PurposeThe present study attempts to contribute to the knowledge of how customer satisfaction, loyalty and commitment are defined and relate to each other in the Greek context.Design/methodology/approachIt is based on 200 responses collected from 20 service providers in four service settings: financial services, retailing, entertainment and transportation services.FindingsBoth factor‐ and reliability analyses provided satisfactory results. Surprisingly, company satisfaction was not interpreted as a conceptually distinct construct from customer loyalty; a conceptual overlap also emerged between attitudinal loyalty and loyal behavioral actions such as word of mouth; whereas customer commitment was highly positively associated with loyalty (and satisfaction), according to expectations. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to investigate potential moderating effects of gender and service setting on the satisfaction‐commitment and commitment‐loyalty relationships. Although significant differences were identified, both gender and service setting did not moderate the relationship between satisfaction and commitment and between commitment and loyalty in the sample studied.Research limitations/implicationsIt may be relevant for future research to replicate the present study utilizing transaction‐specific and/or facet satisfaction measures instead of the overall, cumulative satisfaction construct employed in the present investigation. Moreover, incorporating measures of purchase loyalty and instrumental commitment as well as financial performance indices and use of longitudinal approaches in different sub‐sectors may also lead to an enhanced understanding of the dynamic nature of the variables analyzed.Originality/valueWhile the relationship between customer loyalty and satisfaction as well as between commitment and customer loyalty are well understood in the literature, the inter‐relationships among these constructs are not so well illustrated. The discriminant validity of satisfaction and loyalty needs to be further investigated – highlighting potential effects of culture, method and measure variance. To the knowledge of the researcher no prior study has attempted to address these issues in the Greek context, unfamiliar to many readers.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness and to highlight the nature of inter‐relationship(s) between service climate and job involvement in impacting customer‐focused organizational citizenship behaviors of frontline employees in a diverse cultural context, at the crossroads of East and West.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on organizational citizenship behavior literature, the present study in the paper involved customer‐contact personnel employed in five service industries in a Greek mid‐sized town. Questionnaires were administered in person by the researcher during regularly scheduled meetings on company premises. A total of 269 individuals were invited to participate in the study. Participation was voluntary. The response rate was 74 percent. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability‐, correlation‐ path‐ and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test research hypotheses.FindingsThe findings in this paper indicate that the concept of customer‐oriented organizational citizenship behavior (CO‐OCB) is a useful construct in the Greek context. Both direct and indirect influences and interactive effects were identified. Indeed, results indicate that the relationship between job involvement and service climate in impacting CO‐OCBs is complex (moderated mediation or mediated moderation?), warranting further investigation.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings in the paper are limited by the sampling method and the specificity of the geographic context. It would be of interest to enhance the theoretical model by incorporating more individual, task, organizational and contextual variables.Practical implicationsThe study in this paper demonstrates the important effects of service climate and job involvement on frontline employees' customer‐oriented organizational citizenship behaviors in Greek service organizations. Service managers should benefit from noting the links and the likely favorable outcomes for customers, employees and their organizations.Originality/valueThe paper provides empirical evidence of the applicability of the CO‐OCB construct in Greek service contexts and illuminates the complex nature of inter‐relationships between organizational climate for service and job involvement in predicting customer‐oriented organizational citizenship behaviors, expanding the OCB literature.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge management and organizational learning literatures by clarifying the concepts and presenting a framework illustrating their relationship. The framework is meant to reduce confusion about learning and knowledge management issues and guide the design of international studies and data analysis.Design/methodology/approachConceptual discussion and approach are undertaken. The discussion focuses on the extrapolation of the current situation into the future.FindingsOn the basis of the analysis it is suggested that to be successful in the new economy companies are required to innovate and adopt, hence learn, far more quickly and effectively than their counterparts. Effective learning means shifting not only what gets learned but also how learning takes place and evolves in organizational contexts. This requires developing a strategic learning capability by linking learning with knowledge management in and among organizations. This paper attempted to highlight such a link.Practical implicationsThe paper can help knowledge management and organizational learning managers to develop and implement effective learning and knowledge strategies, leading to the development of sustainable competitive advantage and organizational success.Originality/valueThe paper shows that integration of knowledge management and organizational learning approaches will place current theories and practices in perspective for the future, making it easier for twenty‐first century organizations and practitioners to reach the right decisions.

Purpose -The purpose of the article is to examine the validity and reliability of Spreitzer's and Menon's instruments in a culturally diverse environment. To test whether individualized measures of Hofstede's cultural dimensions are related to employee empowerment in the Greek context. Design/methodology/approach -To investigate the multidimensional nature of the empowerment construct and the discriminant validity and reliability of its basic dimensions principal component analysis with varimax rotation is conducted. Furthermore, correlation analysis is employed to examine the relationship between empowerment, power distance and uncertainty avoidance and to compare current with existing findings. The analysis is based on valid responses from 154 Greek employed students to self-administered surveys. Findings -Overall, the results of the present study are congruent with the literature in the area, confirming the usefulness of a view of empowerment characterized by the dimensions of perceived control (or impact), perceived competence, and goal internalization (or meaning). Furthermore, the level of psychological empowerment in this investigation compares quite favorably with reported findings from Canada, the USA and Australia. Finally, whereas uncertainty avoidance is significantly positively associated with overall empowerment and all of its sub-scales, contrary to expectations, power distance is unrelated to feelings of empowerment. Research limitations/implications -Although the results, in line with existing findings, seem to confirm the cross-national validity and reliability of the Spreitzer and Menon instruments, they also tentatively indicate the potential relativity of the empowerment concept in non-American settingsespecially in terms of its important determinants. Future research should aim to refine the discriminant validity of Spreitzer's sub-scale of self-determination. Replication of current findings using probability sampling to address issues of potential within-country cultural variability also warrants further consideration. Originality/value -The study establishes the validity and reliability of two of the most popular instruments in the empowerment literature in the Greek context. In addition, the paper highlights links between work-related cultural values and perceived empowerment among Greek employees -a pertinent but inadequately researched issue in Greece.

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