Experience in financial services: a bibliometric analysis and thematic content analysis

The paper conducts a comprehensive review based on the topic of experience in financial services. The paper presents the evolution and structure on the topic. A bibliometric analysis of literature is performed around the key components using Bibliometrix of R package and VOSviewer. The analysis is based on 137 articles, which are published in 73 leading journals between the years 1985 to 2021. Using the dimensions database, research articles on experience in financial services are extracted and analysed to uncover this topic’s intellectual development and key themes through a mixed-methods approach of quantitative bibliometric and qualitative content analyses. More specifically, descriptive statistics, Lotka’s law, co-occurrence networks, thematic maps, and bibliometric coupling are used for the analysis. The bibliometric analysis facilitates technical examination and visualization of the scholarly financial service experience research. Based on grounded theory, content analysis is successively conducted to establish theoretical building blocks of financial service experience, providing a conceptual model of this concept. Using bibliometric coupling, nine significant clusters are identified: experience and related constructs, experience in the digital and social media era, experience and quality, experience and customer journey, brand and digital financial services experience, experience and financial institutions, experience and employees, experience and financial literacy, and customer experience management. The study employs more updated and relevant analysis techniques and provides a critical review of the topic. The bibliometric analysis enabled scientific investigation and visualization of the scholarly financial services experience literature providing a holistic understanding of the concept, illustrated topic’s scholarly evolution, and revealed key directions for future research.