The influence of customer three-stage experience on purchase intention of derivative works in service-intensive industry

In service-intensive industries, customer experience is considered the primary product. Unlike intangible experience, derivative works play a powerful strategic role in creating more marketing opportunities, profit and customer experience enhancement. Most service-intensive companies believe that providing memorable and unique experiences with supporting derivative works helps attract greater demand and maintain a competitive position in a market. Therefore, in a hypercompetitive market, companies need to develop a mechanism to provide customers with comprehensive staging experience to improve customers’ purchase intention regarding derivative works and prolong customers’ memorability of the experience. Empirical research develops the parameters of an experience into three stages: pre-experience, participation experience and post-experience. However, these stages are typically evaluated in isolation using different variables, and most studies focus on isolated aspects, overlooking the multifaceted outcomes of customer experiences. They also often limit their scope to a single organization or country. Hence, the current research has five primary objectives: (1) to examine the influence of customer experience on the purchase intention of derivative works; (2) to investigate more potential factors in evaluating the three stages of customer experience; (3) to explore the relationships among those factors for each stage of customer experience; (4) to consider the aftermath of the experience as a series of responses; (5) to provide cross-national research between China and the US. The study, set in museums, gathered 640 valid responses (326 from the US and 314 from China) and employed structural equation modeling. It revealed strong correlations among factors in the three-stage experience. This research enhances our understanding of the three-stage customer experience model, bridges tangible and intangible products, and provides insights into varying outcomes between China and the US, addressing inconsistencies in the existing literature.