Impact of Value Co-Creation on Customer Loyalty: The Role of Trust and Satisfaction

The study examines the crucial role of value co-creation impacts on customer loyalty (attitudinal and behavioural loyalty) in the Chinese self-service food industry, especially in “Hot Pot,” also known as “Huo Guo,” taking into account the mediating impact on customer trust and satisfaction. The authors collected 377 valid Chinese customers' questionnaires to assess the conceptual model with a purposive sampling method, and data were analyzed using SmartPLS3 software. The findings show that value co-creation positively impacts customer satisfaction, whereas satisfaction fully mediates the association between value co-creation and trust. The findings further portray that consumer satisfaction partially mediates the association among value co-creation and attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Based on the results, another key finding is that consumer satisfaction has an insignificant impact on behavioural loyalty. Notably, the findings provide a menu of potential managerial implications to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.