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The purpose of this paper is to study whether environmental certifications increase customer satisfaction in kindergartens, and whether this relationship is influenced by kindergarten size or ownership type.

Data from a parental satisfaction survey in Norwegian kindergartens is combined with data on environmental certifications (n = 2033–3270 kindergartens over 7 years, approximately 11% certified). Regression models with extensive controls are used to test the relationships.

The main pooled cross-sectional regression and all panel data regression models show no significant relationships between environmental certification and customer satisfaction. Organizational size or ownership type (for-profit/non-profit) does not moderate the relationship.

Environmental certifications have little or no impact on customer satisfaction in this sample of kindergartens.

The study contributes by examining the effects of environmental certifications on customer satisfaction in kindergartens, a little studied topic and a sector, and by using a large sample, secondary data and panel data methods, avoiding some limitations in earlier research.

Team leaders play a vital role in achieving superior team performance. However, their role in implementing the organizational customer orientation strategy is not well understood. Drawing on social exchange theory, this study investigates how team leader customer orientation affects team customer orientation climate and team performance (i.e. customer satisfaction) as well as the moderating role of transformational leadership in such effect.

This study builds on survey data collected from matched team leaders, employees and customers nested in 81 service teams and employs hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The findings indicate that team leader customer orientation increases team customer orientation climate, which leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction. Leaders' transformational leadership moderates the link between a leader customer orientation and team customer orientation climate in an unexpected way. When a team leader is transformational, the team customer orientation climate is enhanced, regardless of the level of team leader customer orientation. When a team leader's transformational leadership is low, the higher leader customer orientation is and the higher team customer orientation climate is.

This study contributes to the customer orientation, transformational leadership and service literature by unraveling team leaders' roles in boosting team customer orientation climate and team effectiveness.

The aim of the paper is to measure the service quality, satisfaction, service value and behavioral intentions of Gen Z in leading global Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) in India by integrating QUICKSERV into an established model of consumer behavior.

A cross-sectional study design was used for the hypothesis testing. Service quality perceptions with satisfaction, service value and behavioral intentions were measured using structural equation modeling.

The outcomes suggest a direct effect of the service quality of QSRs on the satisfaction, service value and behavioral intentions of Gen Z customers. Satisfaction further influenced customers' behavioral intentions. However, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions were not directly influenced by service value. Finally, the association between service quality and behavioral intentions was mediated by satisfaction.

Managers should encourage a pleasant attitude, good grooming and friendliness in QSR employees as Gen Z highly values these aspects. At the same time, QSRs should focus to elevate the service value of Gen Z customers by lowering their sacrifice perceptions and fostering initiatives.

Although many studies have considered millennials along with Gen Z to analyze the relationship between service quality and behavioral intentions in different service settings, few researchers have considered the impact of Gen Z consumer features in service quality research separately. The findings of the study will help both practitioners of different QSR brands and facilitators in hospitality academia to better understand the nuances and uniqueness of Gen Z consumer behavior in the QSRs.

The purpose of this study was to find the key face mask features using Kano model in combination with a hierarchical cluster analysis based on customer satisfaction (CS) and preference.

This study used 171 responses collected from a self-administrated online survey with convenience sampling where respondents were asked about 16 different features of face masks.

The study revealed that, among 6 Kano categories, 15 features were categorized as “one dimensional” and only the high price fell under the “reverse” category but all features were not equally weighted by customers. The result also showed viral protection and comfortability were the most desired features by customers regardless of its price and the “color matching” feature can act both as “one dimension” and as “attractive” feature.

This study will help face mask producers to drive their resources towards those features which customers value more by showing how to prioritize features even if they fall under the same category.

This study used customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction index along with an unsupervised machine learning tool to improve features classification based on Kano model. The findings of this study can be used to formulate future research studies.

This study reviewed three customer-perceived components of integrated marketing communications (IMCs): consistency, interactivity and connectivity, as predictors of positive customer evaluation (product and retail service satisfaction).

The customer data from 260 surveys were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The data were collected from the emerging economy in the Moscow region (Russia).

The results reported that IMC consistency positively impacts product and service satisfaction. However, the effect of IMC interactivity was only significant in the case of service satisfaction. Meanwhile, IMC connectivity positively influenced only product satisfaction.

The study contributes to the marketing communications theory by defining three components of omnichannel IMC. It also adds to the customer behaviour theory by confirming the diverse nature of product and service evaluation. This study focuses on the retail industry.

This research suggests that three components of IMC should be applied together towards enhancing the customer's positive post-purchase evaluation. Meanwhile, consistency enhances product and service satisfaction, interactive impacts satisfaction with the organization and connectivity with the retail service.

The shift toward omnichannel marketing requires a broader perspective on communication integration. This research reports a novelty result of estimating the separate effect of each component of omnichannel IMC (consistency, interactivity and connectivity) on product and service satisfaction.

This study investigates two moderators of the effects of manufacturers' recovery efforts following a product defect on customers' perceptions of product quality: the severity of the product defect and whether the recovery efforts were covered under warranty or not.

A total of 478 USA customers who purchased a new car from a cooperating manufacturer participated in a survey. Customers reported the most important product defect (if any) the customers had experienced with the customers' vehicle during the past year. Three linear regressions (OLS) were used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Defect severity moderates the effects of recovery efforts on quality perceptions. The well-known recovery effect occurs only for product defects of minor severity. Experiencing a severe product defect damages the customers' perceptions of product quality even if the product defect is completely fixed. Double deviations (failed recovery of a product defect) do not damage quality perceptions for defects of minor severity. Finally, warranty coverage of repairs can attenuate the adverse effects of a failed recovery of severe defects on customers' quality perceptions. Additionally, only non-complainers who have experienced a severe product defect correspond to the prevailing conceptualization of an at-risk customer group.

Despite the pervasiveness of product defects, research on the effects of experiencing product defects on customers' product quality perceptions is scarce. Furthermore, the authors' findings reconcile inconsistent results and provide a more nuanced understanding of the well-known recovery and double-deviation effects. Finally, the role of warranty coverage in the recovery process as a buffer for customers' perceptions of product quality is novel.

There is a growing trend in online shopping in developing and underdeveloped economies. Measuring web retail service quality is vital to enhance and retain online customers for higher profits. As a result, it is essential to understand e-service quality and its relationship with other e-commerce-related variables identified as customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth (WOM), loyalty and repurchase intention. The main objective of this research is to validate the psychometric properties of E-TailQ and ES-Qual scales to measure e-service quality in the context of an emerging economy.

The study was administered by surveying online customers through a convenience sampling approach. The sample data consisted of 329 valid responses. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results suggest that both the scales are valid, reliable and adequate and confirm the psychometric properties of E-TailQ and ES-Qual scales in an emerging economy context. There is a positive and significant relationship between latent variables (E-TailQ and ES-Qual) and customer outcome variables like satisfaction, loyalty, WOM and repurchase intention. Additionally, the coefficients of the E-TailQ scale have higher values than ES-Qual scales in all dimensions. The perceived quality proved to be a precedent of satisfaction to a lesser extent than other scales' constructs, and it proved to be a superior predictor of WOM for the E-TailQ scale and loyalty for the ES-Qual scale. Overall, when measured by the ES-Qual scale, perceived quality could explain much of the sample's satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intention compared to E-TailQ.

One of the significant limitations of this study is related to the data collection, as individual responses were collected at one particular point in time. Thus, it is impossible to verify the development of perceived service quality outcomes over a specific time. Another possible limitation is the selection of only two widely used scales, although other options are available in the literature. Finally, developing a new scale to address future challenges might be another alternative.

The results obtained in the study will help managers assess customer satisfaction, the reputation of the business through WOM, and customer intentions for the repurchase that will lead to loyalty by emphasizing e-service quality. It will enable them to design strategies for improving business performance. The developed instrument will assist in identifying the gaps and describing how service quality can achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Several studies in the literature have used E-TailQ and ES-Qual scales to measure e-service quality in developed countries. Only a few studies addressed the validity of these widely used competing scales in an emerging economy like Pakistan. This study addresses the literature gap by addressing the reliability and validity of these scales and assesses the impact of e-commerce-related variables. Besides, the study reveals insights into the literature by addressing multiple dimensions of e-service quality and summarizes a deep understanding of each scale item that affects the perceived quality in a developing economy like Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customers’ upgrading/downgrading _(t−1) behavior may be predictive of future spending. Further, this paper also investigates how customers’ post-consumption evaluations of upgrades and downgrades [satisfaction_(t−1) and perceived value_(t−1)] may moderate the relationship between upgrades/downgrades and future spending.

The predictions are tested using a large longitudinal data set of river cruise purchases (N = 48,103) and largely replicated using a data set of zoo membership purchases (N = 2,469).

Satisfaction_(t−1) mitigates the positive relationship between prior upgrades_(t−1) and future spending_(t). In contrast, perceived value_(t−1) magnifies the positive relationship between prior upgrades_(t−1) and future spending_(t). However, no positively moderating effects are observed to alleviate the negative relationship between prior downgrades_(t−1) and future spending_(t).

This research suggests that managers should work hard early in customer–firm relationships because of an asymmetric difficultly in altering the trajectory of an established relationship. Specifically, relationships that are trending downward (as consecutive downgrades would suggest) are difficult to repair – a mechanism to alter this trajectory is not observed. In contrast, relationships that are trending upward (as consecutive upgrades would suggest) can be improved with high perceived value evaluations but also degraded with high satisfaction evaluations.

This research should recast marketers’ understanding of the value of customers’ upgrade and downgrade decisions. Instead of using customers’ upgrade or downgrade decisions as the dependent variable, or final outcome in buyer behavior, this study shows how the accumulation of prior upgrades and prior downgrades, over time, acts as a bellwether of the customer–firm relationship. Further, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to connect these upgrade/downgrade decisions to customers’ evaluations of those purchases to understand how individual purchases can impact the overall customer–firm relationship.

Although co-creation draws attention from researchers and practitioners, the concept is theoretically discussed, and it is not known enough how to measure co-created value (CCV) substantially at service encounters. This study aims to conceptualize CCV from the service-dominant (S-D) logic perspective and develop a CCV scale for hospitality services.

In addition to the conventional psychometric procedure for scale development, this study combined text-mining techniques and interviews to generate items to capture the concept of CCV comprehensively. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using two different surveys. Moreover, structural equation modeling was performed to test concurrent validity.

The study developed a CCV scale, including four sub-dimensions: CCV-in-use, CCV-in-interaction, CCV-in-involvement and CCV-in-experience. The validity test results demonstrated that the new scale effectively measured CCV in a hospitality setting.

The multidimensional constructs and the scale that this study developed will contribute to empirical research and improve understanding of CCV at the service encounter. Moreover, managers can enhance their competitive advantages by identifying and evaluating factors to facilitate CCV.

The study reconceptualized CCV, drawing on a resource-based view from S-D logic, and developed a scale to measure the degree to which customers perceive CCV. Furthermore, it achieved methodological advancement in adopting text mining of online reviews for the scale development process.

The restaurants in Peru enjoy today a high level of international recognition, and the gastronomy of the country is recognised as one of the best in the world. For this reason, aspiring to excellence should be one of the priorities in the industry, which should mean, among other things, enhancing those aspects related to food with the greatest impact on the maximum level of customer satisfaction. However, to the authors knowledge, this research line has not been addressed before in the context of Peruvian restaurant, so that this research focuses on assessing the influence of food – through the concept of food values –, on the probability of reaching the maximum level of satisfaction both with the food consumption experience and with the foods consumed in restaurants in Peru. This research also takes into account differences according to the geographical origin of the customers.

An in-person survey of customers was conducted at the exit of different flagship restaurants with a high level of recognition and tourist orientation in the department of Ayacucho (Peru) between September and November 2022. Five restaurants acknowledged as tourist restaurants were selected for this study, of which, one has been officially granted the status of Tourist Restaurant and One Fork, in accordance with the Peruvian legal regulations. A total of 468 valid questionnaires were collected. The database was analysed using descriptive statistics, principal component factor analysis for food values, and binary logistic regressions.

The following food values factors emerged from the factorial analysis: “Image and Accessibility (IAA)”, “Ethics and Sustainability (EAS)” and “Natural Food-Safe (NFS)”. For the overall sample, IAA is more influential in the probability of obtaining the maximum level of both satisfactions (i.e. satisfaction with the food consumption experience and with the foods consumed in restaurants in Peru). In second place, EAS, as well as NFS (the latter one with a significance level of 90%), also affect, in this order, the probability of obtaining the highest level of satisfaction, but only with the foods consumed. When the geographical origin of the customer is considered (regional, national, international), interesting findings appear. For national customers, IAA is the factor with the greatest impact on the probability of achieving the maximum level of the endogenous satisfaction variables considered, followed by EAS, whilst for regional customers, only EAS is found to be influential in the probability of obtaining the maximum level of both types of satisfaction. For international customers, no factor is found to exert a significant influence.

This is the first study to assess the influence of food values on the maximum level of satisfaction among restaurant customers in Peru with both the food consumption experience and the foods consumed. Thus, this research represents a notable contribution to this research line, especially considering the great international reputation of Peruvian cuisine.