Understanding customer satisfaction and loyalty: An empirical study of mobile instant messages in China

With the rapid development of mobile technology and large usage rates of mobile phones, mobile instant message (MIM) services have been widely adopted in China. Although previous studies on the adoption of mobile services are quite extensive, few focus on customer satisfaction and loyalty to MIM in China. In this study, we examine the determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The findings confirm that trust, perceived service quality, perceived customer value, including functional value and emotional value, contribute to generating customer satisfaction with MIM. The results also show that trust, customer satisfaction and switching cost directly enhance customer loyalty. Additionally, this study finds that age, gender, and usage time have moderating effects. Finally, implications for the marketing of MIM are discussed.     

Developing customer product loyalty through mobile advertising: Affective and cognitive perspectives

Mobile advertising is an increasingly popular marketing channel since it can present advertising in a personalized manner. This study examines the development of customer product loyalty through mobile advertising by considering the drivers from affective and cognitive perspectives. An Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM), as defined for repurchase intention, is proposed as a theoretical basis for the relationship structure of related research variables. An Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) identifies affective and cognitive concerns for defining the drivers of consumer behavior. Involvement and interactivity confirmation arise as affective and cognitive concerns in this context. This research model also indicates a particular mediating role of perceived usefulness and customer satisfaction from the two drivers for developing customer product loyalty. Empirical analysis shows that both affective and cognitive perspectives, i.e., involvement and interactivity, are important drivers to motivate customer product loyalty. The findings can help practitioners design more effective approaches for mobile advertising.     

国际服务市场上顾客满意与顾客忠诚关系研究

如何赢得顾客忠诚以及顾客满意与顾客忠诚的关系问题已经成了服务企业国际化过程中新的研究课题。从顾客满意与顾客忠诚的基本含义出发,结合国际服务市场的特征,分析了在国际服务市场上各种因素对顾客满意与顾客忠诚关系的作用路径,并提出培育顾客忠诚的策略与方法。     

Exploring the impact of communication effectiveness on service quality,trust and relationship commitment in IT services

Most firms today are served by specialized IT service providers for the development and maintenance of their business information systems. During the IT service encounter, service providers and clients interact throughout the project, exchanging information, sharing knowledge and making critical decisions. From the IT service provider's viewpoint, it is important to raise the level of clients’ relationship commitment during this service encounter as their business continuity depends upon clients assessment. Intuitively, effective communication and effective service quality, mediated by trust, are critical factors in raising the level of relationship commitment. This study proposes an empirical model consisting of four critical antecedents of relationship commitment (communication effectiveness, technical service quality, functional service quality and trust) and then tests the model using data points solicited from two global firms. Study results revealed that trust is a strong mediator for relationship commitment while functional, rather than technical, service quality is a stronger mediator in forming the clients’ trust.     

移动服务满意度与忠诚度实证研究

摘要：移动即时通讯服务的竞争越来越激烈,各商家都在积极降低门槛吸引用户。用户使用后是否会对移动服务满意并保持忠诚是服务商面临的重要问题。实证研究了信任、服务质量感知的价值对用户满意度的影响以及用户满意度、信任和转移成本对用户忠诚的影响。通过对541名移动即时通讯服务用户的进行调查获得数据,进行实证分析后,结果显示,信任、服务质量、功能价值和情感价值对满意度有显著的影响,而满意度、信任和转移成本显著影响用户忠诚度。     

认证机构服务质量对关系质量影响实证研究

摘要：本文在认证行业领域,研究了认证机构服务质量对关系质量的影响。在认证机构服务质量4维度结构（即过程服务能力、过程交互质量、潜在服务能力和结果质量）及关系质量3维度结构（即合作性、适应性和关系氛围）的基础上,构建了认证机构服务质量对关系质量的影响模型。对721家企业的实证研究表明,过程服务能力、结果质量两个维度对认证机构和顾客之间的关系质量有显著影响,而过程交互质量、潜在服务能力两个维度对两者关系质量的影响不显著。最后对认证机构如何提高其服务质量,维持良好的顾客关系提出了建议。         

双归属维度的顾客信任与顾客价值的关系研究

客户价值管理是企业管理的核心,客户价值的提升取决于客户信任的水平。现有文献表明客户信任有两个归属维度,即员工信任和企业信任。其中员工信任在服务企业中占据有十分重要的地位。本文从客户价值与客户信任间关系入手,以客户信任的双归属维度为研究视角,运用结构方程模型证明了不同服务情境下两种归属维度的客户信任对客户价值的影响,并就服务企业如何充分利用不同归属维度的客户信任来实现客户价值的最大化提出了政策性建议。     

Effects of e-CRM on customer–bank relationship quality and outcomes: The case of Thailand

This research examines and measures the outcomes of electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) system implementation in the Thai banking industry from customers' perspectives.Because most e-CRM implementations cannot be directly seen or recognised by customers, a literature review and interviews with experts in the Thai banking industry were used to develop a new construct called ‘customer-based service attributes’ to measure e-CRM outcomes from customers' perspectives. A full-scale field survey of 684 customers of Thai commercial banks was then conducted. A service attribute model and a model that combined relationship quality and outcome were constructed, and their validity and reliability was confirmed. Analysis of the results by using structural equation modelling (SEM) illustrated that e-CRM implementation has a statistically significant positive relationship with customer-based service attributes and with the quality and outcome of customer–bank relationships as well as an indirect effect on relationship quality and outcome through customer-based service attributes.     

The relationship of service failure severity, service recovery justice and perceived switching costs with customer loyalty in the context of e-tailing

Given that e-tailing service failure is inevitable, a better understanding of how service failure and recovery affect customer loyalty represents an important topic for academics and practitioners. This study explores the relationship of service failure severity, service recovery justice (i.e., interactional justice, procedural justice, and distributive justice), and perceived switching costs with customer loyalty; as well, the moderating relationship of service recovery justice and perceived switching costs on the link between service failure severity and customer loyalty in the context of e-tailing are investigated. Data collected from 221 useful respondents are tested against the research model using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The results indicate that service failure severity, interactional justice, procedural justice and perceived switching costs have a significant relationship with customer loyalty, and that interactional justice can mitigate the negative relationship between service failure severity and customer loyalty. These findings provide several important theoretical and practical implications in terms of e-tailing service failure and recovery.     

The impact of inertia and user satisfaction on the continuance intentions to use mobile communication applications: A mobile service quality perspective

Vendors of mobile communication applications/services (apps) aim at improve their designs to attract and retain users, and thus achieve the critical mass needed to ensure the success of their services. Despite the significant number of prior mobile service studies, few works have examined the effects of inertia and satisfaction on the users’ continuance intention with regard to specific mobile communication apps from a mobile-service-quality perspective. By integrating the mobile service quality framework, inertia, and user satisfaction, this study develops a model for interpreting the development of the continuance intention of users of mobile communication apps. Data collected from 238 users of such apps provided support for the model. The results indicated that interaction quality, environment quality, inertia, and user satisfaction are key determinants of continuance intention, while outcome quality is not. The theoretical and practical implications of this work are discussed.     

顾客感知与服务质量"双因素"研究

顾客对服务质量的感知是影响顾客满意的决定性因素之一,为有效提高顾客感知,将服务质量中的“保健因素”和“促进因素”与服务产品的不同层次结合起来分析,利用服务质量“促进因素”设计服务产品,最终达到顾客满意的目的。     

关系质量对质量管理实践和绩效的调节效应

本文在文献回顾的基础上分析了质量管理实践对质量绩效和企业绩效的影响途径,将供应链关系质量作为调节变量,探讨了它对质量管理实践和绩效关系的影响,构建了质量管理实践、质量绩效和企业绩效的影响模型,通过对陕西、宁夏、甘肃、新疆和浙江五省区企业的调查检验相关假设。结果表明,质量管理实践以内部质量绩效和外部质量绩效为中介对企业绩效有间接的正向影响,同时,供应链关系质量能够显著调节质量管理实践与内部质量绩效的关系。     

3PL服务质量与C2C顾客满意度的实证研究

物流业务外包后,第三方物流(3PL)公司代替企业与顾客互动,这在电子商务中尤为明显,因此第三方物流公司的服务质量是否影响顾客满意度成为一个重要问题。在C2C网络购物环境中,基于物流服务质量模型,建立了第三方物流服务质量与顾客满意度的测评模型(LSQ-CS)。对LSQ-CS模型的实证研究表明:物流交互和运作质量均影响顾客对第三方物流服务商的满意度;成本质量并不影响顾客对第三方物流服务商的满意度;物流交互质量对运作和成本质量产生影响;此外,第三方物流服务质量也影响着顾客对企业的满意度。这一研究结论表明当前物流市场中第三方物流公司应该保证运作质量,提高交互质量,避免低成本恶性竞争;同时除了物流成本外,企业也应根据物流服务质量来选择物流服务商。     

Online service quality and perceived value in mobile government success: An empirical study of mobile police in China

Measuring the success of mobile government (m-government) is a significant challenge faced by the public sector today, as governments are increasingly using mobile technology to provide public services to citizens and m-government endeavors have often fallen short of their potential. To address this gap, we draw on DeLone and McLean’s (2003) updated information systems (IS) success model in order to develop an m-government success model that theorizes service quality as comprising online and offline service quality and further uses perceived value to measure net benefits. The results of a survey of 286 m-government users in China indicate that information quality and online service quality, but not system quality, are positively associated with citizen satisfaction, which in turn is positively associated with perceived value. The results also show that the relationship between online service quality and citizen satisfaction is positively moderated by offline service quality, while citizen satisfaction partially mediates the relationships between information quality/online service quality (but not system quality) and perceived value. This study extends the updated IS success model by differentiating between online and offline service quality, as well as by introducing the notion of perceived value. Our results provide guidance to researchers and practitioners regarding the role of service quality and perceived value in measuring m-government system success.     

互动导向、顾客参与创新与创新绩效的关系研究

随着信息技术的飞速发展和顾客角色的重大变化,企业营销观念也随之发生了变化,营销的功能正加速向以顾客为中心的互动营销转变。互动导向是现有互动营销范式中一种稀有的获取竞争优势的资源,培养互动导向的企业会表现出卓越的绩效。本研究将顾客参与创新这一反映企业认同度和顾客能动性的变量纳入到互动导向理论的研究范畴之中,重新构建互动导向与创新绩效之间关系的研究框架,并通过对浙江地区151家服务业企业的调研实证检验了该框架。结果表明:(1)企业执行互动导向战略有助于提高企业的创新绩效;(2)互动导向对顾客参与创新有显著的正向影响;(3)顾客参与创新对创新的过程绩效和结果绩效均有显著的正向影响,并通过创新的过程绩效对结果绩效产生间接影响;(4)顾客参与创新在互动导向与创新绩效之间起中介作用。     

关系质量视角下的IT服务外包风险规避模型

IT服务外包作为现代高端服务业的组成部分,已经成为重要的发展趋势。针对IT服务外包风险,首先建立了引入关系质量因子的委托代理模型,然后求得了模型的最优激励系数、最优努力水平及最优关系质量满足的条件,最后讨论了不同外生变量对最优关系质量的影响。研究表明,关系质量的作用存在局限性,接包方应协调关系质量与努力成本的投入,此外,最优关系质量与接包方风险规避度之间并非单调关系。     

Impact of avatar identification on online gamer loyalty: Perspectives of social identity and social capital theories

Online games have created significant opportunities for electronic commerce managers. The degree to which online gamers regard their avatars—their gaming representations— as themselves is known to be influential to gamers’ behavior but little is known about how such identification impacts online gamer loyalty (i.e., gamers’ continued intention to play). This study filled this gap by developing its research framework from the perspective of the social identity theory and the social capital theory. Responses from 1384 online gamers were collected, and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The analytical results indicate that avatar identification (the degree to which users regard avatars as themselves) is positively related to participation in gaming communities and social presence (the degree of awareness of other persons and interpersonal relationships). These were further positively related to online gamer loyalty. This study is the first using the two theories, i.e., the social identity and social capital theoretical perspectives, to clarify the mechanism underlying the impact of avatar identification on online gamer loyalty, assisting electronic commerce managers to create a loyal user base.     

Identification of critical quality dimensions for continuance intention in mHealth services: Case study of onecare service

Mobile health (mHealth) services support the continuous health-related monitoring, feedback, and behavior modification of individuals and populations through the use of personal mobile communication devices. Poor service quality is a major reason why many users have discontinued using mHealth services. However, only a few studies have identified the critical quality components for continuance intention. The current study aims to identify the crucial quality dimensions for users’ continuance intention in an mHealth service called Onecare. This service provides various forms of support for the day-to-day health behavior monitoring of college students by utilizing daily behavior data. In this research, five major quality dimensions of mHealth services, namely, content quality, engagement, reliability, usability, and privacy, were derived from existing studies. The effect of each quality dimension on continuance intention was estimated by analyzing the survey responses of 191 Onecare service users. The quality dimension with the most considerable effect on continuance intention was determined to be engagement followed by content quality and reliability. By contrast, the effects of usability and privacy on continuance intention were insignificant. Furthermore, this study found that the optimal quality management strategy can change depending on the objective, i.e., to increase continuance intention or satisfaction. These results will help mHealth service managers allocate their limited resources to effectively and efficiently improve continuance intention. Future research is required to verify if the findings of this study are generalizable to any population because the sample used in this work was specific to Korean college students.     

Exploring individuals’ subjective well-being and loyalty towards social network sites from the perspective of network externalities: The Facebook case

This study aims to investigate users’ subjective well-being and loyalty towards social network sites (SNSs). Despite the growing role of network externalities in SNS continuance decisions, the SNS usage literature has paid scant attention to the relationship between network externalities, SNS identification, and users’ subjective well-being. In this study, we identify four components of network externalities: perceived network size, external prestige, compatibility, and complementarity. In the research model, both network size and external prestige are hypothesized positively to affect SNS identification. Perceived compatibility and perceived complementarity are hypothesized positively to affect user satisfaction. Satisfaction and SNS identification are hypothesized positively to affect user subjective well-being and loyalty towards the SNS. Users’ subjective well-being is hypothesized positively to affect their loyalty towards the SNS. Data collected from 615 valid users of Facebook provide strong support for most of these hypotheses. The findings indicate that perceived network size negatively affects users’ SNS identifications. Other components of network externalities have positive effects on SNS identification and satisfaction, which in turn have positive effects on users’ subjective well-being and loyalty towards SNS. Implications for theory and practice and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

Making a case for speech analytics to improve customer service quality: Vision,implementation, and evaluation

Firms operating in highly competitive markets must find ways to deliver customer value beyond offering competitive prices. Providing superior customer service in such environments becomes a strategic initiative because it can create a competitive advantage by fostering customer loyalty, which can also help ease pressure on profit margins and secure continued revenue flow. In this case study we report a case of utilizing speech analytics to improve customer service quality at a call center of a pharmaceutical supply chain service provider in the U.S. We first describe the strategic rationale behind enhancing customer service quality, followed by the implementation of a quality management program using a novel approach of speech analytics. We then present a longitudinal study that evaluated customer service performance using the data gathered from a team of 120 customer service agents during an 8-month period. Two categories of key performance indicators were established and measured, namely “workforce management” metrics and “customer experience” metrics, which served as the primary indicators in the analysis of the level of success in attaining three strategically identified performance goals to improve customer service quality.