A Meta-analysis of Satisfaction-Loyalty Relationship in E-Commerce: Sample and Measurement Characteristics as Moderators

With the development of the internet, practitioners and researchers alike need a cumulative, quantitative understanding of the satisfaction-loyalty relationship within the e-commerce domain. We conduct a meta-analysis that aggregates empirical findings from multiple literature fields to examine the relationship between e-satisfaction and several types of loyalty performance. The cumulative data suggest that e-satisfaction strongly influences attitudinal loyalty (e.g., trust, word-of-mouth, commitment), behavioral loyalty (e.g., repurchase intention, continuance intention) and composite loyalty. Additionally, using a regression analysis, we find that industry characteristics (high-monopoly vs. highly competitive), object satisfaction (product/service satisfaction vs. brand satisfaction) and questionnaire type (paper vs. online questionnaire) moderate the satisfaction-loyalty relationship in e-commerce. The results serve as a data-based foundation and guide future theoretical and empirical research on the satisfaction-loyalty relationship in the e-commerce domain, and they also support practical development. Our study not only deepens the understanding of the e-satisfaction-loyalty relationship but also identifies the right samples and measurement methods. Additionally, we provide guidance to enterprise management in e-commerce by showing that promoting e-satisfaction, reinforcing brand satisfaction, and understanding the industry structure are advantages for enterprises to increase their revenue.

[1]  Barbara Seegebarth,et al.  The Impact of Perceived Visual Complexity of Mobile Online Shops on User's Satisfaction , 2017 .

[2]  J. Chiou,et al.  The effects of satisfaction, opportunism, and asset specificity on consumers' loyalty intention toward internet portal sites , 2006 .

[3]  Gert Jan Hofstede,et al.  Cultures and Organizations - Software of the Mind: Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival (3. ed.) , 2010 .

[4]  Rajdeep Grewal,et al.  Building Organizational Capabilities for Managing Economic Crisis: The Role of Market Orientation and Strategic Flexibility , 2001 .

[5]  S. Hunt,et al.  The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing , 1994 .

[6]  P. Blau.  Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[7]  Vassilis Kostakos,et al.  Modeling consumer switching behavior in social network games by exploring consumer cognitive dissonance and change experience , 2016, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[8]  Helena Martins Gonçalves,et al.  The customer satisfaction‐customer loyalty relationship , 2012 .

[9]  F. Dwyer,et al.  Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships: , 1987 .

[10]  S. Fournier,et al.  Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research , 1998 .

[11]  D. Wittink,et al.  A model of consumer perceptions and store loyalty intentions for a supermarket retailer , 1998 .

[12]  Hee-Woong Kim,et al.  Investigating Customer Resistance to Change in Transaction Relationship with an Internet Vendor , 2012 .

[13]  Hsin Hsin Chang,et al.  The impact of customer interface quality, satisfaction and switching costs on e-loyalty: Internet experience as a moderator , 2008, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[14]  G. Tellis.  The Price Elasticity of Selective Demand: A Meta-Analysis of Econometric Models of Sales , 1988 .

[15]  F. Miranda,et al.  The antecedents of client loyalty in business-to-business (B2B) electronic marketplaces , 2013 .

[16]  John E. Hunter,et al.  Methods of Meta-Analysis: Correcting Error and Bias in Research Findings , 1991 .

[17]  Gregory L. Carter,et al.  A Mokken analysis of the Dark Triad ‘Dirty Dozen’: Sex and age differences in scale structures, and issues with individual items , 2015 .

[18]  Jagdip Singh,et al.  Curvilinear Effects of Consumer Loyalty Determinants in Relational Exchanges , 2005 .

[19]  N. Lee,et al.  Word of mouth communication within online communities: Conceptualizing the online social network , 2007 .

[20]  Michael Tow Cheung,et al.  Internet-based e-banking and consumer attitudes: an empirical study , 2002, Inf. Manag..

[21]  Yongqiang Sun,et al.  Working for one penny: Understanding why people would like to participate in online tasks with low payment , 2011, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[22]  S. Slater,et al.  Proactive customer orientation and its role for creating customer value in global markets , 2011 .

[23]  R. Peterson,et al.  Convenience samples of college students and research reproducibility , 2014 .

[24]  Manuel J. Sánchez-Franco,et al.  The moderating effect of gender on relationship quality and loyalty toward Internet service providers , 2009, Inf. Manag..

[25]  K. Ruyter,et al.  Marketing service relationships: the role of commitment , 1998 .

[26]  Peter A. Todd,et al.  Understanding Information Technology Usage: A Test of Competing Models , 1995, Inf. Syst. Res..

[27]  Roger Tourangeau,et al.  Humanizing self-administered surveys: experiments on social presence in web and IVR surveys , 2003, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[28]  A. Serenko,et al.  Satisfaction with mobile services in Canada: An empirical investigation , 2006 .

[29]  David A Harrison,et al.  Bad apples, bad cases, and bad barrels: meta-analytic evidence about sources of unethical decisions at work. , 2010, The Journal of applied psychology.

[30]  William A. Fisher,et al.  A Behavioral Process Approach to Information Acquisition in Nondurable Purchasing , 1978 .

[31]  J. Kolodinsky.  Usefulness of Economics in Explaining Consumer Complaints , 1995 .

[32]  Hal R. Varian,et al.  Information rules - a strategic guide to the network economy , 1999 .

[33]  Alan Dick,et al.  Customer loyalty: Toward an integrated conceptual framework , 1994 .

[34]  Yue Pan,et al.  Predictors, consequence, and measurement of ethical judgments: Review and meta-analysis , 2012 .

[35]  Peter Weill,et al.  Place to Space: Migrating to Ebusiness Models , 2001 .

[36]  Sungjoo Lee,et al.  Customer satisfaction factors of mobile commerce in Korea , 2008, Internet Res..

[37]  Andrew Whinston,et al.  Frontiers of Electronic Commerce , 1996 .

[38]  Papassapa Rauyruen,et al.  Relationship quality as a predictor of B2B customer loyalty , 2007 .

[39]  L. Hedges,et al.  Statistical Methods for Meta-Analysis , 1987 .

[40]  Stephen S. Tax,et al.  Satisfaction Strength and Customer Loyalty , 2007 .

[41]  Kai H. Lim,et al.  Trust, Satisfaction, and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms , 2014, MIS Q..

[42]  A. Ahuvia,et al.  Some antecedents and outcomes of brand love , 2006 .

[43]  Frank R. Kardes,et al.  In Defense of Experimental Consumer Psychology , 1996 .

[44]  Angela Y. Lee,et al.  Bringing the frame into focus: the influence of regulatory fit on processing fluency and persuasion. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[45]  Thomas O. Jones,et al.  Why Satisfied Customers Defect , 1996 .

[46]  J. Lucas,et al.  Theory-Testing, Generalization, and the Problem of External Validity* , 2003 .

[47]  Study of the Relationship Between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in Telecom Enterprise , 2008, 2008 4th International Conference on Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing.

[48]  Dong-Hee Shin,et al.  Effect of the customer experience on satisfaction with smartphones: Assessing smart satisfaction index with partial least squares , 2015 .

[49]  L. Hedges,et al.  Introduction to Meta‐Analysis , 2009, International Coaching Psychology Review.

[50]  Heiner Evanschitzky,et al.  Identification and analysis of moderator variables: investigating the customer satisfaction-loyalty link , 2008 .

[51]  C. Fornell.  A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience: , 1992 .

[52]  Holger Roschk,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Organizational Complaint Handling and Customer Responses , 2011 .

[53]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[54]  G. Hofstede.  Motivation, leadership, and organization: Do American theories apply abroad? , 1980 .

[55]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  The Behavioral Consequences of Service Quality , 1996 .

[56]  Rui Vinhas da Silva,et al.  Online brand attributes and online corporate brand images , 2008 .

[57]  D. O. Sears.  College sophomores in the laboratory: Influences of a narrow data base on social psychology's view of human nature. , 1986 .

[58]  Herschel Knapp,et al.  Using pencil and paper, Internet and touch-tone phones for self-administered surveys: does methodology matter? , 2003, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[59]  F. Reichheld.  Loyalty-based management. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[60]  J. Stanton.  AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF DATA COLLECTION USING THE INTERNET , 1998 .

[61]  Christian Homburg,et al.  The link between salespeople’s job satisfaction and customer satisfaction in a business-to-business context: A dyadic analysis , 2004 .

[62]  R. Goldsmith,et al.  Measuring Motivations for Online Opinion Seeking , 2006 .

[63]  E. Anderson,et al.  The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for Firms , 1993 .

[64]  Taeshik Gong,et al.  The electronic service quality model: The moderating effect of customer self‐efficacy , 2008 .

[65]  Heng-Chiang Huang,et al.  Determinants of e-repurchase intentions: An integrative model of quadruple retention drivers , 2007, Inf. Manag..

[66]  Dheeraj Sharma,et al.  Does relationship marketing matter in online retailing? A meta-analytic approach , 2016 .

[67]  R. Oliver.  Whence Consumer Loyalty? , 1999 .

[68]  V. Mittal,et al.  Satisfaction, Repurchase Intent, and Repurchase Behavior: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Customer Characteristics , 2001 .

[69]  L. Berkowitz,et al.  External validity is more than skin deep: Some answers to criticisms of laboratory experiments. , 1982 .

[70]  Victor R. Prybutok,et al.  A customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty perspective of mobile application recommendations , 2015, Decis. Support Syst..

[71]  Hsiu-Mei Huang,et al.  Do print and Web surveys provide the same results? , 2006, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[72]  Joachim Büschken,et al.  The Paradox of Unsatisfying but Stable Relationships--A Look at German Car Suppliers , 1999 .

[73]  John G. Lynch,et al.  Interactive Home Shopping: Consumer, Retailer, and Manufacturer Incentives to Participate in Electronic Marketplaces , 1997 .

[74]  Kirthi Kalyanam,et al.  Principles of Internet Marketing , 1999 .

[75]  Celso Augusto de Matos,et al.  Service Recovery Paradox: A Meta-Analysis , 2007 .

[76]  David M. Woisetschläger,et al.  How habits, social ties, and economic switching barriers affect customer loyalty in contractual service settings , 2011 .

[77]  Frank Tian Xie,et al.  Antecedents of Customer Loyalty: An Empirical Synthesis and Reexamination , 2012 .

[78]  Hsien-Tung Tsai,et al.  Why on-line customers remain with a particular e-retailer: An integrative model and empirical evidence , 2006 .

[79]  Chun-Ming Chang,et al.  Understanding the determinants of online repeat purchase intention and moderating role of habit: The case of online group-buying in Taiwan , 2015, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[80]  Hong-Youl Ha,et al.  A new understanding of satisfaction model in e-re-purchase situation , 2010 .

[81]  Ahmet H. Kirca,et al.  Market Orientation: A Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of its Antecedents and Impact on Performance , 2005 .

[82]  Donald R. Lehmann,et al.  Empirical Marketing Generalization Using Meta-Analysis , 1995 .

[83]  Ruben Chumpitaz Cáceres,et al.  Service quality, relationship satisfaction, trust, commitment and business‐to‐business loyalty , 2007 .

[84]  Bart Larivière,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Relationships Linking Service Failure Attributions to Customer Outcomes , 2014 .

[85]  Glenn B. Voss,et al.  Do Satisfied Customers Buy More? Examining Moderating Influences in a Retailing Context , 2005 .

[86]  Markus Blut,et al.  Factors Influencing the Acceptance of Self-Service Technologies , 2016 .

[87]  Jagdip Singh,et al.  Exploring the Effects of Consumers′ Dissatisfaction Level on Complaint Behaviours , 1991 .

[88]  Hsin Hsin Chang,et al.  Consumer perception of interface quality, security, and loyalty in electronic commerce , 2009, Inf. Manag..

[89]  Junyeong Lee,et al.  An exploratory study of factors influencing repurchase behaviors toward game items: A field study , 2015, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[90]  Bang Nguyen,et al.  Internet entrepreneurship and "the sharing of information" in an Internet-of-Things context: The role of interactivity, stickiness, e-satisfaction and word-of-mouth in online SMEs' websites , 2017, Internet Res..

[91]  Lihua Huang,et al.  Understanding the Emerging C2C Electronic Market in China: An Experience-Seeking Social Marketplace , 2007, Electron. Mark..

[92]  Piyush Sharma,et al.  Shopping Motivation as a Moderator in the Retail Service Evaluation , 2013 .

[93]  Rolph E. Anderson,et al.  Customer loyalty in e-commerce: an exploration of its antecedents and consequences , 2002 .

[94]  Steven P. Brown,et al.  ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF SALESPERSON JOB SATISFACTION: META ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF CAUSAL EFFECTS , 1993 .

[95]  Palmer Morrel-Samuels,et al.  Web surveys' hidden hazards. , 2003, Harvard business review.

[96]  Dennis L. Hoffman,et al.  Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments : Conceptual Foundations 1 ) , 1998 .

[97]  Shu-Sheng Liaw,et al.  An Internet survey for perceptions of computers and the World Wide Web: relationship, prediction, and difference , 2002, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[98]  L. G. Hrebiniak.  Effects of Job Level and Participation on Employee Attitudes and Perceptions of Influence , 1974 .

[99]  Chao Wen,et al.  The role of E-quality within the consumer decision making process , 2014 .

[100]  Donald R. Lehmann,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Applications of Diffusion Models , 1990 .

[101]  Shih-Wei Chou,et al.  Understanding online repurchase intention: social exchange theory and shopping habit , 2015, Information Systems and e-Business Management.

[102]  Mamoun N. Akroush,et al.  An empirical model of customer loyalty in the Jordanian Mobile Telecommunications Market , 2011, Int. J. Mob. Commun..

[103]  F. Wolf.  Meta-Analysis: Quantitative Methods for Research Synthesis , 1987 .

[104]  Yi-Shun Wang,et al.  Exploring the relationship between intentional and behavioral loyalty in the context of e-tailing , 2014, Internet Res..

[105]  Anol Bhattacherjee,et al.  An empirical analysis of the antecedents of electronic commerce service continuance , 2001, Decis. Support Syst..

[106]  M. J. Lpez-Miguens,et al.  An integral model of e-loyalty from the consumer's perspective , 2017 .

[107]  J. J. Cronin,et al.  Assessing the effects of quality, value, and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments , 2000 .

[108]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  A dynamic model of customers' usage of services : usage as an antecedent and consequence of satisfaction , 1999 .

[109]  Joann Peck,et al.  To have and to Hold: The Influence of Haptic Information on Product Judgments , 2003 .

[110]  David M. Szymanski,et al.  E-satisfaction: an initial examination , 2000 .

[111]  Mark W. Lipsey,et al.  Practical Meta-Analysis , 2000 .

[112]  Maria Elena Sanchez,et al.  EFFECTS OF QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN ON THE QUALITY OF SURVEY DATA , 1992 .

[113]  A. Field.  Meta-analysis of correlation coefficients: a Monte Carlo comparison of fixed- and random-effects methods. , 2001, Psychological methods.

[114]  C. Fornell,et al.  The American Customer Satisfaction Index: Nature, Purpose, and Findings , 1996 .

[115]  Hong-Youl Ha,et al.  Alternative explanations of online repurchasing behavioral intentions: A comparison study of Korean and UK young customers , 2010 .

[116]  David M. Szymanski,et al.  Customer satisfaction: A meta-analysis of the empirical evidence , 2001 .

[117]  W. Bearden,et al.  Selected Determinants of Consumer Satisfaction and Complaint Reports , 1983 .