Objectives: Business model innovation is critical for the long-term viability of firms in the electronic payments industry, as it helps improve the value of products or services or the delivery of these offerings to customers. However, a significant gap remains in understanding how customer experience can systematically drive this innovation, particularly within Iran's electronic payment sector. The present study aims to design a business model innovation framework based on customer experience in the field of electronic payments, using the grounded theory approach. By examining Behpardakht Mellat Company as a case study, the research seeks to identify the strategies, conditions, and outcomes associated with customer experience-driven business model innovation in this domain.
Methods: his study employs a mixed-methods exploratory design, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. In the qualitative phase, the research population consisted of university professors and customers of online stores in Khorramabad, from whom 21 participants were selected through purposive sampling based on the principle of theoretical saturation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews aimed at identifying the reasons and consequences of consumer variety-seeking behavior. For the quantitative phase, the fuzzy Delphi method was used to prioritize the identified factors. In the qualitative section, interview validity was assessed through theoretical and content validity, while reliability was measured through intra-coder and inter-coder reliability. In the quantitative section, content validity was confirmed by experts familiar with the subject, and reliability was assessed using the inconsistency rate and the difference between defuzzified means across two stages. The inconsistency rate was less than 0.1, confirming the questionnaire's reliability. Data analysis in the qualitative phase employed content analysis with open, axial, and selective coding, while the quantitative phase utilized the fuzzy Delphi approach for prioritization.
Findings: The resulting framework reveals that the foremost reasons driving consumer variety-seeking in online stores include pleasant psychological emotions and motivations (with a defuzzified score of 0.672), online advertising and marketing (0.693), and gaining social credibility and distinction (0.547). The highest-priority consequences of this behavior include the opportunity cost of lost alternatives (0.714), the spread of consumerism (0.633), and wasted time (0.562). Following two rounds of fuzzy Delphi surveys, expert consensus was achieved as the difference in defuzzified means fell below 0.1. The findings indicate that the most influential factor in shaping variety-seeking is the pursuit of pleasure and excitement in shopping, which exhibits the highest degree of centrality. Among the consequences, increased impulse buying emerged as the most significant outcome. These results align with recent research demonstrating that variety-seeking during consideration-set formation and inertia at final choice can coexist within a single purchase episode, and that diminished sense of control can prompt consumers to seek variety as a coping mechanism.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that consumer variety-seeking in online stores is a complex phenomenon shaped by hedonic motivations, social factors, and marketing stimuli, and that it generates substantial financial, temporal, and psychological consequences for consumers and retailers alike. The study contributes to the literature by providing an integrated framework that simultaneously identifies the antecedents and consequences of variety-seeking behavior in the Iranian online retail context, an area that has received limited empirical attention. Practically, the results offer actionable insights for online store managers, suggesting that designing controlled yet pleasurable shopping experiences, ensuring transparent advertising, and promoting responsible consumption culture can help manage variety-seeking behavior while enhancing customer loyalty and satisfaction.