Customer satisfaction, loyalty, and repurchase: Meta-analytical review, and theoretical and empirical evidence of loyalty and repurchase differences.

摘要

Despite the large volume of research in the area of loyalty-repurchase-satisfaction, the findings on the relationship between these variables are conflicting. It seems that links between loyalty, repurchase, and satisfaction are not fully understood yet.The study provided the theoretical background on loyalty, repurchase, satisfaction, and their interrelationships. The Theory of Planned Behavior and the Expectation Confirmation Theory were discussed. The loyalty-repurchase differentiation with five contributing factors was addressed. From the literature review nine hypotheses were proposed.The study was conducted in three phases. The purpose of the first phase was to statistically identify the magnitude and the direction of relationships: loyalty-satisfaction, repurchase-satisfaction, and loyalty-repurchase by providing a quantitative review. A Hunter and Schmidt (1990) meta-analysis technique was employed. The results demonstrated that those three constructs have positive, strong relationships. However, the relationships were moderated by a number of factors, including the geographic region of the collected sample, the category (products versus service), and the business setting (B2B versus B2C).The purpose of the second phase was to statistically identify relationships between the research constructs, such as loyalty dimensions (commitment, trust, involvement, and word of mouth), repurchase/repurchase intent, and satisfaction, by conducting a field study with customers of apparel products. A structural equation modeling technique was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Eight hypotheses were supported. The results indicated that although positive relationships between the research constructs exist, not all relationships are significantly strong.The purpose of the third phase was to compare the meta-analysis results, obtained from the large number of independent empirical studies, with the field study results, obtained from surveying consumers of apparel products. The overall findings of this research indicated that while meta-analysis and the field study results agree on positive relationships between the research constructs, the differences lay within the strength of the investigated relationships. The possible explanation was provided based on the theoretical foundation from the literature review.The study contributes to the growing knowledge of the relationships between loyalty, repurchase, and satisfaction by assessing the current state of the empirical research on those three variables. This research addresses the existing gap in the literature, and attempts to resolve the existing mixed views on the studied concepts. The mixed results of meta-analysis and the field study in terms of the strength of the investigated relationships indicate the need to expand this area of research further.