naik & Raman (2003) Wiesel et al. (2011) Dong et al. (2018)
The solution: my study
• Research question: To what extend are there synergy effects towards the dependent variable of purchase probability (for purchases at any brand as well as purchases at the focus brand) when customer initiated touchpoints and firm initiated touchpoints are used together?
• H1a. Online customer initiated touchpoints have a positive impact on purchase probability
• H1b. Online firm initiated touchpoints have a positive impact on purchase probability
• H1c. Online customer initiated touchpoints have a greater impact on purchase probability than online firm initiated touchpoints have
• H2. The combined effect of customer initiated touchpoints and firm initiated
Data transformation and analysis remarks
• No outliers detected
• Touchpoint usage transformed to binary outcome
• Aggregated data to create one journey per row
• Assumptions for binary logistic regression hold and Pseudo R-squared measures outscored intercepts
• MFX package in R: marginal effects
Results: purchases in general (1/2)
IV’s Effect Significance
Customer initiated touchpoints
0.00004 ***
Firm initiated touchpoints 0.00019 *** Moderation/synergy effects -0.000000002 ***
IV’s Effect Significance
Accommodations website 0.00092 ***
Touroperator / travel agent website competitor
0.00034 ***
Touroperator / travel agent website focus brand
0.00028 **
Touroperator / travel agent search focus brand
0.03278 *
Flight tickets search 0.00698 ***
Results: purchases at the focus brand (1/2)
IV’s Effect Significance
Customer initiated touchpoints
0.000004 ***
Firm initiated touchpoints 0.000017 *** Moderation/synergy effects -0.0000000004 ***
IV’s Effect Significance
Accommodations website -0.00013 ***
Touroperator / travel agent search competitor
-0.00732 **
Touroperator / travel agent website focus brand*
0.000165 ***
Touroperator / travel agent search focus brand
0.00683 .
Conclusion and recommendations for
managers
• Both online customer initiated (H1a) and online firm initiated (H1b)
touchpoints have a positive impact on purchase probability in both parts of the study
• Firm initiated touchpoints had a greater impact on purchase probability (at the focus brand) when measured together
• Customer initiated touchpoints had a greater impact on purchase probability (at the focus brand) when measured individually
