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ABSTRACT
Previous empirical research on the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty has largely neglected the issue of moderator variables. In a consumer-durables context the authors analyze the moderating effect of selected personal characteristics on the satisfaction-loyalty link. The empirical findings, which are based on multiple-group causal analysis, show that the strength of the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty is strongly influenced by characteristics of the customer. Specifically, variety seeking, age, and income are found to be important moderators of the satisfaction-loyalty relationship. (c) 2001 John Wiley &Sons, Inc.
In times of severe competition and rising customer expectations, firms are highly interested in keeping existing customers. As virtually all companies depend on repeat business, a strong interest in the antecedents of customer loyalty has evolved. Typically, customer satisfaction is thought of as an immediate antecedent to customer loyalty (E. W. Anderson &Sullivan, 1993, p. 125). In turn, customer loyalty should lead to increasing shareholder value and asset efficiency (Reichheld, 1996a; Rust &Oliver, 1994). Thus, achieving high levels of customer satisfaction has become a major goal for many companies.
The strong focus on customer satisfaction is based on the implicit assumption that there is a strong positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Recently, however, the existence of this strong link has been questioned by managerial writers (Jones &Sasser, 1995; Reichheld, 1993, 1996b). Although these authors provide fragmented evidence for high defection rates of satisfied customers, this phenomenon remains largely unexplored in academic literature (Oliva, Oliver, &MacMillan, 1992). The objective of this study is to provide additional insight into the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty by examining the effects of moderating factors on this relationship. More specifically, the link between satisfaction and loyalty in the context of consumer durables will be studied, and the impact of personal characteristics on this relationship will be investigated. Thus the study addresses the question: "How do personal characteristics influence the strength of the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty?" The extant literature related to this issue is restricted to theoretical discussion (Dick &Basu, 1994) and very limited empirical evidence (Bloemer &Kasper, 1995; Kasper, 1988).
Research of this type is also relevant from a managerial perspective. Managers responsible for customer retention programs need information concerning the determinants of customer...