Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the dimensional structure of the SERVQUAL scale within non-western service setting as well as the impact of service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative approach was employed, using 32-item, seven-point Likert-scaled questionnaire administered to 384 participants with 55.99 per cent usable response rate. Data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach’s internal consistency and γ test to, respectively, measure scale suitability, usability and strength/direction of association. Findings – The outcome from the study was the reduction of the 32 items to 26 scale items with 0.929 total α score. Further outcomes show that service quality dimensions are significant predictors of customer satisfaction and loyalty with the commitment dimension accounting for the highest degree of this impact. Research limitations/implications – Findings failed to corroborate past research as it was established that distinct efforts to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty within non-western service contexts proved to be less useful. However, outcomes cannot be generalized and as such, the modified scale that emerged from this research should receive more rigorous tests in other emerging services contexts. Practical implications – Automobile repair services firms within Ebonyi State will be better placed in their strategic responses to customer loyalty if they boost customers’ satisfaction through excellent service quality improvement actions. Social implications – The best way to enhance the welfare of the consumers of automobile repair services in Ebonyi State is by improving the empathy, tangibles, responsiveness, reliability and commitment dimensions of service quality. Originality/value – The paper demonstrates that the commitment dimension of service quality emerged as the most significant predictor of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The research also demonstrates that satisfied customers will definitely be loyal because a distinct effort to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty was found to be less useful.

Purpose Although previous research emphasized the importance of inspiration in influencing consumer behavior, there is no categorical response to how social-media inspirational content inspires consumers across cultures. This paper aims to take on this agenda through a vignette experimental study. Design/methodology/approach This paper devised a vignette study involving subjects (n = 370) recruited from Nigeria and South Africa. The structural equation modeling procedure, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis aided the examination of the scale psychometrics and hypotheses testing. Findings Among other findings, this study shows that: inspirational content (utilitarian vs hedonic) exerts a positive differential effect on customer inspiration (CI) such that the effect of hedonic content is more pronounced than utilitarian content; collectivistic consumers are inspired more than individualists; CI triggers customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) and purchase intention, and an inspired-to component of CI mediates the effect of inspired-by on CEBs and purchase intention. Research limitations/implications While this study makes significant contributions to knowledge on CI, the focus on firm-generated content limits the scope of this study. Future research should examine the effect of consumer-generated content on CI. Additionally, the likely contextual influence of product type on CI and its triggers in the context of the foote, cone and belding grid creates the room to further interrogate the research model under conditions of high/low involvement products. Originality/value By showing how social-media inspirational content and cultural orientation separately influence and interact to influence CI which consequently triggers CEBs and purchase intention, the findings highlight the psychological mechanisms through which CEBs and purchase intention can be simultaneously triggered.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms can influence customer loyalty through customer commitment by leveraging two constructs of service quality: service assurance and service reliability. Design/methodology/approach The analyses are based on 138 responses retrieved from experienced users of mobile phone services in one of the big cities in the South-eastern part of Nigeria through a survey questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the measurement model as well as the proposed hypotheses were examined through the partial least squares structural equation modelling procedure. Findings Service reliability is a direct predictor of customer loyalty while service assurance is not. Affective commitment has a direct positive effect on customer loyalty and partially mediates the relationship between service reliability and customer loyalty. In contrast, the mediating effects of affective and continuance commitment on the relationship between service assurance and customer loyalty were positive but insignificant. Finally, affective commitment mediates the effect of continuance commitment on customer loyalty. Research limitations/implications The mediating role of the individual components of commitment in the links between the individual dimensions of service quality and customer loyalty is largely untested in the literature. This line of inquiry can form the basis for future research proposals. Additionally, the outcomes that emerged from this research must be interpreted with caution due to the size of the sample on which analyses were based. Future research should employ larger samples. Practical implications Services organisations especially telecommunication firms may benefit from customer loyalty by pursuing a combined strategy of increasing service assurance, service reliability, affective commitment and continuance commitment both independently and in tandem. Originality/value As far as could be established, this paper is the first to explore the mediating effects of affective and continuance commitment on the links between service quality dimensions and customer loyalty.

Purpose While e-commerce has been widely cited as the new marketing frontier, thus necessitating the need to deliver seamless shopping experiences across various online channels to achieve success, very few firms have the well withal to clearly tie customer experience investments to marketing outcomes. Theoretically speaking, the understanding of the drivers and outcomes of online shopping experience especially group behavior is imprecise. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the drivers and outcomes of online shopping experience (OSE). Design/methodology/approach A combination of netnography and conversation analysis was used on a pool of qualitative data generated from the Facebook page of a leading online retailer that has online presence in 11 African countries. Findings Two broad categories of OSE under seven drivers and five distinct behavioral outcomes of OSE emerged from the study. The two categories of OSE drivers, though unique, widely fit into the existing frameworks of OSE. The study also indicates that shoppers seize other shoppers’ reviews as a suitable platform to engage in a wide range of behaviors. Research limitations/implications The main theoretical implications include the following: complaint handling is not only a behavioral construct but also a stimulator/driver of online shopping experience; consumer behavior is stimulated more by cognitive drivers; trust is an outcome of OSE which leads to not only electronic word of mouth but also external response to service failure; and shoppers perceive external response to service failure as the last resort and this last resort can be activated by regrets and poor internal response to service failure. The major limitation of this study is that the proposed conceptual model was not empirically tested. Future research is required to validate the model. Practical implications The managerial implications of the findings are that in addition to providing superior shopping experience through enhancing the drivers of OSE identified in this study, online retailers must work assiduously to reduce incidents leading to service failures and promptly undertake service recovery actions whenever service failure occurs. Online retailers especially those operating in emerging markets will therefore benefit from their service recovery investments if they proactively install processes that enable them to promptly and satisfactorily recover failed services. Originality/value This paper contributes to service science research by proposing a unique belief-attitude-intention model of the drivers and outcomes of OSE on a relatively underexplored field. The proposed conceptual model advances the stimulus-organism-response framework, theory of planned behavior, satisfaction theories and shopping behavior literature in several directions.