An integrated model of the effects of service evaluation, corporate image, and switching barriers on customer loyalty

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between service evaluation, corporate image, switching barriers, and customers’ intentional loyalty. The proposed model was tested and valuated in the mobile services context. A field survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire about the investigated concepts. To test the proposed hypotheses, a model was constructed and estimated using the method of partial least squares. Findings indicate that service evaluation constructs have both direct and indirect effects, through customer satisfaction and corporate image, on customers’ intentional loyalty. The outcomes suggest that marketers, in their effort to develop more customer-oriented marketing plans, should consider both the pool-in factors, reflecting the value of the provided services, customer satisfaction, and corporate image, and the interactions among them, as well as the push-back factors, as they all impact on customers’ behavioral intentions. The research was limited to one service setting and the proposed model should be cross-validated in other service settings before the relationships among its components are fully clarified. Also, the use of cross-section design reduces inference ability regarding temporal changes in research constructs. This article contributes in adding to the body of the existing knowledge by considering both corporate image and switching barriers, along with service evaluation constructs, as antecedents of consumer’s intentions determination, resulting in a model that has not been investigated thus far.