Cultural influences on B2B service quality-satisfaction-loyalty

ABSTRACT

The link between service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty has drawn the attention of both academic researchers and practitioners. They are also focusing on the effect of cultural differences on customer attitudes and behaviour in the global service industry. This paper examines the relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty as well as the moderating effect of cultural differences on the above relationships in the industrial business-to-business (B2B) service sector. The paper presents an empirical study using datasets collected from 7652 industrial customers across 55 countries and uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. The application of Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a customer loyalty metric based on customer experience management (CEM) is studied in relation to customer satisfaction. The study results demonstrate the positive relationship of service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty. In terms of the effect of cultural differences, the study finds that cultural dimensions of uncertainty avoidance negatively moderate the relationship between service quality and satisfaction, while individualism positively moderates the relationship between service quality and satisfaction. However, cultural differences do not impact on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty.

摘要

服务素质、顾客满意度和顾客忠诚度之间的关系，吸引了不少学术界和相关从业人员的关注。他们亦想了解顾客的文化背景如何影响着他们在环球服务业的态度和行为。本文旨在研究服务素质、顾客满意度和忠诚度之间的关系，以及文化差异因素如何在企业对企业 (B2B)的服务环境中起着调节作用。本文引用了一项取自55个国家共从7652家业客户收集到的数据集进行了实证研究，并采用结构方程模型 (SEM) 对此假设进行了测试。通过使用基于客户体验管理(CEM)作为度量客户忠诚度的净推荐值 (NPS) 应用，来进一步研究顾客满意度。究结果表明，服务素质、满意度和忠诚度呈正相关关系。文化差异的影响方面, 研究发现，不确定性规避的文化维度弱化了服务素质与满意度之间的关系，而个人主义则强化了服务素质与满意度之间的关系。然而，文化差异并不影响满意度和忠诚度之间的关系。

KEYWORDS:

• Service quality
• customer satisfaction
• customer loyalty
• cultural difference
• NPS

关键词:

• 服务质量
• 顾客满意度
• 顾客忠诚度
• 文化差异
• 净推荐值(NPS)

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ajou University research fund.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/air-compressor-market