Title: Role of service quality and customer satisfaction in predicting customer loyalty

Authors: Vikas Singla

Addresses: School of Management Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab 147002, India

Abstract: Assuming that service quality and satisfaction are distinct constructs, this research attempts to investigate the causal ordering of service quality and satisfaction by investigating their role in predicting customer loyalty. To estimate the causal ordering first, the importance and relevance of whether to employ either performance and expectations measure or only performance measure was assessed. As the purpose of the research was to explain the variance in some dependent construct, the results suggested perceptions-only operationalisation to be appropriate for measuring service quality. Second, the study of antecedents' role of two constructs on customer loyalty indicated the direct effect of service quality on customer loyalty to be highly significant than the indirect effect of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty. Thus, the relationship of customer satisfaction as antecedent to service quality, which leads to formation of customer loyalty, was recognised.

Keywords: customer loyalty; customer satisfaction; service quality models; path coefficients; mediating role.

DOI: 10.1504/JGBA.2012.052268

Journal for Global Business Advancement, 2012 Vol.5 No.3, pp.248 - 259

Published online: 12 Mar 2013 *

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