The link between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty: Empirical evidence from the Islamic banking industry

Increased support from customers for Islamic financial services is very important to create resilience and competitiveness in the Islamic banking industry. By highlighting certain social activities, this paper estimates the role of Islamic banks’ CSR in influencing customer loyalty, both individually and through the integrated roles of image, trust, satisfaction, and reputation. These paths explore how CSR makes customers impressed, convinced, satisfied, amazed, and ultimately loyal to Islamic banks. The empirical analysis of partial least square structural equation modeling (n = 283) has shown that CSR directly and positively impacts loyalty. Indirectly, these two aspects have an insignificant relationship through the serial roles of image-reputation and satisfaction-reputation, but significant through the single role of reputation and the serial role of trust-reputation. This study has resulted in an updated prediction model of Islamic banking customer loyalty. The practical implication lies in the importance of developing CSR to generate trust and reputation which ultimately increase customer loyalty toward Islamic banks.     

Culture and age as moderators in the corporate reputation and loyalty relationship

This study investigates the moderating role of culture and relationship age in the relationship between customer-based corporate reputation (CBR) and customer loyalty using data from two service contexts (retailing and fast-food restaurants) in three countries (France, the U.K., and the U.S.) that differ with regards to two cultural values—uncertainty avoidance and time orientation. Results suggest that CBR has similar effects on affective and intentional loyalty in all three countries. However, culture interacts with relationship age, such that relationship age magnifies the effect of CBR in France, while relationship age suppresses CBR's effect in the U.K. and the U.S. The authors provide explanations for these effects based on cultural theories. Managerial and research implications are developed.     

Effects of quality and corporate social responsibility on loyalty

The purpose is to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility perceptions on three aspects of customer loyalty for a new bank service (Travel Card) relative to a recognised major predictor in service quality. Surveys were completed by 204 bank consumers in Australia. Using a series of regression equations, two sets of socially responsible perceptions had significant effects on purchase intention and positive word of mouth. In both cases, new socially responsible information was twice as strong a predictor as service quality. However, for affective commitment, service quality was the dominant predictor. Furthermore, existing perceptions of socially responsible performance had a negative effect on purchase intentions. The study presents the first evidence that new socially responsible perceptions for a service firm can be a more powerful predictor than corporate abilities. The findings further illustrate the differential impacts of socially responsible information on different loyalty conceptualisations.     

Defensive strategies for managing satisfaction and loyalty in the service industry

The investment model is used to predict customer responses to defensive value-added and value-recovery strategies. The two strategies were manipulated under different competitive environments with airline services scenarios in a controlled experiment. Hypotheses were affirmed as value-added and value-recovery strategies influenced customer satisfaction and loyalty with varying sensitivities to the competitive environment and different mechanisms consistent with prediction derived from the investment model. Regardless of value-added strategy and competitive environment, value-recovery strategy strongly and positively influenced customer satisfaction, situational loyalty, and enduring loyalty. Value-added strategy also had a positive effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty, but these effects emerged primarily when a value-recovery strategy was already present, and under conditions of less intense competition. Satisfaction was found to mediate strategic effects on loyalty, with more pronounced effects observed for value-recovery strategy and situational loyalty. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

How corporate reputation,quality, and value influence online loyalty

This study considers the role of corporate reputation and its relation to quality, perceived value, and loyalty in an online context. This milieu potentially challenges the relevance of the reported findings from the more traditional retail marketing situations. In this respect, a number of important questions are raised concerning how perceived value and quality impact on online loyalty and the effect corporate reputation has on this process. Research was conducted among customers of two diverse online vendors, one dealing in books and the other in shares. Findings from the two samples suggest that corporate reputation has a direct effect on online loyalty and provides an important mediating effect for perceived value and aspects of quality in terms of their impact on online loyalty.     

Tourism expansion and corporate earnings in the tourism industry

Although tourism expansion is theoretically assumed to have a direct influence on the tourism industry, previous studies have not found any significant connection between tourism expansion and tourism firms’ stock performance. This study argues that tourism expansion would have a more direct impact on tourism firms’ earnings than on their stock performance. Accordingly, whether tourism expansion can create significant growth in corporate earnings for tourism firms is tested on the basis of a Granger non-causality procedure using a four-variable vector autoregression model. Test results support the assumption that tourism expansion could significantly improve the corporate earnings of tourism companies. The analyses of the generalized impulse response function and variance decomposition further indicate the critical role of tourism expansion in explaining increases in the tourism industry's corporate earnings. Policy implications are provided to guide the government tourism authorities.     

Corporate image,loyalty, and commitment in the consumer travel industry

Abstract

This article examines the impact and interrelationship of corporate image, satisfaction, and commitment on customer loyalty in the travel industry. A corporate image–commitment–loyalty model was developed and tested. Partial least squares (PLS) was used to test the direct and indirect linkages between the four variables, and an alternative model was proposed. The tourism and travel industry is highly price sensitive and competitive with low levels of customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is a valuable asset in highly competitive markets, and understanding factors affecting customer loyalty is important to travel agencies who are seeking ways to maintain a strong customer base. The results of a mail survey conducted in New Zealand indicate that corporate image has a positive significant influence on customer commitment and customer satisfaction. Affective commitment is the focal point in the relationship and contributed most in predicting customer loyalty. The influence of customer satisfaction, on the other hand, contributed a much smaller effect. The key implications for travel agencies are build strong emotional bonds with customers and improve corporate image through trust and service delivery.     

间断性服务业顾客忠诚维度及其影响因素

This research empirically studies customer loyalty in the intermittent service industry with samples from the catering business in Beijing. Results show that customer loyalty in the intermittent service industry is composed of three causally related dimensions, namely cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, and behavioral loyalty. Factors influencing customer loyalty in the intermittent service industry are customer satisfaction, service quality, and customer perceived value (CPV), in descending order of significance. These factors vary in their function mechanisms and effects on different dimensions of customer loyalty. __________ Translated and revised from Shuliang jingji jishu jingji yanjiu 数量经济技术经济研究 (The Journal of Quantitative & Technical Economics), 2007, (3): 91–101     

论公司公益捐赠的法律规制

公司公益捐赠会导致各方的利益冲突.通过法律规制为公司捐赠中内外部利益冲突提供一个合理的平衡方案,是公司公益捐赠健康发展的必要条件.公司公益捐赠的法律规制措施主要是合理确定公司公益捐赠的决策机构,限制公司公益捐赠的对象与数额,并建立外部债权人的权利救济措施.     

Achieving brand and dealer loyalty: the case of the automotive industry

The analysis shows that customer satisfaction can be considered the central determinant in all phases of the contact chain. Multi-dimensional recording of customer loyalty reveals clear differences in the interactions, first, with brand loyalty and, second, with dealer loyalty. In contrast to the opinion widely held in practice, customers in the automotive sector definitely do not perceive the brand and the dealer as one unit. Since similar studies in different countries come to almost the same conclusions, it can be argued that the results are valid in several cultural settings. The results obtained are so fundamental that they can be translated into implications even by internationally operating companies.     

An asymmetrical approach to understanding configurations of customer loyalty in the airline industry

This study employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine asymmetrical relationships among service attributes, relationship quality, and customer loyalty in the airline industry. The study incorporates customers’ demographics and psychological variables to model customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is operationalised as behavioural and attitudinal dimensions in order to capture customers’ actual behaviours and behavioural intentions. Symmetrical testing is also used to compare findings with those from fsQCA application. The study provides various causal recipes or configurations for predicting relationship quality and customer loyalty. The comparison between symmetrical and asymmetrical findings presents deeper and more insightful information. These findings provide useful guidelines and references for the relevant researchers and practitioners. The study also contributes to the literature by utilising symmetrical and asymmetrical tools to advance understanding of antecedent conditions of relationship quality and customer loyalty.     

Top management teams and corporate success in an emerging industry

This longitudinal study investigates changes in top management teams of a cohort of firms established in an emerging, high growth industry-the minicomputer industry. Given the turbulent conditions that organizations in this industry must contend with, top management teams do not remain stagnant. Most firms in the industry require a new set of executives to bring forth the organizational changes necessary to cope with major shifts in the environment.Little consensus exists in the literature on the impact of new executives on organizational performance. Studies have found that executive succession may be either positively, negatively, or unrelated to subsequent organizational effectiveness. The authors argue that a weakness of the existing research stream is a failure by scholars to adequately consider either the characteristics and skills of newly appointed executives or the patterns of change in management characteristics over time. The authors propose that organizational performance implications of executive succession events can be clarified by examining who the newly recruited executives are.When executive replacements are made, new successors often have characteristics which widely deviate from those of their predecessors. Such deviations in top management characterisics are shown to be pronounced where top management changes are made in response to crisis. In crises, successors are apparently recruited in an attempt to compensate for the shortcomings of their predecessors. However, while both high and low performing organizations make executive replacements as they evolve, the types of top management revisions they make differ. This study provides evidence that the types of senior management team changes made and the characterisics of newly recruited top management are related to organizational performance. High performing firms recruit new top management with new skills that are appropriate to the evolving environment. Lower performing firms somehow replace executives in response to crises, but seem to make the wrong executive recruitment decisions, apparently because the successors in the lower performing organizations do not match the changing competitive conditions in the industry. Low performing firms appear to recruit executives that entirely lack the types of top executive expertise are necessary for new environmental conditions.Although the majority of minicomputer firms required sizable changes in their executive teams over time, a small but significant subgroup of exceptional firms were identified that defy conventional wisdom. These extraordinary organizations were led by visionary CEOs—capable of maintaining management team stability as they successfully repositioned their firms' strategies to cope with continual environmental change. Among the conventional theories that these exceptional managers defy are: 1. Firms in high growth industries can be highly successful even if they retain their CEO/ Founders well beyond the embryonic stage. 2. Firms in high growth industries can retain a significant proportion of management ownership and still grow exponentially without financial crises. 3. Firms in high growth industries can maintain a high level of insider recruitment and still not become inbred.There appear to be two entirely distinct patterns of CEO/executive team success:Pattern 1 involves firms with no CEO change. This visionary CEO tends to be a founder who appears to be able to systematically recruit a limited number of external recruits in the top management team, selecting recruits who fit a changing environment yet also making maximum use of the existing team's longstanding experience and relationships. To maintain the necessary external perspective and avoid an inbred mindset, these firms a) tend not to allow the CEO to also be chairman, b) encourage a modest level of external ownership.Pattern 2 involves firms in which there is extensive turnover in both CEO and senior management teams, once again bringing in the kind of skills needed to match the changing environment. The CEO tends also to be chairman, and the external perspective is provided by having many external recruits plus low level of management ownership.     

The moderating role of switching barriers on customer loyalty in the life insurance industry

In recent service management literature, researchers have incorporated switching barriers as an important potential influential factor on customer loyalty and found that the impact of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty might vary under different switching barrier conditions. However, switching barriers and their importance in the life insurance service contexts have received little in-depth attention. This study aims to examine the impact of switching barriers as a potential moderator on the complex interrelationships among the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction in the life insurance service context. The main findings of this study show that the switching barriers do have a moderating effect and play a crucial role in winning customer loyalty.     

Predicting behavioral loyalty through corporate social responsibility: The mediating role of involvement and commitment

This study examines whether consumers' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities can predict behavioral loyalty, and how two attitudinal constructs drawing from the means-end chain model—involvement and commitment—mediate this relationship. A field study of 634 customers of an Australian professional football team was conducted by combining attitudinal surveys with actual behavioral data collected one year later. The results revealed a positive mediating effect of involvement on the relationship between perceived CSR and behavioral loyalty. However, when the effect of involvement on behavioral loyalty was mediated by commitment, the indirect effect of perceived CSR turned negative. The findings of this study indicate that the contribution of CSR initiatives to behavioral loyalty is not as robust as past research suggests, and is also contingent upon specific psychological states activated by consumers' perceptions of such initiatives.     

The influence of national culture and industry structure on grocery retail customer loyalty

This study examines, for the first time, the influence of national culture and industry structure on customer loyalty in grocery retailing. Grocery retailers have a long and continued history of international expansion and it is vital to understand how loyalty can be nurtured in different contexts. Thematic analysis of focus groups conducted in the culturally and structurally disparate countries of the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka provide unique insights. Key differences have been identified around consumer preferences and perceptions of loyalty programmes and the key drivers of different loyalty types. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Service quality,perceived value,corporate image,and customer loyalty in the context of varying levels of switching costs

The current study moves beyond customer‐perceived value and corporate image and demonstrates that switching costs are important factors in influencing a customer's decision to stay with a service provider. This work finds support for a contingency model involving customer‐perceived value, corporate image, and switching costs. The results indicate that the impacts of customer‐perceived value and corporate image on customer loyalty decrease under conditions of high switching costs. Implications of the results are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The financial impact of loyalty programs in the hotel industry: A social exchange theory perspective

With increased competition across the hotel industry for frequent travelers, who generate a disproportionate portion of revenue, loyalty programs appear to be a rational response to the competitive environment. The question remains, however, as to whether these programs are effective at increasing the profitability of hotel operators. This study analyzes the impact of customer loyalty programs on the industry specific performance metrics of occupancy rate, revenue, and operating margin. Utilizing a comprehensive database of 36 different hotel brands (e.g., Marriot, Hilton) encompassing 31 loyalty programs and 435 different hotel properties, we examine whether a loyalty program is indeed an effective tool to increase operating margin. In summary, empirical results suggest that investment in hotel loyalty programs has a positive impact on occupancy rates and profitability. And although the overall effect is modest, these results have several managerial implications for the hotel industry.     

Effects of ethical sales behaviour,expertise, corporate reputation,and performance on relationship quality and loyalty

This analysis examines the influence of ethical sales behaviour, salesperson expertise, service performance, corporate reputation, and corporate performance on relationship quality and its consequences from multi-level perspectives in order to identify the nature of mix relationships at different levels. A survey with 505 qualified observations from financial institutions' customers in Taiwan was conducted. A structural equation modelling approach was used. Ethical sales behaviour, salesperson expertise, service performance, corporate reputation, and corporate performance, that is, the antecedents of relationship quality, have significant effects on relationship quality. Relationships exist between salespeople and customers, but customers also establish relationship with the retailers themselves. Satisfactory relationship quality has positive effects on commitment and loyalty. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Sustainable growth for the self-employed in the retail industry based on customer equity,customer satisfaction,and loyalty

In Korea, traditional retail districts face a serious situation whereby businesses in downtown areas face collapsing as local population declines: resulting in a decrease in self-employed sales and a declining local economy. Traditional retailers use ambiguous accounting and are reluctant to use credit cards, and thus, the overall reliability of their customer data is low. This paper solves this problem by applying the concept of customer equity (CE). We conducted an empirical analysis through questionnaires to identify differences in CE between traditional and new retail formats. The questionnaire consisted of questions related to CE (value equity, brand equity, relation equity), satisfaction, loyalty, and demographic characteristics. CE and satisfaction were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 400 surveys were completed, resulting in 391 usable returns for analysis in this study. In the regression analysis between CE and customer satisfaction, both old and new retail firms showed statistically significant effects. In the traditional retail industry, value equity and brand equity were statistically significant, while relation equity were not.     

Assessing corporate demand for sponsorship: marketing costs in the financial services industry

Despite increased interest in nontraditional marketing activities such as sponsorship, the ability of brand marketers to quantify the return on investment from such approaches is a continued challenge. Given their proprietary nature, investigations of sponsorship costs are particularly sparse. Therefore, this study utilizes a dataset of more than 700 sponsorships undertaken by competitors in the financial services industry to investigate the influence of a variety of factors on costs. Results indicate that costs are not simply reflective of firm size, and costs of title and naming rights sponsorships are significantly higher. Evidence of agency conflicts are found in increased costs for sponsorships of events, organizations, and venues residing within the marketers’ home market. Sponsorships of sport organizations are significantly more costly than those of arts, entertainment, and nonprofit organizations, presenting a challenge for marketers seeking to engage today’s consumer via sport sponsorships in an increasingly competitive environment.