Empowering customer education: a research agenda for marketing studies

The aim of this paper is to build upon previous research about customer education in the marketing studies in order to identify research gaps in the existing marketing literature and to suggest a research agenda about this topic. The analytical approach of this paper draws heavily on theoretical evidence published in the marketing literature. From a methodological point of view, after an extensive review of marketing studies on this topic, a content analysis was conducted in relation to the study’s purpose in order to reveal potential gaps in literature and suggest a research agenda about customer education in marketing studies. Based on the findings, the following future research directions are proposed: 1) integration of the concepts of customer education, expertise and knowledge; 2) analyses of the advantages of customer education for internationalization as well as the identification of risks connected with educating customers; 3) measurement of customer education; 4) investigation of companies that actually offer customer education programs, and 5) examination of different service contexts. Marketing scholars can use this paper as a reference for identifying specific research areas to be investigated and further enhance existing knowledge.