Customer experience–marketing alignment as a dynamic organisational capability : balancing structural continuity and behavioural adaptability

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Almoraish, Ahmed and Gounaris, Spiros (2026) Customer experience–marketing alignment as a dynamic organisational capability : balancing structural continuity and behavioural adaptability. European Journal of Marketing. ISSN 0309-0566 (In Press)

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Abstract

Purpose: This study examines how customer experience (CX) management aligns with broader marketing strategy in B2B contexts, focusing on how the stability of the supplier’s interacting team and the use of financial incentives jointly shape CX and subsequent buyer behaviour. The study conceptualises CX–marketing alignment as a dynamic organisational capability that balances structural continuity and behavioural adaptability. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-methods approach was employed. Study 1 used a quantitative two-wave time-lagged design involving B2B customers in the UK, ensuring temporal separation between predictors and outcomes. Study 2 involved semi-structured interviews with a subset of these customers to contextualise and interpret the quantitative findings. Findings: Results show that stability of the supplier’s interacting team strengthens the influence of supplier offerings on CX by enhancing factual, emotional, and social experiences, while limiting the impact on sagacious experience. Financial incentives weaken the link between sagacious experience and behaviour but enhance the effect of social experience. These mechanisms demonstrate that CX–marketing alignment functions as a paradoxical and dynamic process of balancing continuity and adaptation. Originality: The study demonstrates that CX–marketing alignment is not a static organisational condition but a dynamic, tension-laden capability shaped by two interdependent mechanisms: structural continuity, reflected in supplier team stability, and economic control, reflected in financial incentives. Its success depends on how firms manage the paradox between relational continuity and behavioural adaptability. Research limitations/implications: This study positions CX–marketing alignment as a dynamic organisational capability balancing continuity and adaptability. Future research could extend this perspective by linking paradox management to ambidexterity, dynamic capabilities, and systems theory, and by examining how digitalisation and AI-driven marketing systems reshape alignment across industries and cultural contexts. Practical implications: The study highlights two managerial levers for sustained CX alignment: maintaining stable yet adaptable customer-facing teams and designing balanced incentive systems that promote both relational continuity and behavioural flexibility.

ORCID iDs

Almoraish, Ahmed ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4724-9204 and Gounaris, Spiros ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1328-8512;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)