how would you go about doing a literature review in the area of customer satisfaction

• Published: 15 February 2020

Customer experience: a systematic literature review and consumer culture theory-based conceptualisation

• Muhammad Waqas 1 ,
• Zalfa Laili Binti Hamzah 1 &
• Noor Akma Mohd Salleh 2  

Management Review Quarterly volume  71 ,  pages 135–176 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

8281 Accesses

39 Citations

2 Altmetric

Metrics details

The study aims to summarise and classify the existing research and to better understand the past, present, and the future state of the theory of customer experience. The main objectives of this study are to categorise and summarise the customer experience research, identify the extant theoretical perspectives that are used to conceptualise the customer experience, present a new conceptualisation and conceptual model of customer experience based on consumer culture theory and to highlight the emerging trends and gaps in the literature of customer experience. To achieve the stated objectives, an extensive literature review of existing customer experience research was carried out covering 49 journals. A total of 99 empirical and conceptual articles on customer experience from the year 1998 to 2019 was analysed based on different criteria. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge by highlighting the role of customer attribution of meanings in defining their experiences and how such experiences can predict consumer behaviour.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution .

Access options

Buy single article.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Rent this article via DeepDyve.

Abbott L (1955) Quality and competition. Columbia University Press, New York

Google Scholar  

Addis M, Holbrook MB (2001) On the conceptual link between mass customisation and experiential consumption: an explosion of subjectivity. J Consum Behav 1:50–66

Alben L (1996) Defining the criteria for effective interaction design. Interactions 3:11–15

Allen CT, Fournier S, Miller F (2008) Brands and their meaning makers. In: Haugtvedt C, Herr P, Kardes F (eds) Handbook of consumer psychology. Taylor & Francis, Milton Park, pp 781–822

Andreini D, Pedeliento G, Zarantonello L, Solerio C (2019) A renaissance of brand experience: advancing the concept through a multi-perspective analysis. J Bus Res 91:123–133

Arnold MJ, Reynolds KE, Ponder N, Lueg JE (2005) Customer delight in a retail context: investigating delightful and terrible shopping experiences. J Bus Res 58:1132–1145

Arnould EJ, Thompson CJ (2005) Consumer culture theory (CCT): twenty years of research. J Consum Res 31:868–882

Beckman E, Kumar A, Kim Y-K (2013) The impact of brand experience on downtown success. J Travel Res 52:646–658

Belk RW, Costa JA (1998) The mountain man myth: a contemporary consuming fantasy. J Consum Res 25:218–240

Bennett R, Härtel CE, McColl-Kennedy JR (2005) Experience as a moderator of involvement and satisfaction on brand loyalty in a business-to-business setting 02-314R. Ind Mark Manag 34:97–107

Berry LL (2000) Cultivating service brand equity. J Acad Mark Sci 28:128–137

Berry LL, Carbone LP, Haeckel SH (2002) Managing the total customer experience. MIT Sloan Manag Rev 43:85–89

Biedenbach G, Marell A (2010) The impact of customer experience on brand equity in a business-to-business services setting. J Brand Manag 17:446–458

Bilgihan A, Okumus F, Nusair K, Bujisic M (2014) Online experiences: flow theory, measuring online customer experience in e-commerce and managerial implications for the lodging industry. Inf Technol Tour 14:49–71

Bilro RG, Loureiro SMC, Ali F (2018) The role of website stimuli of experience on engagement and brand advocacy. J Hosp Tour Technol 9:204–222

Bolton RN, Kannan PK, Bramlett MD (2000) Implications of loyalty program membership and service experiences for customer retention and value. J Acad Mark Sci 28:95–108

Brakus JJ, Schmitt BH, Zarantonello L (2009) Brand experience: what is it? How is it measured? Does it affect loyalty? J Mark 73:52–68

Branch JD (2007) Postmodern consumption and the high-fidelity audio microculture. In: Belk RW, Sherry JF Jr (eds) Consumer culture theory. JAI Press, Oxford

Braun-LaTour KA, LaTour MS (2005) Transforming consumer experience: when timing matters. J Advert 34:19–30

Braun-LaTour KA, LaTour MS, Pickrell JE, Loftus EF, SUia (2004) How and when advertising can influence memory for consumer experience. J Advert 33:7–25

Bridges E, Florsheim R (2008) Hedonic and utilitarian shopping goals: the online experience. J Bus Res 61:309–314

Brodie RJ, Ilic A, Juric B, Hollebeek L (2013) Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: an exploratory analysis. J Bus Res 66:105–114

Bronner F, Neijens P (2006) Audience experiences of media context and embedded advertising-a comparison of eight media international. Int J Mark Res 48:81–100

Calder BJ, Malthouse EC, Schaedel U (2009) An experimental study of the relationship between online engagement and advertising effectiveness. J Interact Mark 23:321–331

Carù A, Cova B (2003) Revisiting consumption experience: a more humble but complete view of the concept. Mark Lett 3:267–286

Chandler JD, Lusch RF (2015) Service systems: a broadened framework and research agenda on value propositions, engagement, and service experience. J Serv Res 18:6–22

Constantinides E (2004) Influencing the online consumer’s behavior: the web experience. Internet Res 14:111–126

Constantinides E, Lorenzo-Romero C, Gómez MA (2010) Effects of web experience on consumer choice: a multicultural approach. Internet Res 20:188–209

Cooper H, Schembri S, Miller D (2010) Brand-self identity narratives in the James Bond movies. Psychol Mark 27:557–567

Cova B (1997) Community and consumption: towards a definition of the “linking value” of product or services. Eur J Mark 31:297–316

Creswell JW (2007) Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches, 2nd edn. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks

Das K (2009) Relationship marketing research (1994–2006) an academic literature review and classification. Mark Intell Plan 27:326–363

Das G, Agarwal J, Malhotra NK, Varshneya G (2019) Does brand experience translate into brand commitment? A mediated-moderation model of brand passion and perceived brand ethicality. J Bus Res 95:479–490

Daugherty T, Li H, Biocca F (2008) Consumer learning and the effects of virtual experience relative to indirect and direct product experience. Psychol Mark 25:568–586

De Keyser A, Lemon KN, Klaus P, Keiningham TL (2015) A framework for understanding and managing the customer experience. Marketing Science Institute working paper series, pp 15–121

de Oliveira Santini F, Ladeira WJ, Sampaio CH, Pinto DC (2018) The brand experience extended model: a meta-analysis. J Brand Manag 25:519–535

De Vries L, Gensler S, Leeflang PS (2012) Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: an investigation of the effects of social media marketing. J Interact Mark 26:83–91

Ding CG, Tseng TH (2015) On the relationships among brand experience, hedonic emotions, and brand equity. Eur J Mark 49:994–1015

Elliot S, Fowell S (2000) Expectations versus reality: a snapshot of consumer experiences with internet retailing. Int J Inf Manag 20:323–336

Escalas et al (2013) Self-identity and consumer behavior. J Consum Res 39:15–18

Farndale E, Kelliher C (2013) Implementing performance appraisal: exploring the employee experience. Hum Resour Manag 52:879–897

Fisch C, Block J (2018) Six tips for your (systematic) literature review in business and management research. Manag Rev Q 68:103–106

Flavián C, Guinalíu M, Gurrea R (2006) The influence of familiarity and usability on loyalty to online journalistic services: the role of user experience. J Retail Consum Serv 13:363–375

Forlizzi J, Battarbee K (2004) Understanding experience in interactive systems. In: Proceedings of the 5th conference on designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques. ACM, New York, pp 261–268

Frambach RT, Roest HC, Krishnan TV (2007) The impact of consumer internet experience on channel preference and usage intentions across the different stages of the buying process. J Interact Mark 21:26–41

Froehle CM, Roth AV (2004) New measurement scales for evaluating perceptions of the technology-mediated customer service experience. J Oper Manag 22:1–21

Frow P, Payne A (2007) Towards the ‘perfect’ customer experience. J Brand Manag 15:89–101

Garg R, Rahman Z, Kumar I (2011) Customer experience: a critical literature review and research agenda. Int J Serv Sci 4:146–173

Geertz C (2008) Local knowledge: further essays in interpretive anthropology. Basic books, New York

Gensler S, Völckner F, Liu-Thompkins Y, Wiertz C (2013) Managing brands in the social media environment. J Interact Mark 27:242–256

Gentile C, Spiller N, Noci G (2007) How to sustain the customer experience: an overview of experience components that co-create value with the customer. Eur Manag J 25:395–410

Goldstein SM, Johnston R, Duffy J, Rao J (2002) The service concept: the missing link in service design research? J Oper Manag 20:121–134

Grace D, O’Cass A (2004) Examining service experiences and post-consumption evaluations. J Serv Mark 18:450–461

Greenwell TC, Fink JS, Pastore DL (2002) Assessing the influence of the physical sports facility on customer satisfaction within the context of the service experience. Sport Manag Rev 5:129–148

Grewal D, Levy M, Kumar V (2009) Customer experience management in retailing: an organizing framework. J Retail 85:1–14

Ha HY, Perks H (2005) Effects of consumer perceptions of brand experience on the web: brand familiarity, satisfaction and brand trust. J Consum Behav An Int Res Rev 4:438–452

Hamzah ZL, Alwi SFS, Othman MN (2014) Designing corporate brand experience in an online context: a qualitative insight. J Bus Res 67:2299–2310

Harris P (2007) We the people: the importance of employees in the process of building customer experience. J Brand Manag 15:102–114

Harris K, Baron S, Parker C (2000) Understanding the consumer experience: it’s’ good to talk’. J Mark Manag 16:111–127

Hassenzahl M (2008) User experience (UX): towards an experiential perspective on product quality. In: Proceedings of the 20th conference on l’Interaction Homme-Machine. ACM, pp 11–15

Hatcher EP (1999) Art as culture: an introduction to the anthropology of art. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport

Hepola J, Karjaluoto H, Hintikka A (2017) The effect of sensory brand experience and involvement on brand equity directly and indirectly through consumer brand engagement. J Prod Brand Manag 26:282–293

Hirschman EC, Holbrook MB (1982) Hedonic consumption: emerging concepts, methods and propositions. J Mark 46:92–101

Hoffman DL, Novak TP (1996) Marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: conceptual foundations. J Mark 60:50–68

Hoffman DL, Novak TP (2017) Consumer and object experience in the internet of things: an assemblage theory approach. J Consum Res 44:1178–1204

Holbrook MB, Hirschman EC (1982) The experiential aspects of consumption: consumer fantasies, feelings, and fun. J Consum Res 9:132–140

Hollebeek LD, Glynn MS, Brodie RJ (2014) Consumer brand engagement in social media: conceptualization, scale development and validation. J Int Mark 28:149–165

Holt DB (2003) Brands and branding. Harvard Business School, Boston

Homburg C, Jozić D, Kuehnl C (2017) Customer experience management: toward implementing an evolving marketing concept. J Acad Mark Sci 45:377–401

Hsu HY, Tsou H-T (2011) Understanding customer experiences in online blog environments. Int J Inf Manag 31:510–523

Huang P, Lurie NH, Mitra S (2009) Searching for experience on the web: an empirical examination of consumer behavior for search and experience goods. J Mark 73:55–69

Hultén B (2011) Sensory marketing: the multi-sensory brand-experience concept. Eur Bus Rev 23:256–273

Iglesias O, Singh JJ, Batista-Foguet JM (2011) The role of brand experience and affective commitment in determining brand loyalty. J Brand Manag 18:570–582

Islam JU, Rahman Z (2016) The transpiring journey of customer engagement research in marketing: a systematic review of the past decade. Manag Dec 54:2008–2034

Jacoby J (2002) Stimulus-organism-response reconsidered: an evolutionary step in modeling (consumer) behavior. J Consum Psychol 12:51–57

Kaplan S (1992) The restorative environment: nature and human experience. In: Relf D (ed) The role of horticulture in human well-being and social development. Timber Press, Arlington, pp 134–142

Keng C-J, Ting H-Y, Chen Y-T (2011) Effects of virtual-experience combinations on consumer-related “sense of virtual community”. Internet Res 21:408–434

Khalifa M, Liu V (2007) Online consumer retention: contingent effects of online shopping habit and online shopping experience. Eur J Inf Syst 16:780–792

Khan I, Fatma M (2017) Antecedents and outcomes of brand experience: an empirical study. J Brand Manag 24:439–452

Khan I, Rahman Z (2015) Brand experience formation mechanism and its possible outcomes: a theoretical framework. Mark Rev 15:239–259

Khan I, Rahman Z, Fatma M (2016) The role of customer brand engagement and brand experience in online banking. Int J Bank Mark 34:1025–1041

Kim H, Suh K-S, Lee U-K (2013) Effects of collaborative online shopping on shopping experience through social and relational perspectives. Inf Manag 50:169–180

Kinard BR, Hartman KB (2013) Are you entertained? The impact of brand integration and brand experience in television-related advergames. J Advert 42:196–203

Kozinets RV (2001) Utopian enterprise: articulating the meanings of Star Trek’s culture of consumption. J Consum Res 28:67–88

Kozinets RV (2002) Can consumers escape the market? Emancipatory illuminations from burning man. J Consum Res 29:20–38

Kuksov D, Shachar R, Wang K (2013) Advertising and consumers’ communications. Mark Sci 32:294–309

LaSalle D, Britton TA (2003) Priceless: turning ordinary products into extraordinary experiences. Harvard Business School Press, Boston

Laugwitz B, Held T, Schrepp M (2008) Construction and evaluation of a user experience questionnaire. In: Symposium of the Austrian HCI and usability engineering group. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 63–76

Lee YH, Lim EAC (2008) What’s funny and what’s not: the moderating role of cultural orientation in ad humor. J Advert 37:71–84

Lemke F, Clark M, Wilson H (2011) Customer experience quality: an exploration in business and consumer contexts using repertory grid technique. J Acad Mark Sci 39:846–869

Lemon KN, Verhoef PC (2016) Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. J Mark 80:69–96

Lin YH (2015) Innovative brand experience’s influence on brand equity and brand satisfaction. J Bus Res 68:2254–2259

Lindsey-Mullikin J, Munger JL (2011) Companion shoppers and the consumer shopping experience. J Relatsh Mark 10:7–27

Loureiro SMC, de Araújo CMB (2014) Luxury values and experience as drivers for consumers to recommend and pay more. J Retail Consum Serv 21:394–400

Lundqvist A, Liljander V, Gummerus J, Van Riel A (2013) The impact of storytelling on the consumer brand experience: the case of a firm-originated story. J Brand Manag 20:283–297

Mann SJ (2001) Alternative perspectives on the student experience: alienation and engagement. Stud High Educ 26:7–19

Martin J, Mortimer G, Andrews L (2015) Re-examining online customer experience to include purchase frequency and perceived risk. J Retail Consum Serv 25:81–95

Mascarenhas OA, Kesavan R, Bernacchi M (2006) Lasting customer loyalty: a total customer experience approach. J Consum Mark 23:397–405

McCarthy J, Wright P (2004) Technology as experience. Interactions 11:42–43

Menon S, Kahn B (2002) Cross-category effects of induced arousal and pleasure on the Internet shopping experience. J Retail 78:31–40

Mersey RD, Malthouse EC, Calder BJ (2010) Engagement with online media. J Media Bus Stud 7:39–56

Meyer C, Schwager A (2007) Customer experience. Harv Bus Rev 85:1–11

Milligan A, Smith S (2002) Uncommon practice: People who deliver a great brand experience. Financial Times/Prentice Hall, London

Mollen A, Wilson H (2010) Engagement, telepresence and interactivity in online consumer experience: reconciling scholastic and managerial perspectives. J Bus Res 63:919–925

Morgan-Thomas A, Veloutsou C (2013) Beyond technology acceptance: brand relationships and online brand experience. J Bus Res 66:21–27

Mosley RW (2007) Customer experience, organisational culture and the employer brand. J Brand Manag 15:123–134

Mosteller J, Donthu N, Eroglu S (2014) The fluent online shopping experience. J Bus Res 67:2486–2493

MSI (2016) Research priorities 2016–2018. http://www.msi.org/research/2016-2018-research-priorities/ . Accessed 28 Aug 2017

MSI (2018) Research priorities 2018–2020. Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge

Mulet-Forteza C, Genovart-Balaguer J, Mauleon-Mendez E, Merigó JM (2019) A bibliometric research in the tourism, leisure and hospitality fields. J Bus Res 101:819–827

Nairn A, Griffin C, Gaya Wicks P (2008) Children’s use of brand symbolism: a consumer culture theory approach. Eur J Mark 42:627–640

Nambisan S, Baron RA (2007) Interactions in virtual customer environments: implications for product support and customer relationship management. J Int Mark 21:42–62

Ngo LV, Northey G, Duffy S, Thao HTP (2016) Perceptions of others, mindfulness, and brand experience in retail service setting. J Retail Consum Serv 33:43–52

Novak TP, Hoffman DL, Yung Y-F (2000) Measuring the customer experience in online environments: a structural modeling approach. Mark Sci 19:22–42

Nysveen H, Pedersen PE (2004) An exploratory study of customers’ perception of company web sites offering various interactive applications: moderating effects of customers’ Internet experience. Dec Support Syst 37:137–150

Nysveen H, Pedersen PE (2014) Influences of cocreation on brand experience. Int J Mark Res 56:807–832

Nysveen H, Pedersen PE, Skard S (2013) Brand experiences in service organizations: exploring the individual effects of brand experience dimensions. J Brand Manag 20:404–423

O’Cass A, Grace D (2004) Exploring consumer experiences with a service brand. J Prod Brand Manag 13:257–268

Ofir C, Raghubir P, Brosh G, Monroe KB, Heiman A (2008) Memory-based store price judgments: the role of knowledge and shopping experience. J Retail 84:414–423

Palmer A (2010) Customer experience management: a critical review of an emerging idea. J Serv Mark 24:196–208

Piedmont RL, Leach MM (2002) Cross-cultural generalizability of the spiritual transcendence scale in india: spirituality as a universal aspect of human experience. Am Behav Sci 45:1888–1901

Pine BJ, Gilmore JH (1998) Welcome to the experience economy. Harv Bus Rev 76:97–105

Ponsonby-Mccabe S, Boyle E (2006) Understanding brands as experiential spaces: axiological implications for marketing strategists. J Strateg Mark 14:175–189

Prahalad CK, Ramaswamy V (2004) Co-creation experiences: the next practice in value creation. J Interact Mark 18:5–14

Rageh Ismail A, Melewar T, Lim L, Woodside A (2011) Customer experiences with brands: literature review and research directions. Mark Rev 11:205–225

Rahman M (2014) Differentiated brand experience in brand parity through branded branding strategy. J Strateg Mark 22:603–615

Ramaseshan B, Stein A (2014) Connecting the dots between brand experience and brand loyalty: the mediating role of brand personality and brand relationships. J Brand Manag 21:664–683

Rigby D (2011) The future of shopping. Harv Bus Rev 89:65–76

Robertson TS, Gatignon H, Cesareo L (2018) Pop-ups, ephemerality, and consumer experience: the centrality of buzz. J Assoc Consum Res 3:425–439

Rose S, Hair N, Clark M (2011) Online customer experience: a review of the business-to-consumer online purchase context. Int J Manag Rev 13:24–39

Rose S, Clark M, Samouel P, Hair N (2012) Online customer experience in e-retailing: an empirical model of antecedents and outcomes. J Retail 88:308–322

Roswinanto W, Strutton D (2014) Investigating the advertising antecedents to and consequences of brand experience. J Promot Manag 20:607–627

Salmon P (1989) Personal stances in learning. In: Weil SW, McGill I (eds) Making sense of experiential learning: diversity in theory and practice. The Open University Press, Milton Keynes, pp 230–241

Schembri S, Sandberg J (2002) Service quality and the consumer’s experience: towards an interpretive approach. Mark Theory 2:189–205

Schivinski B, Christodoulides G, Dabrowski D (2016) Measuring consumers’ engagement with brand-related social-media content. J Advert Res 56:64–80

Schmitt B (1999) Experiential marketing. J Mark Manag 15:53–67

Schmitt B (2000) Creating and managing brand experiences on the internet. Des Manag J 11:53–58

Schmitt B, Joško Brakus J, Zarantonello L (2015) From experiential psychology to consumer experience. J Consum Psychol 25:166–171

Scholz J, Smith AN (2016) Augmented reality: designing immersive experiences that maximize consumer engagement. Bus Horiz 59:149–161

Schouten JW, McAlexander JH, Koenig HF (2007) Transcendent customer experience and brand community. J Acad Mark Sci 35:357–368

Shaw C, Ivens J (2002) Building great customer experiences, vol 241. Palgrave, London

Sherry JF, Kozinets RV (2007) Comedy of the commons: nomadic spirituality and the Burning Man festival. In: Belk RW, Sherry JF (eds) Consumer culture theory. JAI Press, Oxford, pp 119–147

Shimp TA, Andrews JC (2013) Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications, 9th edn. Cengage Learning, Mason

Singh S, Sonnenburg S (2012) Brand performances in social media. J Interact Mark 26:189–197

Skadberg YX, Kimmel JR (2004) Visitors’ flow experience while browsing a web site: its measurement, contributing factors and consequences. Comput Hum Behav 20:403–422

Smith S, Wheeler J (2002) Managing the customer experience: turning customers into advocates. Financial Times/Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River

Syrdal HA, Briggs E (2018) Engagement with social media content: a qualitative exploration. J Mark theory Pract 26:4–22

Tafesse W (2016a) Conceptualization of brand experience in an event marketing context. J Promot Manag 22:34–48

Tafesse W (2016b) An experiential model of consumer engagement in social media. J Prod Brand Manag 25:424–434

Takatalo J, Nyman G, Laaksonen L (2008) Components of human experience in virtual environments. Comput Hum Behav 24:1–15

Tax SS, Brown SW, Chandrashekaran M (1998) Customer evaluations of service complaint experiences: implications for relationship marketing. J Mark 62:60–76

Thompson CJ, Locander WB, Pollio HR (1989) Putting consumer experience back into consumer research: the philosophy and method of existential-phenomenology. J Consum Res 16:133–146

Thorbjørnsen H, Supphellen M, Nysveen H, Egil P (2002) Building brand relationships online: a comparison of two interactive applications. J Interact Mark 16:17–34

Trevinal AM, Stenger T (2014) Toward a conceptualization of the online shopping experience. J Retail Consum Serv 21:314–326

Triantafillidou A, Siomkos G (2018) The impact of facebook experience on consumers’ behavioral brand engagement. J Res Interact Mark 12:164–192

Turner P (2017) A psychology of user experience: involvement, Affect and Aesthetics. Springer, Cham

Underwood LG, Teresi JA (2002) The daily spiritual experience scale: development, theoretical description, reliability, exploratory factor analysis, and preliminary construct validity using health-related data. Ann Behav Med 24:22–33

Van Noort G, Voorveld HA, Van Reijmersdal EA (2012) Interactivity in brand web sites: cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses explained by consumers’ online flow experience. J Interact Mark 26:223–234

Vargo SL, Lusch RF (2008) Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution. J Acad Mark Sci 36:1–10

Verhoef PC, Lemon KN, Parasuraman A, Roggeveen A, Tsiros M, Schlesinger LA (2009) Customer experience creation: determinants, dynamics and management strategies. J Retail 85:31–41

Walls A, Okumus F, Wang Y, Kwun DJ-W (2011) Understanding the consumer experience: an exploratory study of luxury hotels. J Hosp Mark Manag 20:166–197

Wan Y, Nakayama M, Sutcliffe N (2012) The impact of age and shopping experiences on the classification of search, experience, and credence goods in online shopping. Inf Syst E bus Manag 10:135–148

Whitener EM (2001) Do “high commitment” human resource practices affect employee commitment? A cross-level analysis using hierarchical linear modeling. J Manag 27:515–535

Won Jeong S, Fiore AM, Niehm LS, Lorenz FO (2009) The role of experiential value in online shopping: the impacts of product presentation on consumer responses towards an apparel web site. Internet Res 19:105–124

Wooten DB, Reed A II (1998) Informational influence and the ambiguity of product experience: order effects on the weighting of evidence. J Consum Psychol 7:79–99

Yoon D, Youn S (2016) Brand experience on the website: its mediating role between perceived interactivity and relationship quality. J Interact Advert 16:1–15

Zarantonello L, Schmitt BH (2010) Using the brand experience scale to profile consumers and predict consumer behaviour. J Brand Manag 17:532–540

Zarantonello L, Schmitt BH (2013) The impact of event marketing on brand equity: the mediating roles of brand experience and brand attitude. Int J Advert 32:255–280

Zenetti G, Klapper D (2016) Advertising effects under consumer heterogeneity–the moderating role of brand experience, advertising recall and attitude. J Retail 92:352–372

Zhang H, Lu Y, Gupta S, Zhao L (2014) What motivates customers to participate in social commerce? The impact of technological environments and virtual customer experiences. Inf Manag 51:1017–1030

Zhang H, Lu Y, Wang B, Wu S (2015) The impacts of technological environments and co-creation experiences on customer participation. Inf Manag 52:468–482

Zolfagharian M, Jordan AT (2007) Multiracial identity and art consumption. In: Belk RW, Sherry JF Jr (eds) Consumer culture theory. JAI Press, Oxford

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank editor-in-chief (Prof. Dr Joern Block), and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on this paper.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business and Accountancy, Graduate School of Business, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Muhammad Waqas & Zalfa Laili Binti Hamzah

Department of Operation and Management Information System, Faculty of Business and Accountancy, Graduate School of Business, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Noor Akma Mohd Salleh

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zalfa Laili Binti Hamzah .

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

See Table  8 .

See Table  9 .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Waqas, M., Hamzah, Z.L.B. & Salleh, N.A.M. Customer experience: a systematic literature review and consumer culture theory-based conceptualisation. Manag Rev Q 71 , 135–176 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-020-00182-w

Download citation

Received : 08 May 2019

Accepted : 10 February 2020

Published : 15 February 2020

Issue Date : February 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-020-00182-w

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Customer experience
• Literature review
• Consumer culture theory
• Online experience

JEL Classification

Advertisement

• Find a journal
• Publish with us

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base

Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

A faster, more affordable way to improve your paper

Scribbr’s new AI Proofreader checks your document and corrects spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes with near-human accuracy and the efficiency of AI!

Proofread my paper

To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, September 11). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved September 25, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, what is a theoretical framework | guide to organizing, what is a research methodology | steps & tips, how to write a research proposal | examples & templates, what is your plagiarism score.

Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library

• Collections
• Research Help

YSN Doctoral Programs: Steps in Conducting a Literature Review

• Biomedical Databases
• Global (Public Health) Databases
• Soc. Sci., History, and Law Databases
• Grey Literature
• Trials Registers
• Data and Statistics
• Public Policy
• Google Tips
• Recommended Books
• Steps in Conducting a Literature Review

What is a literature review?

A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question.  That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.

A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment.  Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.

Why is it important?

A literature review is important because it:

• Explains the background of research on a topic.
• Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
• Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
• Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
• Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
• Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.

APA7 Style resources

APA Style Blog - for those harder to find answers

1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.

Your literature review should be guided by your central research question.  the literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

• Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.  Is it manageable?
• Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
• If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.

2. Decide on the scope of your review

How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover? 

• This may depend on your assignment.  How many sources does the assignment require?

3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.

Make a list of the databases you will search. 

Where to find databases:

• use the tabs on this guide
• Find other databases in the Nursing Information Resources web page
• More on the Medical Library web page
• ... and more on the Yale University Library web page

4. Conduct your searches to find the evidence. Keep track of your searches.

• Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search. Use the database tutorials for help.
• Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Ask your librarian for help at any time.
• Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the repository for your citations. See the EndNote tutorials for help.

Review the literature

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

• What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
• Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
• What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
• Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
• If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
• How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?

Tips: 

• Review the abstracts carefully.  
• Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
• Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
• << Previous: Recommended Books
• Last Updated: Aug 16, 2023 2:59 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.yale.edu/YSNDoctoral