Abstract
Organisations are increasingly using incentive schemes to align employees’ behaviour with organisational, team and individual goals. This is despite the propensity of such schemes to produce a variety of outcomes, both intended and unintended. Given the consensus on the importance of customers to service organisations, it follows that the potential for employee incentives to impact interactions with customers is an important area of study. However, the literature concerning this matter paints a disjointed and, at times, contradictory picture of this subject. To identify, evaluate and synthesise the extant literature, we conduct a systematic literature review, including an in-depth thematic inductive analysis of the selected research concerning the relationship between employee incentive schemes and customers’ experiences. We find 96 studies published in 38 peer-reviewed journals. Based on our insights from the literature, we develop a conceptual model of the incentives-customer experience relationship, along with recommendations for further research.