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An investigation of the cross-national determinants of customer satisfaction

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Abstract

Many multinational corporations have implemented cross-national satisfaction measurement programs for tracking and benchmarking the satisfaction of their customers across their various markets. These companies measure satisfaction with the goal of maximizing customer loyalty and the financial benefits associated with loyalty. However, existing research comparing consumer satisfaction across nations is limited, with the few existing studies examining only a small number of countries or predictors of satisfaction, or a small group of consumers within a particular economic sector. To expand our knowledge of the determinants of cross-national variation in customer satisfaction, we study three sets of factors: cultural, socioeconomic and political-economic. We utilize a unique sample of cross-industry satisfaction data from 19 nations, including nearly 257,000 interviews of consumers. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that consumers in traditional societies have higher levels of satisfaction than those in secular-rational societies. Likewise, consumers in self-expressive societies have higher levels of customer satisfaction than those in societies with survival values. We also find that literacy rate, trade freedom, and business freedom have a positive effect on customer satisfaction while per capita gross domestic product has a negative effect on customer satisfaction. We discuss the implications of these findings for policymakers, multinational corporations, and researchers.

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Notes

  1. It is worth noting that the Baker-Inglehart cultural dimensions are strongly correlated to the Hofstede dimensions (IDV, UAI, PDI and MAS) for the countries in our study (where data exists for both sets of dimensions). Regressing the traditional vs. secular-rational values dimension on these four predictors produces a multiple correlation of r = 0.57, with PDI having the strongest influence. Likewise, regressing the survival vs. self-expression values dimension on these four predictors produces a multiple correlation of r = 0.91, with PDI and IDV having roughly equal influence.

  2. Data for the United States was made available by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Data for Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Czech Republic, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine was made available by EPSI Rating. Data for the other seven nations was made available by organizations partnered with the ACSI and administering projects in their own countries: in Turkey, the Turkish Customer Satisfaction Index (TMME); in Colombia, the Customer Index Value (CIV); in the United Kingdom, the National Customer Satisfaction Index-UK (NCSI-UK); and in Singapore, the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG). Data for Hong Kong, Japan and Thailand was provided by CSISG as part of a benchmarking study.

  3. There is a great deal of debate among social scientists regarding the empirical modeling of data across cultures, particularly as to whether general conclusions can be derived from the analysis of multiple cultures. The emic view holds that “attitudinal or behavioral phenomena are expressed in a unique way in each culture” (Usnier 1996, p. 142), and therefore models should be fitted separately by culture, with little comparison between cultures (Hofstede et al. 1993). On the other hand, the etic view is concerned with identifying universal constructs across cultures, and therefore cross-cultural analysis is justified. Iacobucci et al. (2003, p. 9) write, “Both philosophies are defensible on scientific grounds—generalization, abstraction, and parsimony support the etic [philosophy].” Specifically, with regard to cross-cultural satisfaction research, we believe the etic philosophy appropriate given the universal and generic nature of satisfaction. To quote Zeithaml et al. (2006, p. 170), “Customer satisfaction is the most widely used perceptual metric because it is generic and can be universally gauged for all products and services (including nonprofit and public services). Even without a precise definition of the term, customer satisfaction is clearly understood by respondents, and its meaning is easy to communicate to managers.”

  4. We also considered the use of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) for our analysis. HLM extends the traditional multiple linear regression model to multi-level data, where effects for different groups or clusters within the sample (such as nation-states, to use a relevant example from our data) are thought to exhibit unique characteristics (West et al. 2007). However, because the purpose of HLM is to test and compare random slope variances at the cluster level, and because a few of the nation-states in our sample provide only a few observations (once data is aggregated to the sector level), such an approach would produce results with limited power and reliability (Snijders 2005). For this reason, we deemed OLS to be the more appropriate method.

  5. Again, multicollinearity among the dummy variables—and particularly for the Retail and Information sector dummies—should be noted. However, because we are less interested in the parameter estimates or the significance of these dummies and more in their role as controls, we leave our model unchanged.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Professor Claes Fornell of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for commenting on an earlier draft of this paper and for providing access to the data that made the study possible. Several ACSI international partners provided access to data and invaluable insight into their markets during our research, and we thank them for their support—Jan Eklöf in Europe, Bulent Kilincarslan in Turkey, Juan Pablo Granada in Colombia, and Marcus Lee in Singapore. Finally, thanks also to Dr. Irina Selivanova of EPSI Rating for help with the EPSI dataset, and to Robert Kalsow-Ramos of the University of Michigan for providing research assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. American Customer Satisfaction Index, 625 Avis Dr., Ann Arbor, MI, 48108, USA

    Forrest V. Morgeson III

  2. Robert H. Smith School of Business—University of Maryland, 4324 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Sunil Mithas

  3. IPSOS Loyalty, Morris Corporate Center 2, 1 Upper Pond Rd, Bldg D., Parsippany, NJ, 07054, USA

    Timothy L. Keiningham

  4. Schools of Business Administration, Fordham University, 1790 Broadway Avenue, 11th Floor, Room 1129, New York, NY, 10023, USA

    Lerzan Aksoy

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  1. Forrest V. Morgeson III
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Correspondence to Forrest V. Morgeson III.

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Morgeson, F.V., Mithas, S., Keiningham, T.L. et al. An investigation of the cross-national determinants of customer satisfaction. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 39, 198–215 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0232-3

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