Abstract

This analysis explores the role of Information Technology (IT) in eliciting, sustaining and enhancing delight for individuals. Delight is defined in the marketing literature as a non-linear increase over mere satisfaction, has been shown to produce greater customer loyalty and profitability to organizations that can provide it. IT has experienced non-linear increases in processing power, storage capacity and telecommunications bandwidth, accompanied by non-linear decreases in costs. These enhanced abilities provide a starting point for using IT to delight individuals. Two other concepts are added to extend the theory of delight, involvement—which addresses whether a product service or experience is relevant and meaningful to a consumer, and authenticity—which addresses whether a product, service or experience is real or fake, moderate the degree of delight an individual experiences. Theoretical perspectives from Customer Relationship Management regarding the means of widening a customer base by reaching more potential customers, lengthening the customer base by getting customers to experience their product or service more fully, and deepening the customer base by making casual customers more passionately involved will also inform the analysis. A nine part taxonomy for further research and potential applications for leveraging IT to produce delight emerges from the analysis.