Structural relationships between inertia, satisfaction, loyalty and revisit behaviour: empirical evidence from local tourists in Chengdu

Abstract

Satisfaction and loyalty are linked intimately with repurchase behavioural although a complex nexus between satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase behaviour remains questionable. Inertia could provide sufficient and necessary conditions for promoting repurchasing behaviour. Contrarily, satisfaction and loyalty may not necessarily do the same. Researchers postulate that development of inertia goes through three stages, namely affective/cognitive, conative and action inertia (AFFI/COGI, CONI and ACTI), which could be employed to predict tourists' revisit behaviour. A pretested questionnaire was field tested and 518 valid responses were obtained to test the hypothesised model, with the results indicating great support. Findings confirmed that AFFI and COGI are antecedents of satisfaction and CONI. Satisfaction and loyalty showed a mediation effect over the relationship between AFFI and CONI, while satisfaction indicated a mediation effect over COGI and CONI. CONI is an antecedent of ACTI. Theoretical and empirical implications and future research directions are discussed.