The link between customer satisfaction and loyalty: the moderating role of customer characteristics

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Schirmer, Nadine;Ringle, Christian M.;Gudergan, Siegfried;Feistel, Matthias S.G.
Abstract

This research examines whether trust and commitment mediate the extent to which satisfaction influences loyalty, and whether such mediation is conditional on certain demographic or situational customer characteristics. The findings suggest that assuming homogeneity supports the general notion that trust and commitment partially mediate the extent to which satisfaction influences loyalty. FIMIX-PLS and PLS-MGA analyses substantiate that this mediation differs between two distinct customer segments. The two segments reveal heterogeneity in how trust and commitment partially mediate the link between satisfaction and loyalty. That is, the effect of satisfaction on loyalty is fully mediated by trust and commitment in the segment of customers with high education, whereas satisfaction is partially mediated by trust, but not by commitment, in the other segment of customers with less education.

Journal

Journal of Strategic Marketing

Publication Name

N/A

Volume

26

ISBN/ISSN

1466-4488

Edition

N/A

Issue

4

Pages Count

20

Location

N/A

Publisher

Routledge

Publisher Url

N/A

Publisher Location

N/A

Publish Date

N/A

Url

N/A

Date

N/A

EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.1080/0965254X.2016.1240214