Lemon and Verhoef win the 2021 Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award

The winner of the 2021 Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award is Katherine N. Lemon (Boston College) and Peter C. Verhoef (University of Groningen) for their article “Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey,” published in Volume 80 of the Journal of Marketing.

This article honors the article published in Journal of Marketing that has made long-term contributions to the field of marketing. An article is eligible for consideration to receive the award in the fifth year after its publication in the Journal of Marketing. The criteria for selection include the quality of the article’s contribution to theory and practice, its originality, its technical competence (if relevant), and its impact on the field of marketing.

The selection committee comprised of Rob Palmatier (JM Editor and Chair), Hari Sridhar, Amber Epp, and Christian Homburg noted, “We are delighted to recognize Kay and Peter’s article as the winner of this prestigious award. It is deserving for the many contributions it makes to marketing theory and practice. First, the paper offers a common language surrounding customer experience (CX) and the customer journey. Specifically, by taking a historical perspective, it shows how new concepts such as CX and the customer journey build upon earlier theory development in, for example, service and relationship marketing and customer-centric management. By schematizing the customer journey from search to purchase to post-purchase, the paper puts forward a common way to conceptualize the customer journey. Second, the paper introduces a new typology of customer touchpoints: brand-owned, partner-owned, customer-owned touchpoints, and social/external touchpoints. This classification has proven to be powerful in classifying touchpoints and understanding the role touchpoints plays in the customer journey. Lastly, the paper offers a research agenda in conceptualization and measurement of CX, antecedents and consequences of CX, customer journey mapping (new techniques, segmentation), and the implementation of CX management within firms.”