Congruity effects of self-image, functions and values of customers on the satisfaction and loyalty to social enterprise based on the BeautifulStore

Abstract

In spite of fast development and importance of social enterprise, most social enterprises are small-sized, lack professionals and knowledge, have low level of consumer awareness, and depend on government’s material support. Those social enterprises need marketing research that can help them to be sustainable. This study focuses on three factors: (1) congruity between the images of social enterprises and self-images of customers (2) congruity between the expectation of consumers and the perceived performance of social enterprises’ goods (3) congruity between the social values of social enterprises’ goods and the values of customers. This study examines how the three factors affect the satisfaction and loyalty of customers and tests the moderating effect of the involvement of public interest. The findings are as follows: First, congruity of self-image, functional expectation and values of customers with the images of social enterprises, functional performance and social values of the social enterprise goods all affect the satisfaction and loyalty of customers positively. Second, involvement of public interest significantly plays the role of moderator. Third, most of the social enterprise customers are women and belong to the income category below average. They have high degree of involvement of public interest, which shows the characteristic of the customers of social enterprises.