Firm-Customer Mobile Digital Connectedness: Conceptualization, measurement and application

Ubiquitous firm-customer digital connectedness for effective sensing and responding are a strategic imperative for firms in volatile environments. This paper conceptualizes and operationalizes the firmcustomer digital connectedness in the context of ubiquitous Smartmobile customer focussed shopping app in consumer retail and empirically investigated its implications on customer expectations, experiences and satisfaction. Based on survey data collected from 431 customers in a field study, we tested hypothesis pertaining to the firm-customer mobile digital connectedness and (i) customer expectations,(ii) customer experience, and (iii) customer satisfaction. Our analysis using non-linear postulations reveals that whilst customers raise their expectations as they increase their mobile digital interactions with a firm, their experiences as well as satisfaction also increases proportionately. Then we summarise the findings, contributions to research and practice, limitations and implications.