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Customer loyalty and complex services: The impact of corporate image on quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty for customers with varying degrees of service expertise

Tor Wallin Andreassen (Norwegian School of Management, The Graduate School, and Stockholm University, School of Business)
Bodil Lindestad (Norwegian Institute for Research in Marketing (NiM) at the Norwegian School of Management, Sandvika, Norway)

International Journal of Service Industry Management

ISSN: 0956-4233

Article publication date: 1 March 1998

48855

Abstract

Based on theory from consumer behavior and cognitive psychology, the purpose of this paper is to discuss and test corporate image and customer satisfaction as two routes to customer loyalty. Based on data from 600 individual customers categorized as having high or low service expertise of three companies within the package tour industry, a conceptual model is proposed and tested empirically using structural equation modeling. The data used in the study are included in The Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer. The paper concludes by claiming that for complex services, corporate image and customer satisfaction are not two separate routes to customer loyalty. Corporate image impacts customer loyalty directly whereas customer satisfaction does not. This finding was consistent with high and low service expertise. These results challenge the disconfirmation paradigm which predicts customer satisfaction as the primary route to customer loyalty. From a managerial perspective, information regarding the relative strength of the two routes is vital with regard to resource allocation in order to improve customer loyalty.

Keywords

Citation

Wallin Andreassen, T. and Lindestad, B. (1998), "Customer loyalty and complex services: The impact of corporate image on quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty for customers with varying degrees of service expertise", International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 7-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564239810199923

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited

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