Service Marketing Productivity and Firm Profit: Evidence From U.S. Domestic Airline Companies

Abstract

The service-profit chain has been used as a powerful tool for evaluating the relationship between service effort and profit. However, this framework cannot account for customer satisfaction, which may be the ultimate goal of firms. This article attempts to investigate the relationship between service marketing productivity and profit by using data envelopment analysis and regression to determine the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the service-profit chain. The data from 17 U.S. domestic airlines from 2001 to 2005 indicate a significant association between service marketing productivity and profit and the mediating effect of customer satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• airline service
• customer satisfaction
• data envelopment analysis
• service marketing productivity
• service-profit chain

Notes

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