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Dissertation
Two Essays on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2024
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007402
Abstract
This study contains two essays exploring dimensions of customer satisfaction and loyalty, areas that, despite decades of scholarly attention, still present under-researched questions.
The first essay investigates how customer satisfaction formation varies across different industries. It reveals that satisfaction evaluations are influenced significantly by industry, with absolute measure of satisfaction generally prevailing. Particularly in service industries, customers are inclined to compare their experience to expectations. Additionally, even in monopolistic industries, customers generate an internal benchmark.
The second essay explores the causal relationships between customer satisfaction and repurchase behavior, distinguishing between true loyalty and spurious loyalty influenced by inertia. The unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic provide a natural experiment setting to separate the effects of loyalty from inertia, by eliminating inertial behavior.
Together, these essays enhance understanding of how customer satisfaction metrics are formulated and their critical role in predicting repurchase behaviors, thereby filling significant gaps in the existing literature on marketing research.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Two Essays on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
- Creators
- Sang Hee Kim
- Contributors
- Thomas S Gruca (Advisor)Gary J Russell (Committee Member)Michael P Jones (Committee Member)Hyeong-Tak Lee (Committee Member)Minjee Sun (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Business Administration (Marketing)
- Date degree season
- Spring 2024
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007402
- Number of pages
- xii, 94 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2024 Sang Hee Kim
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 04/23/2024
- Description illustrations
- tables, graphs
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 81-91).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
- This study is divided into two parts, each examining how we understand customer satisfaction and loyalty - topics that, despite much study, still have unanswered questions. The first essay looks at how satisfaction evaluation differs across industries. It finds that the way companies measure satisfaction is heavily influenced by the type of industry they are in, with most using a direct measure of product quality. Especially in service sectors, people often judge their satisfaction based on their expectations. Also, even in industries where there isn’t much competition, people create their own standards to measure their satisfaction. The second essay investigates how customer satisfaction affects whether people will buy a product again, trying to figure out if their loyalty is genuine or just due to habit. The COVID 19 pandemic created a unique opportunity to study this by removing routine factors, helping to clarify what influences loyalty. Overall, these essays help us better understand how businesses measure customer satisfaction and how this influence repeats purchases, providing new insights into marketing research.
- Academic Unit
- Tippie College of Business
- Record Identifier
- 9984647256102771
Metrics
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