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The Complex Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty for Automobiles

  • Chapter
Customer Retention in the Automotive Industry

Abstract

Increasing customer satisfaction is the key to increasing customer loyalty in the highly competitive automotive industry. However, the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty is likely complex. This paper provides a theoretical basis for modeling this complex relationship. Accordingly, customers move categorically from problem solving behavior to an evoked set of preferred alternatives as satisfaction increases. This should result in an increase in the impact of satisfaction on loyalty at a relatively high level of satisfaction which subsequently decreases, or levels off, at an extreme level of satisfaction. An empirical study is reported which supports these predictions as well as the arguments on which they are based.

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Authors
  1. Seigyoung Auh
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  2. Michael D. Johnson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Quality Research Center, University of Michigan Business School, USA

    Michael D. Johnson (Professor of Marketing, Member of the Advisory Board) (Professor of Marketing, Member of the Advisory Board)

  2. CTcon, Management Consulting, Vallendar, Germany

    Michael D. Johnson (Professor of Marketing, Member of the Advisory Board) (Professor of Marketing, Member of the Advisory Board)

  3. University of Mainz, Germany

    Andreas Herrmann (Professor of Management, Member of the Advisory Board) (Professor of Management, Member of the Advisory Board)

  4. CTcon, Management Consulting, Vallendar, Germany

    Andreas Herrmann (Professor of Management, Member of the Advisory Board) (Professor of Management, Member of the Advisory Board)

  5. University of Mannheim, Germany

    Frank Huber Ph.D. (Student in Marketing at the chair of Professor Hans H. Bauer) (Student in Marketing at the chair of Professor Hans H. Bauer)

  6. Quality Technology and Management, University of Linköping, Sweden

    Anders Gustafsson (Associate Professor) (Associate Professor)

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© 1997 Betriebswirtschaftlicher Verlag Dr. Th. Gabler GmbH, Wiesbaden

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Auh, S., Johnson, M.D. (1997). The Complex Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty for Automobiles. In: Johnson, M.D., Herrmann, A., Huber, F., Gustafsson, A. (eds) Customer Retention in the Automotive Industry. Gabler Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-84509-2_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-84509-2_7

  • Publisher Name: Gabler Verlag

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-322-84511-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-322-84509-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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