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This study aims to investigate mechanisms and boundary conditions of the impact of customer engagement strategies (CESs) on customer loyalty (CL) based on goal-framing and well-being theory.

Through a three-stage, time-lagged research design, 246 valid samples were obtained. This study tested and validated the proposed framework using hierarchical regression analysis and a moderated mediation procedure.

First, CESs have a significant positive impact on CL. Second, consumer well-being (CWB) partially mediates the CESs–CL relationship. Third, information processing style (IPS) moderates the impact of CESs on CWB, with a more pronounced effect observed under the affective processing style. Finally, IPS further moderates the indirect effect of CESs on CL, indicating that CESs enhance CL through increased CWB, particularly under the affective processing style.

Revealing the pivotal role of CESs in enhancing CL at the corporate level helps bridge the gap between companies and customers, thereby facilitating the establishment of long-term cooperative relationships. Additionally, introducing the concept of CWB into the study of CL offers a novel perspective for understanding customer behavior.

Based on relationship marketing theory, this study aims to test the effect of social customer relationship management (social CRM) on customer satisfaction (CS) and loyalty (CL).

To assess the proposed framework, structural equation modeling was performed on the data of 314 automotive customers surveyed online.

Social CRM dimensions [traditional CRM (TCRM) and social media (SM) technology use] have a direct and positive effect on CS. On the other hand, only TCRM has a direct and significant influence on CL, while the SM technology use effect seems to be indirect rather than direct. Indeed, the findings have provided empirical support for the contention that CS plays a mediating role between social CRM dimensions and CL.

In the automotive sector and developing countries in particular, companies’ managers could increase CS and CL and consequently enhance their competitiveness and market share by adopting an effective social CRM strategy. From this perspective, companies should focus their social CRM campaigns on the most SM used by customers, offer personalized choices and improve customer experience, interaction and value co-creation.

This paper enriches the understanding of how social CRM can affect CS and CL. The scales of social CRM, CS and CL were validated in the context of developing countries and the automotive sector. Furthermore, the direct and mediating effect of CS between social CRM (TCRM and SM) and CL was also confirmed.

Basándose en la teoría del marketing relacional, este estudio pretende comprobar el efecto de la gestión social de las relaciones con los clientes (CRM social) sobre la satisfacción y la fidelidad de los clientes.

Para evaluar el marco propuesto, se realizó un modelado de ecuaciones estructurales sobre los datos de 314 clientes de automoción encuestados online.

Las dimensiones del CRM social (CRM tradicional y uso de tecnología de medios sociales) tienen un efecto directo y positivo en la satisfacción del cliente. Por otro lado, solamente el CRM tradicional tiene una influencia directa y significativa en la fidelidad del cliente, mientras que el efecto del uso de la tecnología de medios sociales parece ser más indirecto que directo. De hecho, los resultados han proporcionado apoyo empírico a la afirmación de que la satisfacción del cliente desempeña un papel mediador entre las dimensiones del CRM social y la fidelidad del cliente.

Este artículo enriquece la comprensión de cómo el CRM social puede afectar a la satisfacción y la fidelidad de los clientes. Las escalas de CRM social, satisfacción del cliente y fidelidad del cliente se validaron en el contexto de países en vías de desarrollo y del sector automovilístico. Además, también se confirmó el efecto directo y mediador de la satisfacción del cliente entre el CRM social (CRM tradicional y medios sociales) y la fidelidad del cliente.

En el sector de la automoción y en los países en desarrollo en particular, los directivos de las empresas podrían aumentar la satisfacción y fidelidad de sus clientes y, en consecuencia, mejorar su competitividad y cuota de mercado adoptando una estrategia eficaz de CRM social. Desde esta perspectiva, las empresas deberían centrar sus campañas de CRM social en los medios más utilizados por los clientes, ofrecer opciones personalizadas y mejorar la experiencia del cliente, la interacción y la cocreación de valor.

基于关系营销理论, 本研究旨在检验社会化客户关系管理（social CRM）对客户满意度和忠诚度的影响。

为评估所提出的框架, 对 314 名汽车客户的在线调查数据进行了结构方程建模。

社交客户关系管理维度（传统客户关系管理和社交媒体技术使用）对客户满意度有直接的积极影响。另一方面, 只有传统客户关系管理对客户忠诚度有直接和显著的影响, 而社交媒体技术使用的影响似乎是间接而非直接的。事实上, 研究结果为客户满意度在社交客户关系管理维度和客户忠诚度之间发挥中介作用的论点提供了实证支持。

本文丰富了人们对社交客户关系管理如何影响客户满意度和忠诚度的认识。本文以发展中国家和汽车行业为背景, 对社会化客户关系管理、客户满意度和客户忠诚度的量表进行了验证。此外, 还证实了客户满意度在社会化客户关系管理（传统客户关系管理和社会化媒体）与客户忠诚度之间的直接和中介效应。

尤其是发展中国家, 企业管理者可以通过采取有效的社交客户关系管理战略, 提高客户满意度和忠诚度, 进而增强竞争力和市场份额。从这个角度来看, 企业应将社交客户关系管理活动的重点放在客户使用最多的社交媒体上, 提供个性化选择, 改善客户体验、互动和价值共创。

The operations and viability of microfinance institutions (MFIs), crucial for socioeconomic development and poverty reduction, heavily rely on the multilevel relationships among borrowers, loan officers and MFIs. This study examines the relationship between interpersonal and firm-level relationship quality (RQ) and their simultaneous impact on customer loyalty (CL) in microfinance. Additionally, it investigates the mediating effect of firm-level RQ between CL and interpersonal RQ.

In this study, correlational research methods were employed. Completed questionnaires were received from 498 MFI borrowers in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza cities. Regression techniques and structural equation modeling were utilized to analyze the data. Before hypothesis testing, the validity and reliability of the measurements were confirmed.

Interpersonal-level and firm-level RQs are significantly related. Interpersonal-level RQ and its dimensions are significantly linked to CL, whereas firm-level RQ and its dimensions are insignificantly related to CL, except for commitment. Interpersonal-level relationships have a stronger impact on CL than firm-level relationships. Among all the dimensions of RQ, commitment has the greatest influence on CL at both levels. Firm-level RQ negatively and insignificantly mediates the relation between interpersonal-level RQ and CL.

The study findings only apply to Tanzania's microfinance industry, because the interactions between and the relative effects of firm and interpersonal ties may vary across various contexts and cultures. Future research may consider replicating this study in other contexts and cultures to confirm these findings.

This study advances the understanding of how multilevel relationships affect CL within the microfinance industry. This insight will assist MFIs and policymakers in identifying alternative and more efficient relational strategies to enhance CL, a critical element for the sustainability of MFIs. In turn, the sustainability of MFIs in low-income countries like Tanzania holds paramount importance for stimulating socioeconomic development and, hence, achieving the goal of poverty eradication.

While previous studies on multilevel relationships concentrated on a single relational dimension (trust) and were conducted within the realms of retail, airline and industrial manufacturing, the current study employs the three most popular relational dimensions: trust, commitment and satisfaction, within the microfinance context. Additionally, this study investigates the mediation effect of firm-level RQ between interpersonal-level RQ and CL, a previously unexplored area in research.

Drawing on social identity, signalling and stakeholder theories, this paper aims to examine corporate reputation’s (CR) mediating role concerning corporate social responsibility (CSR) and customer loyalty (CL) among Generation Z customers of Nepali commercial banks.

The research applied a cross-sectional survey research design to collect data from 281 customers of Nepali commercial banks. The study used a purposive sampling method to reach the respondents and partial least squares structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that CSR significantly influences CR and CL. Likewise, CR positively influences CL. Moreover, CR partially mediates the relationship between CSR and CL. It implies that CSR and CR are critical variables for CL among Generation Z customers of Nepali commercial banks.

This study focuses on understanding the importance of CSR to Nepalese commercial bank managers to create a better customer base by focusing on the CSR dimensions, i.e. economic, environmental and social. It adds to the literature on the theoretical aspect of the study of CSR, particularly in the banking industry.

It has initially investigated CSR as a higher-order construct to explain the meditational mechanism of CR concerning CSR and CL. Moreover, the study examined the issue of endogeneity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a brand-new phenomenon in customer consumption patterns. This resulted from heightened health awareness brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic. There is a dearth of appropriate health psychology perspectives in the existing study examining the effect of COVID-19 on consumers’ use of crowdsourced logistics (CL) platforms. In order to provide unique and thorough insights into how consumer health concerns can affect consumers’ subjective views and their decisions to use CL, this study combines the health belief model and the technology acceptance model.

Five hundred valid responses from an online survey that was created and administered in Singapore were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings show that all of the suggested constructs have a favourable influence on consumers’ intentions to use CL. The suggested model also demonstrates high explanatory power, with perceived usefulness serving as the primary driver, followed by perceived ease of use and self-efficacy.

The study advances previous academic research on CL and offers guidance to CL companies and lawmakers for promoting sustainable and secured last-mile delivery.

The primary purpose of this research is to examine how total quality management (TQM) boosts corporate green growth (CGG) with the involvement of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and customer loyalty (CL) as mediators in the relationship between TQM and CGG for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging economy.

This research adopts a quantitative approach. According to the scope of this study, constructs of TQM, CSR, CL and CGG and the conceptual relationships between them are established using a systematic literature review. This study uses enterprise-level primary data collected from a questionnaire-based survey. The respondents are those holding managerial positions in their enterprises. There were 424 valid responses obtained following the necessary screening steps to ensure the eligibility of the collected data for analysis using AMOS version 20.

This study reveals that TQM has a positive and significant relationship with CSR, CL and CGG. Amongst these direct connections, TQM has the most substantial influence on CGG, followed by CL and CSR. Furthermore, the findings assert that CSR positively and significantly affects CGG and CL. When comparing the weighting of these effects, the results show that the impact of CSR on CGG is stronger than that on CL. Furthermore, the results confirm that CSR and CL partially mediate the relationship between TQM and CGG, both independently and simultaneously. The article also discusses the theoretical and managerial implications based on the stated findings.

The originality of this study stems from its contribution to enriching the body of the current literature on TQM and its combined influence on corporate performance. In this respect, this study adds to the existing literature by providing additional empirical evidence on the mechanism by which TQM boosts CGG with the involvement of CSR and CL in mediating the stated relationship between TQM and CGG for SMEs in an emerging economy. To the best of the author’s knowledge, such holistic incorporation is rare in the current literature. Furthermore, this study sheds light on the TQM enabling factors that are extended beyond the quality or technical scope as previously assumed. The stated contributions deserve to be originally derived from the attempt of this scientific work that may be of interest to academics, professionals and business practitioners.

This study aims to empirically explore telecommunications service quality (SQ) and its impact on the customer loyalty (CL) through a mediating impact of customer satisfaction (CS) during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

A survey was conducted involving 384 customers of telecommunications service providers in Egypt. The hypothesized direct relationships were tested through regression analysis, and the mediating effect was tested using structural equation modeling technique.

The results reveal a strong positive relationship of SQ dimensions, CS and CL. Reliability, privacy and security and convenience, respectively, proved to increase CS and CL more than the other SQ dimensions, particularly during COVID-19. Moreover, CS was found to significantly and fully mediate the effect of SQ on CL.

This is an empirical research applied in the Egyptian telecommunications setting. Its relationships need further investigation in other settings and countries. Also, traditional limitations of a cross-sectional study apply with respect to the attribution of causality and the time lag effects.

In strategic planning of telecommunications services and the associated consumer behavior, the results of this study can be helpful for policymakers. In case of similar epidemics and natural calamities, consumers may depict similar behavior as shown during the lockdown and social distancing during COVID-19; hence, this study can help regulatory bodies in preparing their safety roadmap.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge in enhancing the understanding on the impact of telecommunications SQ on CS and loyalty, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Although crowd logistics (CL) is a promising digital solution, its future development remains uncertain. This paper aims to suggest multiple possible futures of CL in terms of business relationships and value co-creation between manufacturers and digital platforms.

This paper offers a systemic and multistakeholder approach related to the field of strategic foresight, based on the scenario method. The scenarios construction involved 22 participants (practitioners, academic researchers and foresight experts).

Four scenarios emerged from the strategic foresight study. For each scenario, the configuration, diffusion and coordination of CL – as well as the balance of power between manufacturers, digital platforms and customers – are specified.

The foresight analysis reveals not one certain future, but multiple potential business configurations and research avenues related to the development of CL.

The adopted multistakeholders perspective, including macro factors, regarding CL allows business-to-business (B2B) managers to rethink its potential. Managers can use the scenarios to consider multiple types of coordination with digital platforms and its implication for value co-creation.

This paper provides insights into social changes that may constitute drivers and consequences of the development of CL and identifies two forms of coupling that may drive the development of CL: regulation–social transformation and technology–environment.

This research contributes to IMP research on B2B relationships in digital contexts, by showing that CL presents an opportunity for the co-creation of distribution value in a B2B environment.

Creating suitable learning conditions in university classrooms continues to be a topical issue in higher education. The above means that a continued search for innovative teaching and learning strategies in universities remains a priority issue. The study therefore investigated conditions that facilitate the effective implementation of cooperative learning (CL) as well as how CL influences the academic performance of students in universities in Zimbabwe.

The research adopted a quantitative research approach located in the descriptive research design. A sample of 341 undergraduate students selected using a simple random sampling strategy from a sample frame of 701 undergraduate students participated in the study. The study first used a pre-test and later, a post-test to determine the initial and end of semester (EOS) academic performance levels of students, respectively, on a Calculus 1 course. A self-constructed structured questionnaire was also used for data collection on the views of students towards the use of CL with particular reference to the 5 dimensions of positive interdependence (PDI), promotive interaction (PI), individual and group accountability (IGA), social and interpersonal skills (SS) and group processing (GP). The questionnaire was validated using confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modelling was used to test proposed relationships. A total of 341 questionnaires were administered through an email survey. Of the total, 149 completed questionnaires were received from the students, giving a return rate of 43.7%.

The results showed that positive interdependence, promotive interaction, social and interpersonal skills, individual and group accountability as well as group processing were important antecedents to the effective implementation of CL in universities. The results further showed that CL plays a significant role in improving the academic performance of university students; hence, academic performance was viewed as a significant consequence of CL.

This is the first study on the application of CL to enhance the academic performance of university students in the context of Zimbabwe. As a result, caution should be exercised when generalising the results as more studies to either confirm or disconfirm these results in the context of Zimbabwe may still be required.

These results have implications on policy and practice with regards to active teaching strategies in universities. With regards to practice, the results demonstrated that the use of group activities that allow students to share knowledge and support each other while the teacher plays a facilitating role is important for enhancing students' academic performance. With regards to policy, the results showed that universities can enhance the academic performance of students if policies that promote student-centered teaching and learning approaches to ensure that teaching in universities is more student-led than lecturer-led are developed.

While many studies have been conducted in other contexts, to establish the influence of CL on the academic performance of university students, there is no known study on the influence of CL that has been conducted in the context of Zimbabwean universities. The results of this study therefore are an eye opener on the role of CL in enhancing the academic performance of students in Zimbabwean universities.

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the essential role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on SMEs' performance by exploring the mediating role of corporate image (CI), corporate reputation (CR) and customer loyalty (CL) between CSR and firm performance (FP) in the context of an emerging country.

Based on an extended literature review on CSR, CI, CR and CL studies, the authors evaluate the impact of these four constructs on SMEs' performance in an emerging market. The paper follows a quantitative approach. The study sample was composed of 482 responses covering top executives, managers and experts. The Smart PLS SEM version 3.3.2 was used to analyse the data of the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Vietnam in the year 2020–2021.

The authors' findings reveal significant and positive relationships amongst CSR, FP, CSR and CI, CSR and CR, CSR and CL, and most importantly, the findings add value to the current knowledge by exploring the mediating effect of CI, CR and CL between CSR and FP.

The study was conducted in Vietnam. As a result, the findings of the study might not be applicable for other countries, if the economic and environmental settings are different from that of Vietnam. Therefore, future research should consider for other countries, other regions. Second, due to the purpose and priority of the study, CI, CR, and CL was employed as mediators amongst the relationship between CSR and FP. Thus, future research should consider other mediators or moderators in such a relationship to see how CSR generates outcomes in the new associations.

The study regarding the role of CSR in enhancing the performance of SMEs can motivate firm's chief executive officers (CEOs) to be proactive in getting involved and practising CSR in a consistent manner. Second, the above discussion draws a very important implication for the executive level, the management level of the enterprise, which enterprises should balance the interests of business, customers, other stakeholders, the environment and society in order to optimise CSR outcomes for improving competitiveness and developing sustainably. This implication is particularly important to the survival and development of SMEs in a challenging emerging economy.

The study widens the literature regarding relationship between CSR and SMEs' performance. Besides, the study supports stakeholder theory that explains why CSR positively affects firm's performance. The significant mediating roles of CI, CR and CL were positively confirmed in the study. Although previous studies determined that such roles are strategic source of competitive advantages of enterprises, however, how CSR involved in enhancing the roles has not been deeply explored and integrated. Third, the findings of the study support the resource-based view (RBV) and resource-based perspective that explains why firm should engage in CSR activities, and CI, CR and CL can enhance firm's performance by providing strategic source of competitive advantages that facilitate business to improve its performance in sustainable direction.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current literature on CSR and FP shows that, to date, there has been little empirical research on the mediating mechanism of CI, CR and CL in the link between CSR and FP for SMEs. The findings of the study may have great implications for entrepreneurs and top management with respect to the strategic perspectives to drive the businesses and to improve firm's performance in a sustainable direction in the context of emerging markets. In addition, the finding might be of great interest to – and motivate – SMEs' managers to engage with CSR actions where such businesses were or are situated during and after the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. By that understanding, the Government might allow for innovative and groundbreaking policies or the reformation of old policies to leverage businesses to promote their strengths towards sustainable development in the new economic settings. The findings of the study may be a significant contribution to SMEs in Vietnam and in other emerging economies.