PurposeSocial media has emerged as a new marketing channel and an important source for customer inspiration. Understanding the sources and consequences of customer inspiration via social media is important for both researchers and marketers. However, little has been done to empirically examine customer inspiration in the social media context. Specifically, the process through which customers become inspired and motivated by social media to purchase the advertised products remains elusive. Therefore, this study extends the conceptualisation of customer inspiration into the social media context, and explores the antecedents of customer inspiration from three perspectives: informational, social and personal. This study also examines the impact of customer inspiration on customers' behavioral intention.Design/methodology/approachSurvey methodology was used and data from 679 respondents were collected in China. To examine the hypothesized relationships, partial least squares (PLS) was used to analyse the data and Smart PLS 3.0 was used for data analysis.FindingsThe study findings demonstrated that the vividness of ads, social influence and promotion focus had positive impacts on the “inspired-by state”, and subsequently the “inspired-to state”, which in turn positively influenced customers' purchasing intentions. However, media richness has a negative impact on the “inspired-by state”.Originality/valueThis study provides the first evidence of customer inspiration via social media and examines its antecedents and consequences. Practically, this study offers useful guidelines and suggestions for firms on how to inspire customers using social media.

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PurposeThe main purpose of this study is to summarize the key literature about research on customer experience, understand the evolution of research hotspots in this research field, build a general theoretical framework on customer experience research and finally point out directions for future research in customer experience.Design/methodology/approachUsing CiteSpace V software which is a scientific measurement tool, this study conducts a systematic analysis of relevant literature on customer experience, and develops a general framework of customer experience research based on analysis of time-zone of citations and time-line visual knowledge map of keywords.FindingsBased on the results of the authors’ analysis, this study found that customer experience research mainly includes the following three research areas: (1) Research on the definition and extension of customer experience; (2) Research on the influencing factors of customer experience: from both enterprise perspective and customer perspective; (3) Research on the outcomes and consequences of customer experience. The authors also analyzed the research methods used in customer experience research and found that quantitative research method based on regression model was most commonly used. Finally, the authors identified gaps in the current literature and put forward the directions for future research from four aspects: to further the understanding of the concept of customer experience; to identify more relevant influencing factors of customer experience; to explore the outcomes and consequences of customer experience; and to diversify research methods in customer experience research.Originality/valueOverall, this study not only provides an important reference for further research in the field of customer experience, but also offers important insights to the practice.

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This study examines consumers' perceived value in social commerce in terms of utilitarian, hedonic and social values. We developed a comprehensive model on consumers' perceived value in social commerce, including antecedents of perceived values such as information quality, personalization, perceived playfulness, interactivity, and social presence, and the relationship between perceived value and attitude and purchase intention. Data was collected from an online survey. Results from the data analysis suggest that information quality and personalization affect consumers' perceived utilitarian value; pesonalization, perceived playfulness and interactivity influence consumers' perception on hedonic value; whereas interactivity and social presence contribute to consumers' perceived social value.