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A Cross-National Comparison of the Role of Habit in Linkages Between Customer Satisfaction and Firm Reputation and Their Effects on Firm-Level Outcomes in Franchising

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Interfirm Networks

Abstract

Profiting from the substantial economic growth outside the Western economies requires firms to develop a profound understanding of effective strategies for global operations. In particular, much debate has been offered on management practices that are applicable to trigger desired customer behavior, especially, to enhance firm-level outcomes in terms of customer loyalty and word-of-mouth referral. However, research on mechanisms that can help drive such customer behavior has mainly focused on consumers’ intentional processes, which ignores the fact that frequently performed behaviors become automatic over time. Ignoring habit-persistency effects may result in systematically overestimating the effects of other practices firms adopt to influence customer behavior, e.g. striving for strategic goals like customer satisfaction or firm reputation. Against this background, this study contributes to the literature by integrating the concepts of habit creation, customer satisfaction and firm reputation and by generating cross-national insights into their effects on firm-level outcomes in terms of loyalty and word-of-mouth. Applying multigroup structural equation modeling, the analyses draw on two global fast food companies’ consumer data collected in the BRIC and their domestic US market. The results document essentially diverging nomological linkages among the concepts under study across nations and provide important intuitions on how global companies strategize best when going international.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Strategic Management, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Leonardo-Campus 18, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Brinja Meiseberg

  2. University of Oklahoma, 307 West Brooks, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Rajiv P. Dant

  3. Griffith Business School, Gold Coast, Parklands Drive, Southport, QLD, 4222, Australia

    Rajiv P. Dant

Authors
  1. Brinja Meiseberg
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  2. Rajiv P. Dant
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brinja Meiseberg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Josef Windsperger

  2. Centre Recherche en Economic et Management (CREM), Universite de Rennes 1, Rennes Cédex 7, France

    Gérard Cliquet

  3. Institut für Strategisches Management, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Thomas Ehrmann

  4. Department of Organization, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Georg Hendrikse

Appendices

Appendix 1: Measures Employed

Construct

Items (anchored with 7-point Likert-type scales 1 = “I strongly disagree” to 7 = “I strongly agree”)

CR

AVE

BR

IC

BR

IC

Brand satisfaction, adapted from Crosby et al. (1990) and Ganesan (1994)

(1) I am satisfied with this franchised fast-food restaurant.

(2) I am pleased with this franchised fast-food restaurant.

(3) I am favorably disposed toward this franchised fast-food restaurant.

(4) My experiences with this brand have been positive.

0.84

0.87

0.63

0.66

Brand reputation, adapted from the five-item reputation scale developed by Fombrun et al. (2000) and Wang et al. (2006)

(1) My overall perceptions of total experience with this franchise system are very good.

(2) My perceptions of this franchise system compared to its competitors are very good.

(3) I believe in the good long-term future for this franchise system.

(4) I believe that the market standing of this franchise system is good.

(5) The market visibility of this franchise system in the marketplace is high.

0.82

0.84

0.61

0.64

Loyalty intentions, adapted from Hellier et al. (2003)

All things considered, it is highly likely that I will actually dine at this brand of franchised fast-food restaurant again.

 

WOM intentions, adapted from File et al. (1992)

(1) I would recommend to other people that they should dine out at this brand of franchised fast-food restaurant.

(2) I would recommend this franchise system to other people interested in dining out.

(3) I would gladly talk about my experiences with this brand of restaurants to other people.

(4) I would like to seek out different franchised fast-food restaurants to patronize (reverse-coded).

0.81

0.80

0.63

0.61

Habit, adapted from Jolley et al. (2006) and Seetharaman (2004)

How frequently do you eat at this franchised restaurant chain?

 

Appendix 2: BRICS Scores on Hofstede Dimensions

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Meiseberg, B., Dant, R.P. (2015). A Cross-National Comparison of the Role of Habit in Linkages Between Customer Satisfaction and Firm Reputation and Their Effects on Firm-Level Outcomes in Franchising. In: Windsperger, J., Cliquet, G., Ehrmann, T., Hendrikse, G. (eds) Interfirm Networks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10184-2_6

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