Consumer Behavior in the Service Industry: An Integrative Literature Review and Research Agenda

: Ongoing technological disruptions in the service industries have altered modern business practices globally. Due to the unending transference in the overall consumer behavior in online and ofﬂine business environments, service providers are forced to rethink their existing business strategies, to understand the disruptive behaviors of consumers and the factors responsible for this. An integrative literature review (ILR) method has been employed to track the ongoing disruption in consumer behaviors in diverse service industries. This study is an attempt to bridge the gap by offering global insights related to the study of consumer behaviors in diverse service settings. The Web of Science and Scopus electronic databases have been mined to extract the existing literary works and 120 articles are selected as the ﬁnal sample for this study through advanced inclusion and exclusion criteria. The key ﬁndings of the study have been categorized using the TCM (Theory, Context, and Methodology) framework as the future research agenda of this study. This study will contribute to enhancing the understandings of marketers, researchers, and academics through the massive collection of the existing literature in the research study of consumer behavior.


Introduction
"Consumer behavior is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy, and why they buy" [1]. Consumer behavior is vibrant and complex. Hence, it is challenging for marketers to understand consumers' behaviors that keep on changing, due to the diverse landscape of the service sector and the variations in the service quality [2]. How customers choose their goods and services can be tremendously imperative for service providers, to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals in the existing markets of the diverse service industry. Consumers always prefer quality services that further play an important role in determining the success or failure of a service industry. The service providers' survival and performance in the service industry are dependent on meeting consumers' service expectations related to the service providers' performance, compared to other rivals in the service industry [3]. Service providers' perceive performance as significantly influencing the overall customers' attitudes and word-of-mouth intentions [4]. Therefore, consumers' responses about service providers' products and brand performance are considered in refining the existing marketing strategies of the key players of the service industry [5]. Service providers ought to understand consumers' buying behaviors, to offer better services and enrich consumer experiences, so that they can survive and sustain themselves in their respective service industries, in the long run [6].
In the service industry, the study of consumer behavior is needed to understand the changing consumer behavioral patterns, globally. Consumers' behaviors of complaining are apparently anticipated when the service delivered is displeasing, resulting in the diverse nature of service encountered by consumers. To sustain themselves in their respective RQ2: To what extent do these factors affect the overall consumer behaviors in the service industries? RQ3: What are the key theories, contexts, and methodologies found in the extant literature on consumer behaviors in the service industries?
To address the stated research questions for discovering a fresh viewpoint, the research objectives are as specified: 1. To pinpoint the significant factors affecting the consumer behaviors in the service industries by critically analyzing and reviewing the existing literature.
2. To offer acumen related to consumer behaviors in the service industries through the extraction and review of selected articles, using the ILR method.
3. To identify the future directions of study by offering insights in the line of theory, context, and methodology, through the formulation of a research agenda, for further investigation.
To meet these stated research objectives, the ILR method will be used as this method is proven to be a beneficial approach to understanding the key terminologies in consumer behavior research. This will further assist future researchers in their future research endeavors by enlightening their overall knowledge of this domain of research. With the application of ILR, this research study will offer a point of view that will be helpful in business research-related studies. The ILR is the right approach that accords experimental research and non-experimental research, through its amalgamation, delivering a remarkable contribution to gathering relevant articles, as per the research theme. For the data assortment advancements and the data extraction, in the ILR method-based research, new strategies have been established. The present study has been outlined, as per the stated sections: The first section is all about the need for the research, a brief introduction to the research theme, and the purpose of the study. The second section outlines the research approach used for searching the relevant articles. The literature and theory are explained in the third section, which will offer the outline of this research study. The key findings are discussed in the fourth section, discussing various notable explorations of the studies. The fifth section provides future directions of the research, to assist academics and researchers in their upcoming research studies. Finally, the sixth section outlines the concluding observations of the study, followed by the references.

Research Approach
In this second section of the study, the research approach adopted and implemented to search, select, and download the articles, per the research theme, is discussed. To achieve the research study objectives, the relevant articles will be identified, and the selected articles will be downloaded and analyzed. By employing the integrative literature review (ILR) methodology, key theory, context, and methodology will be identified, to comprehend the critical factors influencing consumer behavior in service settings. However, there are many approaches to the literature review, such as theory-based reviews [18,19], theme-based reviews [20,21], framework-based reviews [22,23], theory development reviews [24], hybrid reviews [25], bibliometric analyses [26], and meta-analyses [27]. Moreover, a systematic literature review (SLR) can be approached in a myriad of ways. For this study, an integrative literature review [28] methodology is used as it is a multi-faceted type of review approach and it predates other constant tracking and systematic approaches, and it is very similar to that used in the SLR [29]. By using the ILR method, one explores the available substantiation vis-à-vis a certain phenomenon, in a way that pinpoints the budding research gaps that are requisite to be talked about in the consequent study. As an ILR encapsulates numerous categories of substantiation with diverse approaches and offers a wider, more comprehensive outlook of a theme, than the SLR approach [30] covering several research questions or propositions [29]. In addition to this, the ILR methodology permits the researcher to outshine the process of analyzing and synthesizing the key findings of the primary studies [29] and documents the amalgamation of the qualitative and quantitative data, thus permitting a comprehensive understanding of a specific phenomenon [30,31]. Conversely, it is clear that the strength of an ILR methodology lies in summarizing the key findings of the manifold types of substantiation, talking through a research problem and could, consequently, be the desired type of review methodology to provide a more comprehensive outlook of a theme enlightening the understandings [32]. Hence the ILR methodology is the more adequate approach to reach the research goals of this study.

Review Protocol and Data Screening
To search and identify the relevant articles for the study, researchers incorporated search strategies in two steps. Firstly, keeping the central research idea in mind, the articles were scrutinized using two electronic databases, i.e., Scopus and Web of Science.
Additionally, in order to refine the search for the relevant articles, researchers used "consumer behavior in the service sector/industry" as search terms. Initially, "consumer behavior/consumer behavior" was typed as search terms and, as the result of the first step, 5279 articles were found. Then, the second step was executed using the specific search strategy as stated:. For the abstract section of the articles, "model of consumer behavior in the service sector" was used as the search term and for the remaining sections of the articles; "factor of influence" was used to search and select articles. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to extract the most suitable articles. In the inclusion criteria, articles from 2001 to 2020, as a publication period, were searched, and journals listed in the Q1 category were only included.
The document type was selected as "article" and "English" as the language type, along with "marketing" as the field of study. In the exclusion criteria, articles published before 2001 were excluded, and articles related to service industries other than retail, hospitality, education, food service, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industries, were excluded. As a result of the second step, 143 articles were identified. Finally, 120 articles that matched the research theme were selected, as specified in Table 1 and Figure 1, showing the search and selection strategy in the form of a flowchart of the study selection process. The list of journals used for the search and selection of the articles using two electronic databases is tabulated in Table 2. articles; "factor of influence" was used to search and select articles.
• Articles related to sectors other than retail, hospitality, education, foodservice, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), were excluded.      The downloaded articles were analyzed to frame the overview of the study and find the key factors affecting consumer behaviors in the service industry. For proposing further research studies, the authors used the TCM (Theory (T), Context (C), and Methodology (M)) framework [33]. This further investigation would assist researchers and marketers in their future endeavors, in the context of the research theme.
The next section presents the literature and theory, based on the review of the extant literature.

Literature and Theory
In this section, the literature and theory, based on the review of the extant literature and the related general trends on the research theme, namely "consumer behavior in the service industry" are discussed.

Customer Relationship Management
A UK-based research study identified privacy and confidentiality as significant challenges for maintaining a cordial relationship with customers. These challenges and variations on the consumer's power characteristics could be further used to find a better solution for building and managing the long-term relationship with new and existing customers, which might act as a ladder to the future success of businesses [34]. The researcher carried out his study by adopting attitude and knowledge as two parameters for enhancing the customer relationship management (CRM) knowledge. A privacy grid was developed that was later converted into four diverse forms of marketing strategies and market circumstances. CRM practitioners would have better assistance from this grid, to plan their roadmap for CRM. The types of facts distributed and remarkable advances were observed as the direct assumptions of repurchase behaviors in CRM. Illustrations based on the assumptions suggested that it collaborated with the system that positions the repurchase behavior into a comprehensive and widespread structure, due to the flattened classification [34]. Further, it had been identified that in the US and Germany, factors were built on laddering dialogues. To evaluate the interrelation and connotation of drivers over a public likelihood, test was administered to customers. The proposed framework's periphery settings that were accountable for diverse types of services were investigated, and the display of the diverse repurchase customers' behaviors was uneven, in the service sectors [35] Hence, there was a need for upgrading the knowledge for this. When a video is created for marketing-related activities, significant variations in the video content influence the developer, if the developer is a layman or expert; hence, it matters a lot to the study. A study in the US was conducted to understand the degree of changes observed by the impact of the video.
To summarize, it could be concluded that the skill set of the developer matters in order to obtain better results. Principally, one video-sharing website, YouTube, acts as an emerging media channel for drivers, such as developer attitudes towards video, behavioral intention, and issue importance [35]. A public service announcement (PSA) video proved very fruitful, due to the nature of the developer with relation to the multi-country contexts. Human interactions with consumers had a long-lasting impact on the psychology of consumers, as per a study conducted on the service channel [36]. These were the study's significant findings, which could help marketers, in the long run, to manage CRM efficiently. In the context of the Italian retail sector backdrop, preceding studies could decisively signify the best equilibrium of human and digital services. The study analyzed the challenges faced by consumers during their contact with technically sound Italian retail companies' in-store services. The service channels' determinants that had driven the human and digital touchpoints affirmed its crucial role in shaping the consumers' preferences in the context of alternatives for in-store retail settings. It further entailed a better understanding of the disruptive transformation on retail by highlighting the innovative and game-changing initiatives, and integrating machine and human touchpoints, to offer better services to consumers [36]. Japan's retail and services sectors examined that managing efficient customer relationships had a great impression on the loyalty of customers, client retention, employee convenience, and the effective implementation of client relations that are reliant on the adoption of information technology [37]. Therefore, managing well-organized client relations depended on adopting advanced technology and commitment, to deliver efficient services. Moreover, managing relationships with customers is critical, and in today's scenario, return on value is influenced by CRM practices which need to be further explored [37].

Consumer Loyalty and Consumer Commitment
Findings on American consumers validate the perceived implementations and customer sentiments in disruptive retail landscape scenarios, that influence their loyalty. In the various types of research, it has been proven that sentiments are necessary for the in-service experience. Even though the theoretical model has a significant influence on disconfirmation in research and administrative practices, various inspections have revealed that changes in the loyalty of consumers' disconfirmation has not given a clear idea. Without customers' sentiment measurement, buyer responses related to their purchase-related involvements, cannot measure, based on their commitment [38]. Moreover, in the hotel industry perspective, and related to the luxury segments, the dominance and feelings of pleasure shape customers' aesthetic perceptions, based on their motivations for the consumption of luxury services. Canadian customers' emotions play a significant role in determining their societal intent and reliability towards service providers. The consumers' intent to switch their service providers directly impact their commitments, which further affect their purchase intentions, resulting in differing consumers' psychological states [39]. Prior literature related to consumer behaviors, portrayed customers' commitments as a catalyst in shaping their repurchase intention. To enhance the knowledge on customer retention, the detailed investigations on consumer commitment forms were missing. However, researchers conducted similar research to uncover the service provider's determinants for driving consumer loyalty, for many years. Due to these paradigm shifts, researchers conducted more research on the transactional variables instead of the relational variables, and hence, the relational variables need to be explored in more detail [40]. It was examined that the technology acceptance model used a lot in preceding research studies. The existing Sustainability 2023, 15, 250 9 of 30 studies attempted to uncover the effect of the perceived service quality and perceived usefulness on the ongoing intention and motivation for retailers to uncover the impact of diverse customers' outlooks regarding their service experiences and perceptions in the retail perspective. Hence, consumer loyalty and consumer commitment in the service sectors require further exploration [40].

Consumer Services
In different service environments, an inadequate examination discovered the significant concepts related to service administration. The jurisdiction of the procurement of goods and services was piloted in numerous UK cities. It was concluded that consumers prefer to purchase new goods and services from the retail outlets directly, as their first preference. In contrast, they prefer to indirectly purchase existing goods and services, as a second preference, during promotional offers, because of their financial obligations. However, while making buying decisions for services, consumers prefer word-of-mouth information, instead of company-sponsored advertisements. An existing American study revealed consumers' opinions about their shopping habits and purchase intentions reflected a shift in the consumers' commitments and purchase intentions towards goods and services. To influence consumers' shopping habits, retailers offered a quality of services by enhancing their comfort of shopping through memorable service experiences [41]. In the scholarly studies, it was further explained that venders were tirelessly making efforts to enhance physical in-store purchasing for their shoppers wherein the client preparations' convenience and physical shop endorsement approaches developed purchasing convenience, irrespective of the ongoing situation in the emerging markets [42]. A study based on shoppers in European Union countries, and gauging their capabilities and necessities, was conducted in the culinary management segment in the service industry context. The four countries, namely Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania, were studied, in order to review clients and purchaser practices [43]. The examination was a combination plan that stated how shoppers reacted towards issues motivating their attentions, inversely. Shoppers and users were divided on using cooking channels and community platforms for influencing their buying patterns [43]. In the cooking services related to local businesses, these valuations furthermore concerned the developments of culinary businesses. The previous investigation revealed that the concern for expression was extraordinary in Asia and other continents. The critical incident technique (CIT) was used in service environments to identify customer behaviors in culinary management. American researchers discovered the different forms of customers' positive and negative responses towards the service quality. It was observed that there was a need for a detailed probing on the ways of handling consumer service encountered challenges across the service settings, empirically [44].

Consumer Behavior and Customer Satisfaction
A behavioral study, based on Australian clients, examined that the degree of changes in consumer behaviors was dependent on their overall satisfaction level. Thus, during the service involvement, consumer acquisition and retention strategies could be modified, intensified, and co-existing. For example, consumers in Egypt revealed that a better service quality changed consumers' traits and shopping preferences which further shaped their shopping experiences, resulting in the enhancement of the levels of customer satisfaction [45]. Therefore, retailers could utilize this understanding of consumers in framing their marketing strategies, to ignite the buying eagerness among Egyptian consumers [46]. A similar study conducted in China also revealed that consumers were generally assessed by the quality of the services offered by the companies before making any buying decision. However, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) explored that shoppers' expectations were influenced by helpful information, based on the intention of buyers, the source authenticity, etc [47]. Moreover, the trustworthiness and authenticity of the recommendations and reviews could affect the client's conduct for the E-commerce sites. Further, website popularity was influenced by the quality of the services, delivery, and the E-commerce platform's product suggestions [48]. Ease of shopping and flexibility in using E-commerce platforms was observed among Malaysian consumers who altered their buying decision-making process. Satisfied customers shared better comments and positive feedback about their overall purchase experiences, which further acted as a supporting tool for creating eWoM, by advertising the E-commerce platforms digitally [49]. In the present scenario, the advent of new technology and smartphones has turned into an advanced lifestyle.
Limited studies are available on the role of new technology in influencing consumer behaviors. In virtual settings, consumer buying behaviors are intruded upon by various factors, such as reviews, comments, website popularity, and ease of shopping. Additionally, consumer conduct was examined using the behavioral perspective model [50]. Organizations brainstormed how to make product designing more appealing and eco-friendly, to make customers feel good. In the same line, a UK-based study was conducted to understand and uncover the various insights related to consumer behaviors and product design, on their environmental impacts. It disclosed the significance of the improvements in product designing for a better growth perspective. This would further help in boosting the carbon footprint. It was concluded that different consumer behaviors and design innovations acted as key players in addressing and balancing the global environmental issues in pharmaceutical and healthcare products [51]. Another UK-based study conducted on consumer behaviors examined the impact of the involvement of personal values, on e-shopping. Individual consumer attitudes were found to be an undeviating predicator towards e-shopping behaviors. This acted as an intervening relationship between consumer behaviors and personal values [52]. E-retailers positioned e-shops by adopting practical approaches to fulfill customers' needs, by utilizing the relationship among consumer attitudes, consumer behaviors, and personal values. In addition, E-retailers designed and implemented their retail strategies to boost store performance by analyzing store layouts.
Furthermore, it proved to be a new framework for understanding consumer behaviors. Organizations monitored consumers' behaviors using innovative IT tools, which play a significant role in designing store layouts [53]. The overall perceived price had no direct or positive effect on customer satisfaction, although customer satisfaction levels were directly and positively impacted by the perceived quality. These findings witnessed a penetratingly competitive environment which encouraged organizations to focus on attaining customer satisfaction through better services and getting the desired outcomes in the long run. In this way, better customer experiences would ensure meeting the different levels of customer satisfaction by utilizing available resources efficiently at little or no expense. Hence, to ensure the customer satisfaction attainment levels, the total perceived price and perceived quality had been found among the key antecedents [54]. In consumer behaviors, the scarcity of resources has been broadly recognized as a catalyst in determining the demand levels, leading to decreased customer satisfaction. A further study projected that scarcity should increase the evaluation and subsequent advancement of communication in the perspective of consumer behaviors [55][56][57]. An investigation conducted in Canada explored that the faithfulness of clients tended to be higher among service sector consumers. In the service sector, customers generally have better service experiences, resulting in higher customer loyalty [58,59]. There is a direct association between European consumers' conduct and shopping habits in an offline retail setting, with regards to their utilitarian motivation. As per the study, a higher level of excitement led to the buyer's utilitarian motivation. Various factors of customers' convenience and customer satisfaction was combined into all kinds of service settings, to understand consumer behaviors [60].

Brand Influence on Consumer Behaviors
Brand influence and brand trust are positively associated with the perceived ethicality, on the behavior of consumers. Brand trust is a stimulus to brand influence and denotes a positive association with brand faithfulness and plays an important role in influencing the behaviors of consumers. An ethical and socially responsible brand image is anticipated by the mounting numbers of corporate branding activities, which is witnessed with the growth in ethical consumerism, resulting in shaping overall consumer behaviors. Conversely, the questions continue unanswered in the context of different cultures and countries, whether a corporate brand has its impact on the resulting variables of interest for its products' brand or not [61]. Research based on consumer behaviors in Australia identified that consumers' loyalty and anticipation, and perception towards brands were highly impacted by positive word of mouth communications. Corporations could control these brand communications through memorable brand experiences, by influencing consumers through brand names and psychological thinking [62]. However, the repurchase intention of the brand was influenced by word of mouth and its associations with factors and numerous trade supervision types. To establish client expectations, measured communications and brand names played a meaningful role. Consequently, it influenced customers' satisfaction and attitudes towards the brand orientation. Moreover, in all types of administration scenarios, promoting a corporate brand in the market is challenging as consumers' characteristics change drastically, making corporation's job difficult to influence them using branding exercises [61]. However, detailed investigations on how brands influence consumer behaviors could be more helpful to marketers in enhancing the overall consumer experiences through better service quality.

Service Guarantee and Consumer Experiences
The assurance of the quality of services greatly influence customer loyalty and consumer experiences in the service industry that act as a trust-building mechanism towards the brand image [63]. Brands that have been offering guaranteed services to their customers attain a competitive advantage over existing players. In addition, service guarantees ensure better consumer experiences, resulting in developing more confidence in the brand while making buying decisions. Prior studies pointed out that consumer commitments towards brands played an intermediating role with service reliability, consumer attitudinal loyalty, and service assurance. In conclusion, consumer attitudinal loyalty through customer commitment had direct and indirect relations with service reliability. In the context of the hospitality sector, a model was formed which revealed the extent of the consumer experiences' impact over the perceived value of consumers, with the formation of consumer experiences [63,64]. The publicized results of this study concluded that there was a significant and constructive association of the perceived value with human and physical environment linkages, which further affected the stay of guests in hotels, apart from the social stimulus impact. In the aggressive global business environment of the service sector, companies offered an exceptional quality of goods and services, which resulted in matchless customer experiences. However, the biggest obstacle was to offer memorable and unique consumer experiences to the hotel guests. Hence, it became crucial to comprehend how they influenced consumers' perceived values. Therefore, customer loyalty was not affected directly by a service guarantee. A similar finding was found by the Nigerian researchers, in which they attempted to understand the overall impact on consumer experiences, and they found that customer loyalty was not directly linked with service assurance [64].
Key theories employed in consumer behavior studies were investigated, based on the review of 120 articles. Table 3 and Figure 2 demonstrated an overview of the most commonly used theories related to the research studies of consumer behaviors in diverse service and geographical settings.  Classified into six groups, along with the number of articles that matched appropriately, were customer relationship management (11), consumer loyalty and consumer commitment (13), consumer services (20), consumer behaviors and customer satisfaction (46), brand influence (10), and service guarantee and consumer experiences (20). Marketers were supposed to understand the overall consumer behaviors and the ways to satisfy them, in order to deliver unique and memorable service experiences.
The next section provides the key findings and discussions, based on the review of the extant literature stated in section three. The fourth section also talks about the key findings, based on services and the geographical settings exploration in the consumer behavior studies, notable explorations of the study, and the sector-wise detailed results of the study.

Findings and Discussions
This section provides the significant extracted findings and its discussion, based on the review of selected articles. The prior researchers deliberated on numerous factors that distress consumer behaviors in various sectorial settings that impact customer retention, service delivery, and service quality. The key findings and their discussions were stated in the sections below.

Consumer Perception and Consumer Attitude
The young generation's behavior, observations, and outlooks for online banking services were observed in a UK-based study, by collecting data from computer-literate students pursuing a degree, at a college level. It was identified that the young generation had a positive outlook towards online banking service quality that further positively influ- Classified into six groups, along with the number of articles that matched appropriately, were customer relationship management (11), consumer loyalty and consumer commitment (13), consumer services (20), consumer behaviors and customer satisfaction (46), brand influence (10), and service guarantee and consumer experiences (20). Marketers were supposed to understand the overall consumer behaviors and the ways to satisfy them, in order to deliver unique and memorable service experiences.
The next section provides the key findings and discussions, based on the review of the extant literature stated in section three. The fourth section also talks about the key findings, based on services and the geographical settings exploration in the consumer behavior studies, notable explorations of the study, and the sector-wise detailed results of the study.

Findings and Discussions
This section provides the significant extracted findings and its discussion, based on the review of selected articles. The prior researchers deliberated on numerous factors that distress consumer behaviors in various sectorial settings that impact customer retention, service delivery, and service quality. The key findings and their discussions were stated in the sections below.

Consumer Perception and Consumer Attitude
The young generation's behavior, observations, and outlooks for online banking services were observed in a UK-based study, by collecting data from computer-literate students pursuing a degree, at a college level. It was identified that the young generation had a positive outlook towards online banking service quality that further positively influenced the customer satisfaction level and customer loyalty. Furthermore, the young generation was the most influential user group [65]. Furthermore, the study revealed that the individual exposure to the brand was highly affected by the opinions of other clients. Simultaneously, the association between the brand exposure related to the services and opinions of other clients and the service brand exposure had been mediated by a customer's state of mindfulness. Moreover, brand exposure related to the services encouraged the customer response towards the online banking services [66]. Prior investigation in the retail industry perspectives specified that customers were perceived, based on their behavior, outlook, appearance, and resemblance with other individuals during the buying process. A study conducted in China used an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) that included the quality of the website and brand equity as elements of the observed flexibility of usage and observed effectiveness. The intent of Chinese buyers was influenced by the website quality, the customers' recommendations, and the service quality while using a mobile application for purchasing clothes [67]. Furthermore, the suggested expanded TAM model was inspected to test the assumptions, and a multiple regression method was applied. Brand value elements positively influenced the perceived usefulness of Chinese customers. Furthermore, brand commitment and the customer perceived value acted as determinants for shaping consumer attitudes towards service providers [67].
A study based on the Indian perspective showed that consumers' attitudes towards purchasing organic food was influenced by fitness, accessibility, and learning. Customer satisfaction for organic food was more significant than other kinds of food. However, various other factors influencing customers' satisfaction levels sought a further investigation. A Malaysian research finding related to online food delivery services examined consumers' approaches towards organic food buying. The association amongst the hedonic motivation, prior online purchase experience, post-purchase usage utility, price saving alignment, time-saving alignment, and behavioral intent towards organic-food buying, limited the exploration to uncover the critical factors affecting customers [68]. Nowadays, Argentinian customers prefer those retailers over others who have better deals and varieties of products in their stores, to meet their needs and wants. Customers' buying behaviors vary from time to time, depending upon the overall purchase experiences and ongoing promotional campaigns launched by retailers. These grocery stores' customers from Argentina are not so motivated to buy items, such as red meat, bread, and fresh leafy foods, as their convenience comes first. Hence, they visit those grocery stores that greet and treat them properly and count the individual customers' needs and wants by inclining their preferences. Moreover, the customers' predispositions and incomes shape grocery stores' dispersions, globally rapidly, due to which the retail segments' growth has registered tremendous growth [69].

E-Customer Behavior
In New Zealand, the findings from web auction sites revealed that the satisfaction of consumers was highly influenced by the service quality. Moreover, mediators between customer loyalty and fulfillment were brand commitment, whereas the customer's belief and participation were partial mediators between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the apparent value was proven to be a complete moderator for customer loyalty and fulfillment, in the context of service quality for web auction sites [70]. In the last few years, the extraordinary development of E-commerce has defined the growth of numerous businesses globally. In Sweden, usability tests and focus group discussions have revealed that technological know-how plays a significant role in the efficient delivery of services in the service industry. Moreover, the study's findings convey how E-customer behavior is influenced by the innovation of services, shows a path of E-customer journey, and offers a basis for refining the customer experience management while planning innovative online services [71]. Colombian retail sectors have gained a fortune by rejuvenating traditional retailers that stand up against E-retailer rivals by pushing the service scapes design on the path of growth. Social and physical environments work together to spread the opulence links for curative service scapes, which support the advancement of the retail sector in Colombia [72]. However, another Colombian research report stated that there is no clear-cut association between traditional customers and the virtual customer experience and there is an essential tranquility in the accustomed retail background. This significantly impacts the digital informal objectives and predictions of the traditional retail customers. Contrary to these stated findings, the disseminated messages, as a communication tool, had noteworthy contributions in the predictable retail background. Moreover, Colombian consumers generally preferred the traditional method of customer opinion rather than modern customer communication platforms [73]. Online customer contact points were more prevalent among customers and vendors than traditional customer contact points. It was the quickest and most efficient communication method for communication among the company, customers, and vendors [73,74].

Cross-Channel Environment
In today's retail environment, retailers offer retail services globally through multiple channels (physical and virtual channels), including cross-channels or omnichannels. Retail customers in Italy use traditional platforms to express their non-purchase attitudes through negative online comments and dislikes after encountering awful brand experiences. Though non-purchase attitudes are positively influenced by negative word of mouth in a cross-channel environment, customers' grievances negatively impact their repurchase intention [75].

Service Satisfaction
Service satisfaction levels of South African customers differ from one cultural setting to another, and the customer-to-customer communication that affects service fulfillment related to retail services, is due to customers' positive and negative responses. Further, customer-to-customer communication influences the service fulfillment and outside connection improves the agreement with socially incompatible buyers and the accepting "interaction" is crucial within progressively multiethnic markets. Though multi-cultural, it needs further investigation related to a particular area, the term has been slightly demarcated, and hence it is essential to throw light on it [76].

Consumer Behavior and the Decision-Making Process
Previous research studies on service settings have discovered numerous factors that transform consumers' behaviors over time. The same findings were observed in a research study on UK consumers, probing their buying decision-making process. Digital purchase systems influenced consumers' buying decision processes, to a greater extent. Preceding studies disclosed the variations in E-consumer behavioral styles. Length, number of choices, number of cycles, and measures were observed as the four epitomes of E-consumer behavior. Moreover, these observations develop different competencies among E-consumers. Eretailers act as a glue to strengthen their association with customers by ensuring a better service quality, leading to the alteration in consumer behaviors [77,78]. Spanish customer behaviors critically evaluated the differences in customer conducts in virtual and physical settings. Additionally, the study reflected the standard of living and the customer value as the main elements that affected customer attitudes and conducts. Clients' purchase intents and behavioral patterns were influenced by the technological know-how and brand transformations [79]. The strong association between customer conduct and customer value shaped the future behavioral intent of E-consumers. Indian consumers helped E-retailers in understanding the socio-cultural factors' determination [80]. In general, hostile consumer behavior was not probed in detail, and hence, it might be more disposed to unprincipled consumer behaviors. Moreover, existing ongoing studies, based on unethical consumer behaviors, were used predominantly by numerous researchers in their studies.

Shopping Comfort and Fulfillment
The exploration conducted on Taiwanese customers in a research study, validated that introverted gains and shopping comforts enrich social objectives among consumers. Moreover, shoppers' social aims were related to different shopping comforts, and fulfillment plays a crucial role in their brands [60]. Moreover, French customers are judged by their argumentative magnitudes of excitement which further motivates store owners to improve the in-store shopping experiences of customers. As a result, retailers emphasize delivering unique and enriching shopping experiences by offering exceptional service quality, better deals, and product varieties, to deliver shopping comfort [60].

Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Service Delivery Experience
Service delivery experience and service quality influenced consumers' intentions to visit service providers in Spain [81]. The impact of specific service quality measurements assisted service providers in Greece in planning how to improve customer satisfaction. Tangibility, empathy, and reliability were indeed connected to the satisfaction of bank customers that might further enhance their loyalty [82]. However, from the international banking perspective in different cultural environments, a little investigation was carried out, related to the administration excellence assessments on customer satisfaction and loyalty. A Turkey-based study on 13 banks threw light on the administration excellence measurement and retrieval of service challenges in service environments [83]. The failure of services, inconvenience, and services pricing were crucial factors that influenced Singaporean bank customers to switch to other banks that offered better service quality and affordable pricing. Among all of the factors, pricing was a more dominant factor on which banks should focus more, so that customers could be satisfied and retained for a longer time [84]. The Indian consumer engagement behavioral study identified a distinct influence on service quality, service equality, and customer engagement towards service accessibility. Furthermore, it was identified that service accessibility influenced the service excellence and service administrational settings. Customer engagement was found as a controlling variable for service accessibility. However, in the retail environment, service channels and their role to engage customers remained unexplored [85]. American organizations' existing marketing approaches could be revamp by focusing more on building and maintaining better customer relationships. However, rare information was available about how companies outside America could create good relationships with customers [86]. Online quality measurements adopted by service providers influenced Indonesian customers' satisfaction, trust, and behavior [87]. The quality of E-service was influenced by three critical measurements: website design, privacy/security, and customer loyalty. Indian Luxury hotels' investigations revealed that service quality was a powerful instrument to improve the consumer commitment towards services.
Further, excellence in delivering services had a constructive influence on the consumers' commitment and their brand involvement. It was highlighted that gender played a vital moderating role in measuring the quality of service. Consumer experiences related to brand commitment can vary from one country to another in cross-cultural settings [88]. Based on the review of 120 articles, the contexts explored in the research of the consumer behavior studies expressed, in the form of service settings and geographical settings, are shown in Table 4 and Figure 3. Retail, hospitality, education, food service, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) services were the identified sectors.  It was observed after the analysis of all of the articles that consumer behavior research studies were primarily set in the retail service sector, i.e., offline and online retailing (57 studies, 47.5% of all studies) and the hospitality service sector, i.e., airlines, hotels, restaurants, resorts, and other hospitality services (34 studies, 28.4%), and the other service sectors had 29 studies, with a 24.1% contribution of all studies.
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Hospitlity-Resorts
Other Hospitality services

Retailing-Online
Industry not explicitly stated It was observed after the analysis of all of the articles that consumer behavior research studies were primarily set in the retail service sector, i.e., offline and online retailing (57 studies, 47.5% of all studies) and the hospitality service sector, i.e., airlines, hotels, restaurants, resorts, and other hospitality services (34 studies, 28.4%), and the other service sectors had 29 studies, with a 24.1% contribution of all studies.

Articles Distribution by Service settings
As shown in Table 5 and Figure 4, these studies were set in various geographical settings, such as the USA (23)   The critical factors affecting consumer behaviors in the service industry were iden fied, as per the diverse geographical settings, such as USA, Italy, Colombia, Indones India, etc., and these were tabulated in Error! Reference source not found., in the form a notable exploration of the related articles on the research theme.  The critical factors affecting consumer behaviors in the service industry were identified, as per the diverse geographical settings, such as USA, Italy, Colombia, Indonesia, India, etc., and these were tabulated in Table 6, in the form of a notable exploration of the related articles on the research theme.  Table 7 states the sector-wise detailed results of the exemplary studies, based on the extant review of the literature. The summary of the key findings of the exemplary studies were tabulated, outlining the diverse sector settings and geographical settings.The key service industries, such as BFSI, retail-offline and retail-online, hospitality-restaurants/airlines/ resorts/others, and food service, were tabulated along with the summary of the key findings investigated by various researchers.

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The study was conducted to identify some of the major risks and fears associated with the Internet in banking sectors.

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The study provided an overview of the socio-demographic and spatial determinants increasing the customers' visits in stores on a regular basis.

[134]
Retail-Offline USA • Used a shopper database to investigate the influence on the sales of a traditional grocery store, due to the entry of the Wal-Mart supercenter.

[135]
Retail-Offline Denmark • Consumers deliberated on the association between the household and product-related factors in a physical store.

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The study was conducted to investigate consumer behaviors within a consumer encounter between supermarket shelves. 9 [137] Retail-Online Greece

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The study was conducted to examine the virtual store layout's perceived ease of use effects on consumer behaviors.

[138]
Retail-Offline Australia • The study found that word-of-mouth has a substantial impact on the brand-reuse intentions only.
11 [139] Retail-Offline India • The study found that price and culture directly impacted the local store loyalty.

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The study found that preferences, discouragement, and motivation factors led to consumers' interactions with human or digital touchpoints.
13 [141] Retail-Offline China • The study found that women in both Taiwan and China go shopping more repeatedly than men.
14 [142] Retail-Offline China • It was identified that the communication between parent and child acted as a key player on the clothing consumption.
15 [143] Retail-Offline USA • It was observed that customer responses, vis-a-vis service encounters, cannot be fully responsible, without totaling an emotional measurement.

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The study found that Argentinian consumers prefer local shops over supermarkets, to buy products that offer better services and personal attention. 18 [145] Hospitality-Airline Hong Kong • The study investigated the importance of consumer perceptions in strategic airline alliance settings.
19 [146] Hospitality-Resorts Australia • For future re-purchase intentions, measuring customer perceptions towards service quality is important. 20 [147] Other Hospitality services Australia • Based on the four key personality characteristics, the investigation between service-complainers and service-non-complainers was carried out.

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The study was conducted and found that the consumer's involvement levels with the service had a substantial controlling consequence on the perceived relational benefits.
22 [149] Hospitality-Airline Spain • The close relationship was found between customer satisfaction and consumer loyalty.
23 [150] Food service Italy • It was observed that, to reduce the wastage of food, there is a need for extrinsic the characteristics of food products.
It was observed that every service industry emphasized satisfying the needs and wants of their respective customers by offering better services. They focused on the importance of recording consumer perceptions so that they could ignite the re-purchase intentions among consumers, by measuring customer perceptions towards the service quality. This can further assist service providers in understanding the consumer behaviors in their respective service industries, to survive and sustain in the business by increasing customer loyalty.
The next section proposes the future research directions of the study by categorizing the critical findings of the study using the theory (T), context (C), and methodology (M) framework. This will further contribute to set the tune of future research by offering directions for further investigation.

Future Directions for the Research Study
This section concentrated on the future research directions in the field of consumer behaviors, regarding the service sectors' global landscapes, using Theory (T), Context (C), and Methodology (M) as a framework for not only assisting marketers in dealing with customers' behavioral challenges, but also to extend support to researchers in their future research endeavors [33]. The key factors that influenced consumers' behaviors in marketplaces, were specified in Figure 5, in the form of future directions of study using the TCM framework.
and Methodology (M) as a framework for not only assisting marketers in dealing with customers' behavioral challenges, but also to extend support to researchers in their future research endeavors [33]. The key factors that influenced consumers' behaviors in marketplaces, were specified in Error! Reference source not found., in the form of future directions of study using the TCM framework.

Future Directions: Theory (T)
Research can be conducted to learn how retailers are engaging with customers by enriching the in-store shopping experiences of customers, by delivering customer value [90]. A study can be conducted to understand customer values and lifestyles as significant factors influencing consumer behaviors and intentions [79]. The association between service quality, brand experience, and customer engagement should be studied in more detail [88]. Customer engagement behavioral understanding, across diverse cultures, remains an important research topic in the extant literature [85]. Customer relationships and their brand associations seek further illumination [55]. The mixed method application explores how institutional trust, frugality, and materialism motivate Indian consumers' unethical behaviors in determining the socio-cultural factors [80]. Little investigation has been carried out to understand how E-service quality impacts customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer behavior, leading to customer engagement. A more detailed examination is required to build on existing literature on the E-service quality in online shopping [87]. However, the companies' role in various customer engagement platforms remains unexplored in the retail setting [85]. The relationship between the benefit factors, such as monetary, hedonic, and location benefits, and consumer repurchase intentions needs more enlightenment [151]. Consumer choices play a substantial role in dragging traffic to retail establishments, and there is a need to discover the factors affecting consumer choices during the buying process [103]. Furthermore, customers' purchase reviews' credibility, which can influence customers' behaviors towards shopping sites, could noticeably lower the shopping site's dependability. Limited research is found on

Future Directions: Theory (T)
Research can be conducted to learn how retailers are engaging with customers by enriching the in-store shopping experiences of customers, by delivering customer value [90]. A study can be conducted to understand customer values and lifestyles as significant factors influencing consumer behaviors and intentions [79]. The association between service quality, brand experience, and customer engagement should be studied in more detail [88]. Customer engagement behavioral understanding, across diverse cultures, remains an important research topic in the extant literature [85]. Customer relationships and their brand associations seek further illumination [55]. The mixed method application explores how institutional trust, frugality, and materialism motivate Indian consumers' unethical behaviors in determining the socio-cultural factors [80]. Little investigation has been carried out to understand how E-service quality impacts customer satisfaction, customer trust, and customer behavior, leading to customer engagement. A more detailed examination is required to build on existing literature on the E-service quality in online shopping [87]. However, the companies' role in various customer engagement platforms remains unexplored in the retail setting [85]. The relationship between the benefit factors, such as monetary, hedonic, and location benefits, and consumer repurchase intentions needs more enlightenment [151]. Consumer choices play a substantial role in dragging traffic to retail establishments, and there is a need to discover the factors affecting consumer choices during the buying process [103]. Furthermore, customers' purchase reviews' credibility, which can influence customers' behaviors towards shopping sites, could noticeably lower the shopping site's dependability. Limited research is found on the same and deserves more investigation [48]. However, very few researchers have conducted studies related to the websites' distinctive cues and their flow experiences in virtual service settings, and their association with consumer behaviors. The study of ethical consumerism and ethical image significantly influences consumer behaviors that seek more enlightening with a new research direction by conducting studies in diverse sectors, by adopting a novel outlook [61,113]. Further, such research studies might assist marketers and academics, and researchers in exploring unknown factors distressing the overall behavior of consumers.
This probing could support marketers in interpreting and comprehending the changing responses of consumers consuming various services rendered by organizations.
Additionally, customers are considered enablers by projecting themselves as an effective tool for consumers' evaluations. This is also accountable for the discrepancies in choices offered to consumers, particularly in the delivery outlook of private food competences. By adapting the understandings from existing studies, customers' satisfaction implications and elementary antecedents have been set up to control the outcomes of their outlooks for service failure and service recovery. Hence, there is a strong onus for fresher theoretical lenses across diverse service settings, to enlighten the ongoing developments altering consumer behavior patterns and associated dissatisfactions, for implementing novel standpoints [103]. The study, based on the ecological behavior of consumers and their objective to buy natural foodstuffs, was supportive of the defining elements persuading customer behaviors towards natural foods [100]. A theoretical viewpoint from the UK study stated that the quality of service offered significant consideration. In the context of the service sectors' relationships with their consumers, suitable strategies for building and maintaining relationships are required, and limited knowledge has been acknowledged. Proper execution can lead to enhanced organizational objectives across diverse geographical dispersions. Previous studies have shown that the place attribute is related to place affection; it also plays an essential part in driving the required consumer conduct [86].

Future Directions: Context (C)
Service quality, as an instrument to enrich customer engagement has been investigated in Indian luxury hotels, for enlightening a progressive outcome of the service quality on customer engagement, as India has multiple cultures. Hence, there is a need to investigate it in other service sectors and diverse geographical settings, to uncover the unknown [88]. However, the term "multi-cultural" remains loosely defined to a particular geographic region and therefore requires re-investigation in diverse geographical settings [80]. The impact of toothpaste and nutritional drinks are highly influenced by consumer behaviors during the use stage. Products and services' design innovations and changes in consumer behaviors play a noteworthy part in addressing global environmental challenges. Hence, it is suggested to conduct the study in different countries, to investigate the impact on consumer behaviors due to products and services' design innovations [51] Customer engagement behavioral understanding has been investigated more on retail banking and mobile services, and hence there is a need to study this phenomenon in diverse service settings [85]. In addition, it is desired to study the outlining impact on consumer perceptions and customer satisfaction [57]. In a study of the services channels, especially in the retail service sector, it has been revealed that consumers also give value to human interactions. Further investigation is required for conducting similar studies in other service sectors [36]. A study of service scapes has explained how the Colombian retail settings show how physical and social conditions cooperate and energizes retailers that stand up to online rivalry, to advance the service cape design. Further examination is required to shed some light on the service cape design in various service and geographical settings [72]. Research conducted in the UK reveals a significant impact from the communication channels, such as in-store magazines, e-newsletter" Facebook sites, product stickers, and in-store demonstrations. It was used by UK-based retailers for their communications with UK consumers, in order to create awareness about reducing food wastage, and as a result, customers started minimizing food wastage.
Similar research can be conducted in different service settings and countries [105]. The Colombian report in the retail setting and its effects on buyer conventional and electronic informal goals shows no apparent connection between the client experience and purchaser's significant tranquillity. Colombian retail buyers picked the traditional word-of-mouth over electronic word-of-mouth, and hence, further probing is required in diverse geographical settings, to understand this phenomenon [73]. This research theme was recommended to be further investigated in diverse cultural and geographical contexts, as the existing literature also emphasized the need for additional investigations [85]. Similar research studies were conducted by a few nations of the EU (European Union). They tried to understand the catering services' consumer behavioral dynamics, to enhance the buying patterns from one service sector to another. Similar studies could be carried out in other parts of the world, such as in the Indian sub-continent, Middle East nations, and so on, through which marketers, as well as researchers, could gain better insights about consumer buying behaviors at the market, in diverse cultures, as well as countries [43]. The "Customer nudging" concept had been investigated very little in multi-cultural, multi-sectorial, as well as multi-country contexts, as this might act as an excellent tool for organizations, as well as marketers; it is suggested to conduct research studies as per the above-stated contexts, to gauge the application of customer nudging in service settings, for a better understanding of the diverse consumer behaviors [103]. It is suggested to conduct similar research in a multi-country context, to contribute more to this research agenda [94].

Future Directions: Methodology (M)
Usability tests and focus group interviews were used in a Swedish study, in the context of the delivery service of online retailing, in order to understand how service innovations affects E-customer behaviors, and the same methods can be used to understand the impact in various services and geographical settings [71]. Researchers have applied the integrative hypothetical examination model as a methodology for enhancing their knowledge on consumer experiences, attitudes, and consumer behavioral intentions, concerning online food-delivery services. The same model can be applied to different service sectors, to figure out the challenges faced by service providers in those segments, that face challenges in understanding the overall consumer behaviors [68]. Using the systematic review method, further studies can be conducted on retail, education, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), in order to gain more insight into consumer behaviors in diverse geographical settings [17]. Furthermore, all of the methodologies discussed in the method section can be used in further studies to set the tune of the future directions of the study, in the context of the above-stated service sectors and others. These stated methodologies will assist researchers in understanding the phenomenon of consumer behavior and the factors affecting it, in a better way. For example, in an examination directed in the South Korean hospitality service sector, it was explored how each shading element, i.e., tone, immersion, or worth, added to the clients' tasteful view of an extravagant accommodation, according to the stimulus-organism-response model (S-O-R model). This model can be applied in diverse service and geographical settings [4]. This TCM framework can help future investigations by offering in-depth insights related to the factors affecting consumer behaviors in diverse service and geographical settings, by assisting the budding researchers and marketers in enhancing their conceptual understanding of this contemporary phenomenon.
The sixth and the last section summarizes this research study by discussing what was studied, how it was studied, the key findings, the implications of the study, the major limitations, and future research agenda, followed by the references of the study.

Conclusions
This study tried to bridge the gap by offering global insights into consumers' behaviors in diverse geographical settings. The top databases, such as Web of Science and Scopus, were explored, to extract the existing literary works related to the research theme and based on the search keywords by employing the ILR methodology, 120 articles were selected through advanced inclusion and exclusion criteria. This study provides a better understanding of the various aspects of consumer behaviors in diverse geographical and service settings. In this study, numerous important features and challenges for upcoming research were found, which were based on the previous literature analysis, and it further delivers important inferences for both academic researchers and marketing practitioners. The review was divided into six sub-sections, after a deep segmentation analysis: customer relationship management, consumer loyalty and consumer commitment, consumer services, consumer behavior and customer satisfaction, brand influence, service guarantee and consumer experiences. Following an in-depth review of the literature, a few significant findings were discussed and the primary discussion points included: consumer perception and consumer attitude, E-customer behavior, cross-channel environment, service satisfaction, consumer behavior and decision-making process, shopping comfort and fulfillment, service quality, customer satisfaction, and service delivery experience. Academically, this study offers the substance for good knowledge of the dynamic procedures, to understand the complex consumer behaviors at each consumption stage. Moreover, it should be understood with full knowledge of the service context and characteristics [152]. Contemporary businesses are giving preference to digital platforms to manage efficient relationships with customers. Consumer behaviors are impacted by various social, cultural, and personal factors and further, they affect consumer purchase intentions as well. The study also reveals that the service industries in diverse geographical settings have been driven by effective customer relationship management (CRM), customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. This has made it very significant to explore the disruption in the behaviours of consumers, while consuming diverse services offered by service providers. Consumers consider the value they perceive through the consumption of services offered by service providers, to determine their purchase willingness. Therefore, customer-perceived values serve as an important factor when consumers make purchase decisions. From the key findings of the study, the dominant significant factors in the context of consumer behaviours in the service industries, such as hospitality, retail, banking, and other allied services were found, such as consumer perception and consumer attitude, E-customer behaviours, cross-channel environment, service satisfaction, consumer behaviour and decision-making process, shopping comfort and fulfilment, service quality, customer satisfaction, and service delivery experience.
However, there are four key limitations to the study which can be overcome in further research investigations. The first limitation of the study is the limited number of electronic databases. Only two electronic databases were used and researchers, scholars, and academics may employ multiple electronic databases in their future studies. The second limitation of the study is the nature of the study. This study is qualitative in nature and further research can be conducted using either a quantitative approach or a mixed approach. The third limitation is that the study emphasized only the service industry to study the disruptive consumer behaviour. Further studies can be conducted on the manufacturing industry, or even on both the service and the manufcaturing industries, as a comparative study, to investigate the changing behaviours of consumers. Finally, the fourth limitation is the use of the ILR method, further research can be conducted using theory-based reviews, theme-based reviews, framework-based reviews, theory development reviews, hybrid reviews, bibliometric analyses, meta-analyses, and the SLR method. We provide a contemporary and extensive review of the recent advances in the key theoretical approaches that have been used, for understanding consumer behaviors in the field of banking, hospitality, retail, and tourism. Hence, the present study will further be helpful for marketing practitioners in selecting the right marketing strategies to cater to the needs and wants of the customers in this disruptive global business environment. Numerous research agendas are highlighted, suggesting budding researchers to emphasize conducting empirical research studies, to examine the benefits of CRM, consumer engagement, E-consumer behavior, cross-channel environment, service satisfaction, consumer behavior, and the decision-making process, shopping comfort and fulfillment, service quality, customer satisfaction, and service delivery experience, in the context of diverse service industries. This may support service providers to achieve sustainability in their respective businesses [87]. Finally, future research directions have been provided in the field of consumer behavior, vis-a-vis service the industries' global landscapes, using Theory (T), Context (C), and Methodology (M), as a framework that delivers a descriptive snapshot of the various trends of consumer behavior research, including the most dominant themes, contexts, and methodologies.