Title: Service-orientation of airlines: its impact on service-oriented behaviour of flight attendants and customer loyalty

Authors: Myungsook An; Yonghwi Noh

Addresses: 209 Department of Management, College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska, P.O. Box 880491, Lincoln, NE 68588-0491, USA. ' 209 Department of Management, College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska, P.O. Box 880491, Lincoln, NE 68588-0491, USA

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between service-orientation of an airline and the service-oriented behaviour of flight attendants and customer loyalty. This study surveyed 200 flight attendants and 1,000 passengers of a major Korean airline in the ratio of five passengers per flight attendant. Based on the survey results, statistical tools such as structural equation modelling were employed. The results suggest that three service-orientation factors of airlines (promotion and incentive, service-orientation of managers, and cabin evaluation and feedback) influence the flight attendants' service-oriented behaviour, except one factor (delegation). The results also show that all of the service-oriented behaviour factors of flight attendants (proactive attitude, willingness to serve passengers, and willingness to provide information) do not significantly influence customer loyalty. These results imply that the service-orientation of airlines plays a partially important role in improving flight attendants' service-oriented behaviour and various other factors, rather than just flight attendants' service-oriented behaviour, influence customer loyalty.

Keywords: service orientation; airlines; flight attendants; service quality; customer loyalty; service-oriented behaviour; employee behaviour; Korea; structural equation modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCI.2011.045579

International Journal of Services Sciences, 2011 Vol.4 No.2, pp.174 - 190

Published online: 21 Feb 2015 *

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