Let it flow: the role of seamlessness and the optimal experience on consumer word of mouth in omnichannel marketing

1 “This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Emerald Publishing Limited in Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, available online: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JRIM-06-20210154/full/html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss_journalLatest” Let it flow: the role of seamlessness and the optimal experience on consumer word-ofmouth in omnichannel marketing. Paula Rodríguez-Torrico, Department of Economics and Business Administration; Universidad de Burgos; Burgos; Spain. Rebeca San José Cabezudo, Department of Business Administration and Marketing; Universidad de Valladolid; Valladolid; Spain. Sonia San-Martín, Department of Economics and Business Administration; Universidad de Burgos; Burgos; Spain. Lauren Trabold Apadula, Marketing and Management Department; Manhattan College; New York; New York; United States. Corresponding author: Paula Rodríguez-Torrico ([email protected]) Abstract Purpose: Omnichannel consumers are more proactive, engage in longer shopping journeys, and share their experiences. However, their post-purchase behavioral responses remain understudied. This paper aims to examine how a seamless omnichannel environment can contribute to a more optimal shopping experience (flow state) and the subsequent impact on the likelihood of generating mixed (positive and negative) word-of-mouth (WOM). Design/methodology/approach: A controlled experiment was conducted with 220 participants to test the proposed model based on the S-O-R Model and Flow Theory. We conducted an analysis of variance, two regression analyses, and two mediation analyses to test the hypotheses. 2 Findings: The results confirm a positive direct effect of a seamless environment on consumers’ flow state and a positive (negative) direct impact of flow on the likelihood of generating positive (negative) WOM. Additionally, the results suggest that flow mediates the effect of a seamless environment on WOM. Originality/value: This study contributes to omnichannel and WOM literature by exploring the critical role of seamlessness in consumers’ subjective experience (flow state) and post-purchase behaviors (mixed WOM). In conjunction with the relevant theoretical contributions, these findings also offer guidelines for practitioners to manage the seamless environment and mixed WOM in the omnichannel context. Keywords Omnichannel marketing; Seamless; Flow state; Word-of-mouth; Consumer; Environment Introduction The current omnichannel business ecosystem is more complex since consumers interact with brands across various platforms in the digital and physical worlds (Wang, 2021). Consequently, the omnichannel shopping episode is longer than a shopping experience using a single channel and does not end when consumers purchase (Hall et al., 2017). However, little is known about how consumers engage in post-purchase behaviors in the omnichannel context. Firms must understand how to engage omnichannel customers (Cummins et al., 2016, Lemon and Verhoef, 2016, Lopes et al., in press). Lemon and Verhoef (2016) called for research exploring the impact of omnichannel marketing actions on customer behaviors, such as WOM. Recently, Lopes et al. (in press) recommended examining WOM in future omnichannel marketing investigations. 3 Literature has established the importance of positive and negative information shared by consumers on firms’ success, performance, or growth (Nam and Kannan, 2020). Thus, in the omnichannel context, where consumers use a wide range of platforms to interact with firms and are more active, the post-purchase stage also needs to be explored for research to thoroughly examine the omnichannel behavior. WOM scholars have related the likelihood of sharing positive and negative WOM with the confirmation of consumer expectations, such that after an interaction experience, consumers are more likely to share positive WOM (negative WOM) if it is (not) in line with their expectancies (e.g., Nam and Kannan, 2020). In the omnichannel context, consumers have become more demanding, and they expect an experience in which a firm’s retail channels are integrated with one another (Bijmolt et al., 2021), and synchronize the physical and digital worlds (Wang, 2021). The environment must be seamless, such that it provides an improved consumer experience during all the stages of the decision-making process (Verhoef et al., 2015, Gao et al., 2021). Consequently, consumers require a seamlessly integrated environment to achieve such superior experience (Huré et al., 2017). Past research similarly suggests that consumers have a positive experience when they enter a flow state (Drengner et al., 2018, O'Cass and Carlson, 2010), which occurs when they are fully immersed in the shopping process (Triantafillidou et al., 2017). Moreover, a superior omnichannel experience is related to flow state (Hilken et al., 2018, Quach et al., in press). Thus, a seamless environment across multiple touchpoints may facilitate consumers to enter into the flow state and achieve an optimal experience. However, while extensive research has theorized and offered evidence about the importance of seamlessness (Hilken et al., 2018, Shen et al., 2018), there is a lack of literature examining how 4 a seamless omnichannel environment affects consumer engagement in all stages of the purchase process. In addition, post-purchase behaviors, such as positive and negative WOM, are necessary to explore since they are a critical outcome of the experience (Lopes et al., in press, Manser Payne et al., 2017). To fill this gap, this work aims to understand how a seamless environment contributes to the consumer’s optimal experience, or flow state, and the impact that this may have on positive and negative WOM (PWOM and NWOM). To explain these relationships, we use an integrating theoretical framework based on two traditional theories: The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) Model (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974) and The Flow Theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). This paper focuses on the interactive experience in omnichannel marketing (Wang, 2021), and consequently, the results of this work will allow us to advance the knowledge of omnichannel marketing in this field. The analyses also show interesting results and expose the positive outcomes for the firms and the dark side of an underdeveloped seamless environment. Theoretical background: The Stimulus-Organism-Response Model The S-O-R Model was developed in environmental psychology by Mehrabian and Russell (1974) to offer a theoretical basis for studying the effects of contextual stimuli on people’s behavior. The S-O-R model suggests that certain environmental cues act as stimuli that may influence an individual’s internal states, which, in turn, affect behavioral intentions or responses (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). Stimuli (S) is defined as “an influence that arouses the individual” (Eroglu et al., 2001, p. 179). They are external to the person and could consist of marketing mix variables and other 5 environmental inputs (Bagozzi, 1986), such as atmospheric cues, website design, or vendor information (Roschk et al., 2017). Organism (O) consists of internal processes and structures intervening between contextual stimuli on the person and the actions or responses emitted. These intervening or mediating processes comprise perceptual, physiological, feeling and thinking activities (Bagozzi, 1986), such as emotions or flow state (Huang, 2012, Eroglu et al., 2001). Finally, the response (R) is presented as an approach-avoidance behavior , “where approach behaviors refer to the positive actions that are directed toward a particular setting, while avoidance concerns the opposite” (Eroglu et al., 2001, p. 182). Generally, prior studies have considered purchase-related behaviors (Roschk et al., 2017) and relationship behaviors, such as loyalty or WOM intention (e.g., Islam and Rahman, 2017, Wu et al., 2017) as outcome variables within the S-O-R Model. The S-O-R model has dominated marketing literature and consumer behavior studies that seek to understand the impact of the environment on individual reactions and responses (e.g., Ettis, 2017). Moreover, the literature has amply proven S-O-R applicability in offline and online contexts (Eroglu et al., 2001, Roschk et al., 2017). In addition, the S-O-R model has offered promising results in showrooming and multichannel contexts (Arora et al., 2020, Pantano and Viassone, 2015), as well as to study the effect of channel integration quality on omnichannel customer experiences (Le and Nguyen-Le, 2021). Thus, S-O-R is useful for exploring the omnichannel environment and understanding the interconnections among offline and online channels. Moreover, the S-O-R model is suitable to examine the individuals’ internal reactions and their subsequent participation as a result of the omnichannel marketing actions made by retailers, thus also considering the marketing management perspective (García-de-Frutos and Estrella-Ramón, 2021). 6 As a result, this paper proposes that the seamless omnichannel environment is a stimulus, flow state is the internal process or organism, and positive and negative WOM are the approachavoidance behavioral responses, respectively. Figure 1 represents the application of the S-O-R Model to the current work. [INSERT FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE] Stimuli: The seamless omnichannel environment In the omnichannel context, consumers switch between or simultaneously use multiple channels when shopping, and they expect a unified experience in which they can easily transition between channels. Thus, the barriers between channels are blurred to provide a seamless environment (Shen et al., 2018, Verhoef et al., 2015). Prior research has confirmed that, specifically, the seamlessness of the experience characterizes the omnichannel environment (e.g. Shen et al., 2018, Verhoef et al., 2015). A key aspect to creating seamlessness is channel integration (Hossain et al., 2020, Shen et al., 2018). The environment must allow consumers to consistently and freely move between parallel channels (Shen et al., 2018) by coordinating processes and technologies (Saghiri et al., 2017). Firms need to provide the resources for consumers to switch across channels and devices seamlessly (Verhoef et al., 2015). Specifically, a seamless omnichannel environment should provide consistent information across channels, allow consumers to freely choose among all parallel channels at each stage of the shopping experience, and offer synchronization between channels, such that there is no rupture when moving from one touchpoint to another (Rodríguez-Torrico et al., 2020). Organism: Flow state 7 The Flow Theory, also called the optimal experience theory, was developed to investigate the nature and conditions of the subjective phenomenon of intrinsically motivated activity (i.e. flow) (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). Flow is defined as the “holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975, p. 36), and it describes an optimal state during which an individual is intensely engaged in an activity, with no attention left over to engage in irrelevant thoughts (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). As a result, under flow conditions, an “experience seamlessly unfolds from moment to moment, and people enter a subjective state” (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002, p. 90). Moreover, Flow Theory posits that an optimal experience (i.e., flow state) will be achieved when a person perceives that the environment contains great enough opportunities for action, which are matched with the person’s capacities to act (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Therefore, to analyze flow, it is necessary to consider the person-environment interactions (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). Response: Positive and Negative Word of Mouth WOM communication entails “any information about a target object (e.g., company, brand) transferred from one individual to another either in person or via some communication medium” (Brown et al., 2005, p. 125). Increasingly scholars are acknowledging the existence of mixed WOM, which includes both PWOM and NWOM. This variable is critical for firms because consumers view WOM as one of the most trusted and reliable information sources (Burnham and Leary, 2018) shared by unbiased peers (Nam and Kannan, 2020). Importantly, depending on its valence, it might have a different impact on firms. PWOM may be valuable for firms since it predicts consumer purchase intentions (Yusuf et al., 2018). This could contribute to an increase in a firm’s financial performance (Keiningham et al., 2018). On the 8 contrary, NWOM may dissuade such purchase intentions (Balaji et al., 2016), negatively affect product attitude, firm trust, or brand equity (Balaji et al., 2016), or increase switching behaviors (Azemi et al., 2020). WOM behavior has been analyzed as an activity that reflects customer engagement, which is proposed as a vehicle for creating and maintaining customer-firm relationships (Brodie et al., 2013). Thus, engagement is materialized in the interactions between the consumer with a brand that go beyond the purchase or transaction (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014) and affect a firm’s performance (Kumar et al., 2010). However, this occurs as long as WOM is positive. Prior literature has shown that NWOM can occur when firms do not meet consumer expectations or when consumers experience frustration or negative emotions, which produces dissatisfaction (Nam and Kannan, 2020). Research hypotheses Seamlessness and flow state (S-O relationship) The omnichannel environment offers a seamless interaction if consumers have the opportunity to freely and effortlessly switch between channels and touchpoints during the different phases of the customer journey, without any information loss or reiteration (Rodríguez-Torrico et al., 2020, p. 1732). A seamless omnichannel environment reduces barriers between channels and enables customers to select their preferred channel with less effort (Gao et al., 2021). Therefore, firms’ decisions regarding seamless channel integration impact the consumers’ omnichannel experience (Le and Nguyen-Le, 2021), and firms must optimize all touchpoints to create a unified experience for omnichannel consumers (Verhoef et al., 2015). In this sense, firms are critical facilitators of the state of flow, since an optimal shopping environment can immerse the consumer in the experience (Drengner et al., 2018, O'Cass and Carlson, 2010) and allow them to become intensely engaged in an activity, with no attention 9 left over to engage in irrelevant thoughts (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Flow state is a valuable indicator of individuals’ superior experiences when navigating in the online environment (Huang et al., 2012). In the omnichannel context, when the consumer-firm interactions are seamless and integrated, the environment facilitates a high degree of flow (Parise et al., 2016), which leads to an optimal user experience (Drengner et al., 2018). When the service is integrated –consistent and transparent– across channels, consumers achieve a superior omnichannel experience, that is, they enter into flow state (Quach et al., in press). Consequently, H1: A seamless omnichannel environment will have a direct and positive effect on flow state. Flow state and WOM (O-R relationship) The post-purchase stage is a critical part of fully understanding the omnichannel experience. Research has called for exploration into this stage, including variables such as WOM (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Since WOM is a highly trusted source of information (Burnham and Leary, 2018), firms should identify aspects of the omnichannel experience that can subsequently encourage consumers to generate PWOM and avoid sharing NWOM. Previous literature on WOM has found that consumers engage in positive and negative WOM after their experiences with brands (Nam and Kannan, 2020). In other words, literature has confirmed the importance of the customer experience in enhancing WOM (Zhang et al., 2017). Considering that flow state (the optimal experience) is part of the consumer experience in omnichannel contexts (Hilken et al., 2018, Quach et al., in press), it appears to be a potential antecedent of WOM. When consumers are in flow, they are more likely to share their experiences and give recommendations to others (Herrando et al., 2018). Moreover, consumers experience flow when they are satisfied with the task being performed (Lloyd et al., 2014). 16 Due to the effect of omnichannel frequency in the ANOVA and regression analysis above, omnichannel frequency was included in Model 4 as a covariate to control its effect on the main relationships. This variable has positive and significant impact on flow state (Effect = .2637) and PWOM (Effect = .2426), but the indirect effect of seamlessness on PWOM through flow state is still significant, as illustrated by the 95% confidence interval (.5241, .9232). This suggests that while the effect of seamlessness on PWOM and NWOM through flow state occurs as predicted in H3, the frequency with which a consumer engages in omnichannel shopping behavior also has a positive impact on both PWOM and the experience of flow state in an omnichannel context. On the contrary, omnichannel frequency is not relevant in the case of engaging in NWOM. Discussion and implications This research aims to empirically examine how marketing actions regarding seamlessness can affect consumers’ internal reactions and post-purchase behavioral behaviors, represented by positive and negative WOM. The results of this experiment provide support for the hypothesized theoretical relationships. The findings confirm that a more seamless omnichannel environment positively influences consumers’ likelihood of entering a flow state, empirically confirming previous literature that suggested the importance of a seamless and integrated environment to create an optimal experience (Parise et al., 2016). We pioneer the manipulation of a hypothetical omnichannel encounter using three different touchpoints and analyze how specific omnichannel marketing decisions regarding seamlessness influence the optimal experience. This advances literature that proposed some integration activities as determinants of the customer experience in this context (Quach et al., in press). Flow state is also confirmed as an antecedent of WOM. This finding extends previous literature that confirmed positive WOM as a result of flow (O'Cass and Carlson, 2010) to the domain of 17 omnichannel marketing, confirming the positive impact of flow on the likelihood of sharing PWOM (Herrando et al., 2018). It also introduces NWOM as part of this behavioral outcome and highlights the ability of the omnichannel environment to stimulate NWOM when flow is lacking. In addition, our results show that flow state has a greater influence on PWOM than lack of flow does on NWOM. This could indicate current consumer experiences regarding seamless omnichannel integration and could suggest that firms widely have underdeveloped the seamlessness across channels. A seamless experience is uniquely positive and creates a large desire amongst consumers to spread PWOM. However, as a seamless experience becomes the norm, the impact of flow in NWOM may change. In addition to these direct relationships, our results confirm a mediation, so when consumers interact with a seamless (non-seamless) environment, they are more (less) likely to enter a flow state, and subsequently, their likelihood of sharing PWOM (NWOM) increases. This result confirms previous statements that suggested that offering a seamless experience will increase consumers’ engagement (Mosquera et al., 2017). Moreover, these results support previous research that found that consumers engage in positive and negative WOM after both satisfied and dissatisfied experiences, respectively (Nam and Kannan, 2020). Relatedly, in the omnichannel context, consumers’ expectations are confirmed when the environment is consistent and allows them to freely choose their preferred channel and move fluently across touchpoints, which results in PWOM. This result offers a response to the open question proposed by Cummins et al. (2016) and Lemon and Verhoef (2016) regarding how omnichannel marketing actions influence WOM. Additionally, it supports prior literature that has stated that consumers may be more proactive in sharing PWOM if the context offers them seamless and positive experiences (Mosquera et 18 al., 2017), and extends these findings by illustrating that seamlessness is also crucial in the case of NWOM. Moreover, after additional analysis, an unexpected relationship was also found regarding omnichannel frequency. As a consumer’s omnichannel frequency increases, their likelihood of entering a flow state during the omnichannel interaction and their PWOM intentions are enhanced. More research is needed to explore the influence of omnichannel frequency; however, this finding supports the Flow Theory propositions: the flow state occurs when both the environmental opportunities and the individual capacities are in balance (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). In prior literature, little is known about the influence of experience in the context on the likelihood of sharing PWOM, although it has been briefly mentioned (de Matos and Vargas Rossi, 2008). In the case of flow, Quach et al. (in press) tested the moderating role of showrooming behaviors on service integration and customer experience relationship. Thus, our results show a potential line of research within flow state and WOM behaviors. Theoretical implications This work contributes to omnichannel marketing research by exploring how a seamless environment may create an optimal experience and how both impact engagement behaviors. This research also adds to WOM literature by examining antecedents of WOM and also contributes generally to the theory by broadening the scope of the S-O-R Model and Flow Theory. First, omnichannel literature has emphasized that the key differentiating component of omnichannel is the seamlessness of the transition between retail channels (Huré et al., 2017, Verhoef et al., 2015). However, research that explores the effects of a seamless environment is still limited. Some exceptions include the recent work of Quach et al. (in press) that examines 19 service integration actions, the work of Gao et al. (2021) that introduces customer experience incongruence, or the work of Ameen et al. (2021) that separately analyzes the elements of the physical and digital environments. The current research first examines the seamless environment’s influence on both an optimal experience (flow state) and consumer brand-related behavior (represented by positive and negative WOM). We advance the literature by filling a gap in understanding the impact of seamlessness and introducing a way to control the underlying elements of what makes the omnichannel environment seamless. Concretely, the experimental design created a realistic shopping encounter (Ellett, 2018) while allowing the effect of seamlessness to be isolated. Second, this work also contributes to omnichannel marketing and WOM literature by responding to calls by scholars to deepen the knowledge of the post-purchase stage within the omnichannel context (Cummins et al., 2016, Lemon and Verhoef, 2016, Lopes et al., in press). Specifically, this research addresses a gap in the literature regarding the impact of omnichannel marketing efforts on WOM. Even though this variable has been critical for understanding consumer behavior in offline and online contexts, its role in omnichannel retailing is currently understudied (Manser Payne et al., 2017, Rodríguez-Torrico et al., 2020). Some exceptions have studied the effect of channel integration quality on engaging in positive WOM (Lee et al., 2019). We extend this line of research on sharing WOM behaviors by considering both PWOM and NWOM. Therefore, our research goes a step forward in this domain, supporting the relationship between marketing efforts for seamlessness on post-purchase behaviors like positive and negative WOM, as well as highlighting the mediating role of consumer internal states. Concretely, our results confirm that seamlessness contributes to WOM directly and indirectly through flow state. 20 Third, this paper contributes to theory by deepening the understanding of the S-O-R Model and Flow Theory in the omnichannel domain. Regarding the S-O-R Model, this work builds on environmental psychology literature and confirms the suitability of this theory in the omnichannel marketing domain (Le and Nguyen-Le, 2021). In the omnichannel context, there is a confluence of several environments related to each channel, and these channels are used in combination with one another. Thus, the stimuli are the result of the integration of the environments across different channels. In previous research, stimuli were captured by asking about perceptions of channels separately (Arora et al., 2020, Pantano and Viassone, 2015). In this research, we broaden the scope of environmental stimuli by presenting channels as interrelated and integrated to offer a more realistic picture of the omnichannel environment. Finally, this paper advances research on flow state by extending the study of flow into the omnichannel context. Prior omnichannel literature has explored flow without considering a shopping encounter where a consumer expects to interact with different channels seamlessly (Ameen et al., in press, Quach et al., in press). However, as the number of channels increases, the interactions become more complex. Thus, creating an optimal environment that facilitates entering a flow state becomes more difficult because, by nature, each customer may fluctuate between channels at their discretion. Consequently, the challenge is to facilitate flow state on each available channel and cohesively as consumers move between channels. Flow Theory proposes that flow depends on achieving a perfect balance between perceived action capacities and perceived action opportunities (Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). Our results reveal that this equilibrium is achieved in the omnichannel context when firms offer a seamless environment (the opportunity for action) and consumers present high omnichannel frequency (the individual capacities to act). Managerial implications 21 This study presents relevant managerial implications for developing innovative omnichannel strategies. First, omnichannel marketing practitioners should conceive all channels as unified to fully integrate all consumer touchpoints so that consumers perceive a single seamless channel. To that end, marketers should assess the level of seamlessness that they provide across channels. Then, marketing actions should ensure consistency, freedom to select channels, and synchronization across the available channels (Rodríguez-Torrico et al., 2020). According to our findings, these elements make the omnichannel environment seamless, allowing consumers to be fully immersed in the shopping process and enter a flow state. To achieve such an environment, it is necessary to develop cohesive brand image, prices, promotions, products, and services across all touchpoints, and the touchpoints must also be synchronized, creating a unified way of interacting with customers in all channels. If there are inconsistencies across channels, the experience will not flow, and thus the customer is more prone to share the negative experience as a result. Second, firms should focus on promoting the omnichannel shopping processes among those consumers who are prone to combine channels. Our results show that the likelihood of entering flow and sharing positive WOM rises for those consumers who are frequent omnichannel shoppers. Thus, it is recommended for firms to design activities that enhance consumer use of the available channels interchangeably and, in this way, they will encourage the omniconsumers to increase their omnichannel frequency. For example, firms could offer promotions for customers to buy a product in the physical store and receive a digital ticket that could be stored in the app. To do so, firms need to ensure that each channel is designed to allow consumers to continue their purchase process at any stage so that consumers can use them interchangeably, while maintaining flow as they switch between them. This may also be applied in other contexts, such as public policy since omnichannel behavior is typical for C2A 22 (Consumer to Administration) commerce. Such firms could invest in increasing the availability of different channels, manage them to avoid repetitive information, train employees and users how to navigate across several channels or create guides explaining how to do the procedures through different channels. Third, a firm should pay special attention to the optimal consumer experience. The present research results suggest that flow state facilitates PWOM, which is critical for a firm’s performance and a free method of reliable communication that can reduce communication expenses. However, our findings also emphasize the importance of a low degree of flow in stimulating NWOM. So, facilitating the optimal experience could prevent costly actions to address the potential damages produced by NWOM communications. Therefore, in addition to focusing on the objective and controllable aspects (i.e., the environment), firms should strive to create a subjective and enjoyable experience (i.e., flow state), which, jointly, will improve consumer responses (i.e., WOM). Consequently, companies should create a seamless environment that is both appealing to consumers and allows them appropriate opportunities to act and, as a result, enter a flow state. Managers should understand the channel preferences of their customers and ensure that the firm’s channels enable customers to act following their preferences. Limitations and Future Research There are some limitations of the current research. A hypothetical shopping scenario was provided to participants, so the product being purchased and channels used during the shopping experience were restricted to what was provided in the experimental stimuli. An experiment allows for the systematic manipulation of the stimuli, but, on the contrary, it has limitations regarding the realism of the purchase process. Future research may assess the realism score of 23 the stimuli used or examine this phenomenon using more dynamic stimuli that allow consumers to organically navigate the channels as they would in a real shopping situation. Other external factors that could affect the experience (e.g., internet speed; type of device) may be considered. Additionally, as in prior research (e.g., O'Cass and Carlson, 2010), flow state was measured through a scale, which is a declarative technique. As this technique can influence the results, future research could apply some neuromarketing tools, such as electroencephalographic (EEG), which may allow the observation of internal processes and better address this variable or complement its measurement. Finally, concerning WOM, a scale measuring the likelihood of engaging in WOM was used to assess this outcome instead of measuring the natural behavior. This paper has only considered mixed WOM as behavioral outcomes; further studies may include other behavioral responses such as repurchase intention, brand love, and consumer empowerment. In addition, it could be useful to continue to study WOM as they may evolve –firms may continue to increase seamlessness, so changes in consumer expectations might have a different impact on PWOM or NWOM and change what we currently found. Similarly, future research is necessary to study the role of omnichannel frequency as an explicative variable and to fully understand how it influences consumer engagement with a firm in the omnichannel domain, considering both omni-consumers and those who do not seek to use multiple channels during the purchase process. Moreover, future research could also identify a boundary condition that could moderate the relationships found here. REFERENCES Ameen, N., Tarhini, A., Shah, M. & Madichie, N.O. (in press), "Going with the flow: smart shopping malls and omnichannel retailing", Journal of Services Marketing. 24 Ameen, N., Tarhini, A., Shah, M.H. & Nusair, K. (2021), "A cross cultural study of gender differences in omnichannel retailing contexts", Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 58, pp. 102265. Arora, S., Parida, R.R. & Sahney, S. (2020), "Understanding consumers' showrooming behaviour: a stimulus–organism–response (SOR) perspective", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 48, No. 11, pp. 1157-1176. Azemi, Y., Ozuem, W. & Howell, K.E. (2020), "The effects of online negative word‐of‐mouth on dissatisfied customers: A frustration–aggression perspective", Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 564-577. Bagozzi, R.P. (1986), Principles of marketing management, Science Research Associates, Chicago, US. Balaji, M., Khong, K.W. & Chong, A.Y.L. (2016), "Determinants of negative word-of-mouth communication using social networking sites", Information & Management, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 528-540. Bijmolt, T.H., Broekhuis, M., De Leeuw, S., Hirche, C., Rooderkerk, R.P., Sousa, R. & Zhu, S.X. (2021), "Challenges at the marketing–operations interface in omni-channel retail environments", Journal of Business Research, Vol. 122, pp. 864-874. Bougie, R., Pieters, R. & Zeelenberg, M. (2003), "Angry customers don't come back, they get back: The experience and behavioral implications of anger and dissatisfaction in services", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 377-393. Brodie, R.J., Ilic, A., Juric, B. & Hollebeek, L. (2013), "Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis", Journal of Business Research, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 105-114. Brown, T.J., Barry, T.E., Dacin, P.A. & Gunst, R.F. (2005), "Spreading the word: Investigating antecedents of consumers’ positive word-of-mouth intentions and behaviors in a retailing context", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 123-138. Burnham, T.A. & Leary, R.B. (2018), "Word of mouth opportunity: why recommendation likelihood overestimates positive word of mouth", Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 368-389. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975), Beyond boredom and anxiety, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1990. Flow: The psychology of optimal performance. New York, US: Harper and Row. Cummins, S., Peltier, J. & Dixon, A. (2016), "Omni-channel research framework in the context of personal selling and sales management: A review and research extensions", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 2-16. de Matos, C.A. & Vargas Rossi, C.A. (2008), "Word-of-mouth communications in marketing: a meta-analytic review of the antecedents and moderators", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 578-596. Drengner, J., Jahn, S. & Furchheim, P. (2018), "Flow revisited: process conceptualization and a novel application to service contexts", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 703-734. Ellett, J. (2018), New Research Shows Growing Impact Of Online Research On In-Store Purchases. Forbes. Eroglu, S.A., Machleit, K.A. & Davis, L.M. (2001), "Atmospheric qualities of online retailing: A conceptual model and implications", Journal of Business research, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 177-184. 25 Ettis, S.A. (2017), "Examining the relationships between online store atmospheric color, flow experience and consumer behavior", Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 37, pp. 43-55. Gao, W., Li, W., Fan, H. & Jia, X. (2021), "How customer experience incongruence affects omnichannel customer retention: The moderating role of channel characteristics", Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 60, pp. 102487. García-de-Frutos, N. & Estrella-Ramón, A. (2021), "You absolutely (don’t) need this!examining differences on customer engagement components for (anti)haul youtubers’ videos", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 86-103. Guèvremont, A. & Grohmann, B. (2016), "The brand authenticity effect: situational and individual-level moderators", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 50, No. 3/4, pp. 602-620. Hall, A., Towers, N. & Shaw, D.R. (2017), "Understanding how Millennial shoppers decide what to buy: Digitally connected unseen journeys", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 498-517. Hayes, A.F. (2013), Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach, Guilford Press, New York, US. Herrando, C., Jimenez-Martinez, J. & Martin De Hoyos, M.J. (2018), "From sPassion to sWOM: the role of flow", Online Information Review, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 191-204. Hilken, T., Heller, J., Chylinski, M., Keeling Debbie, I., Mahr, D. & de Ruyter, K. (2018), "Making omnichannel an augmented reality: the current and future state of the art", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 509-523. Hossain, T.M.T., Akter, S., Kattiyapornpong, U. & Dwivedi, Y. (2020), "Reconceptualizing Integration Quality Dynamics for Omnichannel Marketing", Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 87, pp. 225-241. Huang, E. (2012), "Online experiences and virtual goods purchase intention", Internet Research, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 252-274. Huang, Y.C., Backman, S.J. & Backman, K.F. (2012), "Exploring the impacts of involvement and flow experiences in Second Life on people's travel intentions", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 4-13. Huré, E., Picot-Coupey, K. & Ackermann, C.-L. (2017), "Understanding omni-channel shopping value: A mixed-method study", Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 39, pp. 314-330. Islam, J.U. & Rahman, Z. (2017), "The impact of online brand community characteristics on customer engagement: An application of Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm", Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 96-109. Jaakkola, E. & Alexander, M. (2014), "The role of customer engagement behavior in value cocreation: a service system perspective", Journal of service research, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 247-261. Keiningham, T.L., Rust, R.T., Lariviere, B., Aksoy, L. & Williams, L. (2018), "A roadmap for driving customer word-of-mouth", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 2-38. Kumar, V., Aksoy, L., Donkers, B., Venkatesan, R., Wiesel, T. & Tillmanns, S. (2010), "Undervalued or overvalued customers: capturing total customer engagement value", Journal of service research, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 297-310.