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Customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions substantially affect the overall service experience. This study attempts to provide a better and deeper understanding of C2C interactions during the customer journey in the banking industry. The study aims to investigate the complexities of these interactions and to detect their outcomes and further implications in banking services.

This study used a sequential mixed-method approach. Firstly, semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify the components of C2C interactions during the customer journey. Subsequently, thematic analysis was performed to categorize the data and extract relevant components. Secondly, structural equation modeling was used to investigate the role of C2C interactions in behavioral outcomes.

The findings reveal that during the customer journey, C2C interactions plays a key role by providing information, managing queuing behavior, providing resources, and addressing issues related to other customers’ misbehavior. Additionally, C2C interactions have a positive direct effect on the customer experience, satisfaction, and loyalty. Customer experience, in turn, affects customer satisfaction and loyalty.

This study highlights the need for academic scholars to prioritize customers’ interaction during the customer journey in financial services, addressing a gap between industry directions and academic research in customer experience. Also, the findings help service providers develop effective strategies to enhance the customer experience by focusing on C2C interactions during the customer journey.

Religious and peculiar beliefs are two of the factors affecting consumer behavior and may differentially affect individuals and societies. Therefore, this study aims to investigate them from the study of Iranian customers’ behavior.

These beliefs are sensitive issues, hence, to investigate them, the grounded theory method through 15 in-depth interviews was applied.

The results indicated that evil-eye effect, as a peculiar belief, affected the behavior of luxury cars’ consumers in the Iranian society while religion had no such effect on the consumers’ behavior, in spite of religious notions about luxury. Furthermore, the findings revealed that consumers may legitimize their inconsistent behaviors through a variety of tactics such as different interpretations of religious notions or dissembling their superstitious beliefs.

The present study will contribute to the literature on religion and customer behavior through taking advantage of the application of a qualitative research design. Besides, the originality of the study might be in the application of various tactics by the customers to legitimize their behaviors inconsistent with religion.

This study, by applying psychological life-space theory, aims to identify the role of banking activities in customers’ well-being.

Following a quantitative approach, a two-stage method of structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. Through a close-ended questionnaire, data were obtained from banks’ customers. A partial least squares regression was used to test both inner and outer models. Sample power software was used to calculate the minimum sample size of the study.

A new variable namely customer well-being stems from banking activities identified which is assumed to be influenced by bank’s image, perceived value and aroused emotions. It was tested that word of mouth and bank’s marketing activities have impacts on the bank’s image. Moreover, by differentiating the images of different entities, it was proposed that comparative images could be considered as moderating variable. Furthermore, the mediating role of perceived value and aroused emotions are documented.

Applying psychological life-space theory, a new concept that is not limited to the financial aspect of well-being presented and tested. Although researchers in different filed of studies applied this theory, this is the first time that a study presents nominal and operational definitions of the role of banks in customers’ well-being. Moreover, for the first time in the bank marketing literature, images of different entities including consumer’s image, image of bank’s employee and image of bank’s competitors were separated and their causal relations were statistically tested.