The relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty: New insights into the role of customer heterogeneity

Fischer (geb. Schirmer), Nadine; Ringle, Christian M. and Feistel, Matthias S. G. (2015): The relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty: New insights into the role of customer heterogeneity. 2nd International Symposium on Partial Least Squares Path Modeling, Seville, Spain, 16-19 June 2015. Henseler, Jörg; Ringle, Christian; Roldan, Jose L. and Cepeda, Gabriel (eds.) : In: Program of the 2nd International Symposium on Partial Least Squares Path Modeling, pp. 46-47

Abstract

The relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty is of key interest to both researchers and practitioners. However, specific theoretical models of these relationships and their empirical results differ considerably. To some extent, this distortedness may be rooted in shortcomings regarding accounting appropriately for the different distinct customer segments. Neglecting this crucial issue may cause invalid outcomes. We therefore used the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method and industry-specific survey data to estimate these relationships. Further, we addressed the critical heterogeneity issue by FIMIX-PLS path modeling and PLS multigroup analysis to uncover (un)observed heterogeneity. We found that customers’ level of education best characterizes the discovered latent segments. Results revealed significant differences between the customer relationships of poorly and highly educated customer groups.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Abstract)
• Faculties: Munich School of Management > Institute for Market-based Management
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• Language: English