Purpose – Customers often want to learn about a product/service, and companies can benefit
from such a learning desire. While prior research has shed light on firm-beneficial outcomes
of individual customer learning and explored the motivational factors of business partners’
learning behavior, less is known about the critical antecedents of individual customers’
learning behavior. This study explored the key drivers of customers’ learning desires in a
business-to-consumer (B2C) context and identified customers with a stronger learning desire.
Design/methodology/approach – This research employed both a lab experiment (Study 1, N
= 148) and surveys (Study 2, N = 553; Study 3, N = 703) across different participant
populations and product contexts.
Findings – This study indicated that both involvement and knowledge-sharing intention
drove customer learning desire. Customer expertise further strengthened these main effects.
Moreover, a stronger learning desire led to greater customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications – This study identified key factors involved in customer
learning desire and its potential benefits for companies. Additional research to investigate
customer learning in specific environments and forms and regarding specific brands is
warranted.
Practical implications – This study emphasizes the importance of supporting customer
learning and encourages businesses to manage customer learning proactively. It also provides
suggestions for effective learning support for targeted customer groups.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the customer learning literature by exploring
key influencing factors of individual customer learning desire, based on self-determination
theory. It also identified the role of customer expertise in shaping customers’ learning
2
processes. Moreover, this study examined customer learning as a novel way to enhance
customer satisfaction.