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Customer-perceived value and loyalty: how do key service quality dimensions matter in the context of B2C e-commerce?

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Abstract

This paper develops a research model to examine the effect of e-service quality dimensions on customer-perceived value and customer loyalty. Based on a survey of 235 online customers, we identify five key e-service quality dimensions: care, reliability, products portfolio, ease of use, and security. Our empirical results show that all the five dimensions have significant and positive impacts on customer-perceived value which, in turn, increases customer loyalty. We further examine the mediating role of customer-perceived value in the relationship between each e-service quality and customer loyalty. The results suggest that customer-perceived value plays a partially mediating role in the effect of ease of use, care, product portfolio, and reliability on customer loyalty, and a fully mediating role in the relationship between security and customer loyalty. Managers may be in a position to benefit by employing the model presented in this study in an effort to improve service performance and, hence, retain customers.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge grants from the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong SAR (CityU 196513), City University of Hong Kong (9680022) and National Science Foundation of China (71172215).

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Correspondence to Zhilin Yang.

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Ling Jiang, Minjoon Jun and Zhilin Yang contributed equally to this work.

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Jiang, L., Jun, M. & Yang, Z. Customer-perceived value and loyalty: how do key service quality dimensions matter in the context of B2C e-commerce?. Serv Bus 10, 301–317 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-015-0269-y

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