고객만족과 고객충성도의 관계에서 소비자 관여도의 조절효과 : 서비스 카테고리를 중심으로

This study investigates the effect of consumer involvement in the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty (which is measured as consumers’ repurchase and WOM intentions). Previous research has presented inconsistent implications on the role of consumer involvement in the relationship. Some researchers have presented the empirical results showing that consumer involvement moderates the relationship, whereas others have done the empirical results implying that the consumer involvement does not moderates. In sum, the previous empirical studies have provided the inconsistent empirical results that consumer involvement may be a moderator or a non-moderator in the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Thus, we start this research with two research questions: “Does consumer involvement has a moderation effect on the relationship between-customer satisfaction and loyalty across various service industries?” and “Can the moderation effect of consumer involvement be detected differently depending on the statistical methods used to probe the moderation effect?” A questionnaire survey was conducted in the context of four service categories: eight service firms for fast food, four firms for family restaurant, four firms for movie theater and four firms for Bakery. Hierarchical regression analyses (moderated regression analyses) and chi-square difference tests were used to identify the role of consumer involvement in the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. The empirical results show that there does not exist the difference in the moderation effects of consumer involvement identified by the two statistical methods (i.e., hierarchical regression analyses vs. chi-square difference tests), however, that there exists the difference in the identified moderation effects of consumer across service categories. In the final section, we summarize the implications and re-interpret the empirical results provided in the previous studies.