The Effect of Trust, Satisfaction, and Switching Cost on
Consumer’s Loyalty — A Model of On-line Auction
Guo-Fong Liaw, Corresponding author, Associate Professor, Department of Textiles and Clothing,
Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan
Shih-Hua Liang, Taiwan
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to discuss what are the factors influencing, consumer’s loyalty of
on-line auction users and to explore the relationship among trust, satisfaction, switching cost and
consumer’s loyalty. There were 500 questionnaires distributed, and 412 were valid (82%). The findings of
this study are shown as follows: (1) Trust has no significant influence on loyalty intention. (2) Trust was
both positively and significantly influence on satisfaction and switching cost. (3) Satisfaction has no
significant influence on loyalty intention. (4) Switching cost has no significant influence on loyalty
intention. Finally, we provided some managerial implications of practice and discussed some suggestions
for the future studies.
Keywords: on-line auction, trust, satisfaction, switching cost, loyalty intention
INTRODUCTION
Taiwan’s enormous internet users lay the foundation for the development of online shopping.
According to Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC)’s statistics, Taiwan’s market size of
online shopping in 2008 reached TWD 243 billion, and meanwhile it is found in a survey by MIC on the
business mode of Taiwan e-stores that the dealers who run a virtual-channel store are the great majority,
accounting for 39.1%. With the continuous rise of utilization rate of online auction and being influenced
by the trans-tangible and virtual channels consumption trend, online shopping has become a burgeoning
transaction mode. Jupiter (2006) suggested that the key growth point of online retail expenditure of the
United States after 2006 would shift from the original attracting new customers to increasing existing
customers’ consumption. To sum up, consumer loyalty is a key indicator that affects online shopping
profitability, and therefore to discuss the factors that affect loyalty is one of the key tasks of this paper.
Satisfaction was regarded as the leading cause that affects consumer loyalty (Chiou, 2004). A loyal
customer is definitely a satisfied customer, but a satisfied customer is not necessarily a loyal customer
(Jones and Sasser, 1995). So, although satisfaction is related to customer loyalty, there are still other
factors influencing consumer loyalty. For example, Fornell (1992) and Klemperer (1995) both suggested
that switching cost could significantly affect consumers’ loyalty, and Hoffman & Marcos (1999) pointed
out that consumers are still having a very high perception of the risks in online shopping, and this make
them have doubts about online shopping. Therefore, this paper mainly discusses the effect of Trust,
Satisfaction and Switching Cost on Consumer Loyalty in online auction and proposes an integrated
interpretation model of online-shopping loyalty intention, so as to provide practical reference for online
auction operators.
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
59
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES
Trust Theory
Gefen et al. (2003) proposed four ways to conceptualize Trust: 1. Trust of a particular belief: the
attitude of uprightness, goodwill, and ability. 2. Trust of a generalized belief: believing that the other
party is trustworthy. 3. The degree of “Confidence” and “Sense of Security” generated from the response
of the other side. 4. An integration of all the above elements. Shapiro, Sheppard and Cheraskin (1992)
suggested that the establishment of Trust is a set of successive evolution process: Deterrence-based Trust
(The Trusted are willing to carry out obligations because they are unwilling to be
punished)→Knowledge-based Trust (which is based on the predictability of the behavior of The
Trusted)→Identification-based Trust (the final phase of Trust development, and it is based on both sides’
knowledge of each other's demand intention and values). Coleman (1990) and Williamson (1993) think
there are three major sources that constitute Trust: 1. Familiarity (familiarity is produced through repeated
interactive behavior, thereby reducing complexity and developing a sense of trust). 2. Measurability
(measurement method is used to measure the possible costs and profits of the other party’s speculative
behavior). 3. Value (when a supplier has a trustworthy reputation, it is expected that he can gain profits
through such a reputation). Trust is needed only in the circumstance of risks (Mayor, Davis and
Schoorman, 1995). One reason why Trust is so important in online auction is that in transactions in virtual
environment there lies greater uncertainty than in physical environment. The risks from web-based
transaction involve not only System-Dependent Uncertainty which is caused by the use of web
infrastructure, such as personal data leakage and website security issues but also Transaction-Specific
Uncertainty with traders which is caused by on-line transaction, such as the quality of products or services
on the website.
Satisfaction Theory
According to scholars of each school’s different definitions of Satisfaction, this paper sums them up
into three types: 1. Emotional View: subjective feeling and emotional reaction reflected from using the
products or services (Oliver, 1980; Westbrook, 1981). 2. Benefit View: Satisfaction is defined with the
benefits obtained from products or services (Woodruff, 1993; Zeithaml and Bitner, 2002; Lin, 2007). 3.
Comparison Value View: to compare the expected value with the actually-felt value (Peter and Olson,
2001; Kolter, 2004; Lin, 2007). In the measurement of customer satisfaction in e-business, Lin (2007)
infers from the theses of several scholars that in B2C e-business, the measurement of customer
satisfaction shall begin with Website Quality, which comprises three dimensions: System Quality (overall
performance of the website, and user-friendliness felt by customers when shopping on the website),
Information Quality (customers’ felt value of the website’s output information), and Service Quality
(customers’ overall evaluation and judgment on the quality of online service). Tsai, Huang, Jaw and Chen
(2006) finds that Perceived Service Quality and Trust are the biggest factors that affect Satisfaction, in
other words, online auction operators ought to enhance consumer satisfaction by improve service quality
and increase trust degree, e.g., increasing the auction website’s fluency of use (Parasuraman, Zeithaml
and Malhotra, 2005) and keeping the consistency of goods on the website with the real ones, which are
both effective ways to enhance customer satisfaction and thereby increase the chances of repurchase.
60
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
Switching Cost
Switching cost can be classified into money cost, time cost, relationship cost, learning cost, effort
cost, and search cost (Burnham et al., 2003; Jones, Mothersbaugh and Beatty, 2002; Fornell, 1992). In
online auction, switching cost includes set-up cost, learning cost, as well as highly-customized services
(Chen and Hitt, 2002). Set-up cost involves time and effort, e.g., the cumulative evaluation system
commonly-seen in Taiwan online auction marketplaces, which is a crucial reference for Trust in
transactions between users, and the cumulative evaluation can not be transferred to any other auction
website, and thus it is an irremovable switching cost for users, which can thereby hold up the users.
Furthermore, the users need to spend time and effort evolving from groping around on an online auction
website to getting familiar, and this process imperceptibly gives rise to a learning cost, so that the users
are not willing to turn to other websites for adaptive learning any more.
Loyalty
Loyalty in e-business is defined as consumer’s behavior of repeat visit, consumption, and
recommendation of the same website (Cyr, 2008). Consumer Loyalty Theory in e-business is an
extension of traditional channel to online consumer behavior (Anderson and Srinivasan, 2003). To discuss
Consumer Loyalty in the scope of e-business, i.e. to study the reasons for consumers’ repeat purchase
behavior, despite that consumer loyalty theories in traditional and virtual channels are roughly the same,
the special background condition of internet-based online auction still breeds particular consumer loyalty
behavior.
Considering relevant theories and literatures, as well as the research theme of this paper, the
research framework of this paper is put forward, as shown in Figure 1:
Satisfaction
H2
H4
H1
Trust
Loyalty
H3
Switching
Cost
H5
Figure 1: Research Framework
In the research framework of this paper, Trust is an important variable that affects Consumer
Loyalty, and Trust represents a belief that The Trusted will carry out its promise (Luhmann, 1979), and
therefore it can reduce the complexity and uncertainty. In online auction, in particular, with the
technology development at present, buyers are unable to acquire information through the limited website
to guarantee that the seller would absolutely not engage in speculative behavior (Gefen et al., 2003), such
as unfair pricing, providing false information, invasion of private data, and embezzlement of credit card.
And according to the concepts on Trust mentioned by (Gefen et al., 2003), The Trusted will have the
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
61
following traits: 1. reliability, 2. uprightness, 3. care and 4. ability. Because of trust, the complexities and
risks felt by auction buyers toward the trading place will be reduced, past research (Gefen et al., 2003)
also suggests that the higher the degree of trust is, the greater the purchase intention is, so this paper
proposes Hypothesis 1 as follows:
H1: In online auction, a buyer’s Trust in the seller has a significant positive influence relation with
Loyalty.
As far as online auction is concerned, website has been deemed a platform for user interaction.
Delone and McLean (2003) suggested that the information available on the website and the quality of the
website are highly affecting user experience, and Aldrich, Marshak, Frey, Goulde, Lewis and Seybold
(2000) further subdivided the factors that affect online auction satisfaction into: 1. well-established
construction; 2. smooth processes; 3. respectful strategies; 4. good service; and 5. outstanding execution.
In online auction, Trust can enhance an auction website’s Perceived Usefulness, which involves website
construction technology and people-oriented service (Gefen et al., 2003), and all such factors are closely
related to overall satisfaction. Fornell (1996) suggested that higher customer satisfaction would enhance
consumer loyalty, reduce price elasticity, increase market share, and lower transaction cost and expenses
of attracting new customers. Therefore, this paper infers that in online auction, Trust has a positive
relation with Satisfaction, and the higher the Satisfaction is, the higher the Loyalty is.
H2: In online auction, a buyer’s Trust in the seller has a significant positive influence on the buyer’s
Satisfaction.
H3: In online auction, a buyer’s Satisfaction with the seller has a significant positive influence on the
buyer’s Loyalty.
Switching Cost refers to the unavoidable costs and losses while a consumer switches from an old
supplier to new supplier. Fornell (1992) suggests that when a consumer chooses not to switch suppliers, it
is in fact equal to saving an expense and retaining his privilege, such as data collection cost, transaction
cost, regular customers’ privilege, and emotional cost. Burnham et al. (2003) divides Switching Cost into
three types according to different traits: 1. Procedural Switching Cost, 2. Financial Switching Cost and 3.
Relational Switching Cost. Past empirical studies pointed out that it is very hard to enhance Trust through
knowledge of ambient environment, because man and environment are constantly changing, so people
adopt Trust as a strategy to reduce complexity (Luhmann, 1979), and when people’s degree of trust is
higher, they are less likely to switch suppliers, thus the switching cost is higher. Therefore, this paper
infers that, in online auction, Trust has a positive relation with Switching Cost, and a higher switching
cost will lead to higher consumer loyalty.
H4: In online auction, a buyer’s Trust in the seller has a significant positive influence on the buyer’s
Switching Cost.
H5: n online auction, a buyer’s Cost of Switching sellers has a significant positive influence on the
buyer’s Loyalty.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Measurement
Trust: This paper refers to the definition by Gefen et al. (2003) as well as Kim & Tadisina (2007)
that Trust means that online auction buyers think that a website has such traits as reliability, uprightness,
care and ability. There are 8 questions, all of which are direct questions.
Satisfaction: This paper refers to the definition by Lin (2007) and Aldrich et al. (2000) and defines
62
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
Satisfaction as online auction buyers’ perceived gap between actual feeling and original expectation
before, during and after the purchase. There are 9 questions, all of which are direct questions. Switching
Cost: This paper refers to the definition by Burnham et al., (2003) that when an online auction buyer
switches to a new else auction website, he must bear the procedural, financial and relational costs. There
are 8 questions, all of which are direct questions.
Loyalty: This paper adopts the definition by Cyr (2008) that Loyalty means a consumer’s behavior
of repeat visit to the same website, shopping thereon, and initiative recommendation to relatives and
friends. There are 6 questions, all of which are direct questions.
Sample
This paper chooses Taiwan users who have experience in online auction shopping to carry out the
questionnaire survey, in which convenience sampling is adopted for taking samples. 500 of formal
questionnaire were surveyed and 412 valid questionnaires were returned, and the return rate is 82%.
Sample analysis results show that respondents are mostly women (266 persons, accounting for 64.6%);
the age group mainly between 21-25 (234 persons, accounting for 56.8%); the profession is mainly
students (277 persons, accounting for 67.2 %); and the educational level is mainly university degree (325
persons, accounting for 78.9 %).
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Reliability and Validity
In this paper, except that the Cronbach’s α value of dimension Loyalty is 0.785, that of all other
dimensions has reached 0.9, and thus it can be determined that the reliability of the questionnaire content
is good. The confirmatory factor analysis has been carried out to analyze the construct reliability and
construct validity of the measuring scale. The analysis results show all factor loadings in the model are all
in the range of 0.53~0.78, while the absolute values of the t-values are all higher than the significant level
of 2 (α=0.05). The coefficient of GFI is 0.91, the coefficient of AGFI is 0.90, and the RMSEA coefficient
is 0.031. In discriminate validity, this research uses the correlation coefficient between the constructs to
plus and minus two standard error of correlation coefficient, not including 1 as the checking standard.
TEST RESULTS FOR RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
According to model’s test results, the hypothesis results of this paper are shown in the Table below.
Estimate value and t-value which are obtained through Maximum Likelihood are used to test whether the
correlation between variables reaches the significance level. When │t-value│≧2, it means the coefficient
is significant and the hypothesis is true.
Hypothesis
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
Variable Relation
ML Estimate Value t-value
Trust →Loyalty (γ41)
0.93
-0.64
Trust →Satisfaction (γ21)
0.54
5.87*
Trust →Switching Cost (γ31)
-1.84
7.02*
Satisfaction →Loyalty (β42)
1.68
0.59
Switching Cost →Loyalty (β43)
0.26
1.91
Suppositional Relation Test Results
+
rejected
+
supported
+
Supported
+
rejected
+
rejected
Original hypothesis model results:
1. Chi-Square=3471.23, df=740, GFI=0.89, AGFI=0.88, CFI=0.89, IFI=0.89, SMESA=0.024.
2. In the column “t-value”, * indicates the standard coefficient∣t-value∣≧ 2.
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
63
DISSCUSIONS AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
Empirical findings of this paper show that Trust has a positive effect on both Consumer Satisfaction
and Switching Cost.
Relation of Trust with Loyalty
The hypothesis that buyers’ trust has a positive relation with satisfaction is not true. This paper
supposes that trust can reduce the complexities and risks felt toward trading place, and the higher the
degree of trust is, the greater the purchase intention is (Gefen et al., 2003), but the possible cause for its
falseness may be that, with the gradual maturity of development of online auction and the improvement in
security mechanism, an auction website can not only provide users with the platform for selling goods but
also cooperate with other manufacturers in setting up a official shopping platform (such as Yahoo!Kimo
shopping mall); there are word of mouth WOM and good after-sale service, and the popularity of
incoming vendors can also help increase consumer confidence; many an online auction dealer is at the
same time running a physical store, so the consumers do not need to worry that they can not find the seller
when a problem occurs. Furthermore, with the flourishing of online auction, even though frauds are heard
from time to time, compared to the enormous trading volume, the number of fraud cases is only the tip of
the iceberg. Therefore, it is inferred that the increase in the number of credible stores or sellers and the
maturity and popularity of online auction have combined to make Trust’s influence on Loyalty not as
great as it was in online auction’s early stage of development.
Relation of Trust with Satisfaction
This paper assumes that the higher a consumer’s degree of Trust in an online auction websites, the
higher his degree of Satisfaction is, and the empirical findings show that the result coincides with the
inference. When a consumer has a higher degree of trust of an auction website, his perceived usefulness
of the website will be enhanced, which includes auction website usability and people-oriented service,
and all of such elements are major constituents of Satisfaction.
Relation of Satisfaction with Loyalty
The hypothesis that consumer satisfaction has a positive relation with consumer loyalty is not
supported. It can be seen from this paper’s inference from literatures that a high degree of customer
satisfaction can reduce price elasticity and increase loyalty, but the possible cause for its falseness may be
that, the fierce competition in online auction has driven various vendors to use multifarious marketing
techniques to attract customers and stimulate sales in the hope of standing out before the eyes of
consumers, and in this trend, the maintenance of customer satisfaction becomes relatively essential and
necessary for auction websites; besides, because of auction websites’ price comparison transparency and
convenience, a consumer is more likely to, due to price factor, give up his original supplier which he finds
satisfactory but has a higher price. Therefore, it is inferred that the fierce competition and price
comparison transparency have combined to make Satisfaction’s influence on Loyalty weakened.
Relation of Trust with Switching Cost
This paper assumes that the higher a consumer’s degree of Trust in an auction website is, the higher
his Switching Cost is, and the empirical findings show that the result coincides with the inference. When
the surrounding people, events and objects are constantly changing and becoming unpredictable, people
64
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
will adopts Trust as a strategy to reduce complexity, so when the degree of trust gets higher, the switching
cost will be increased accordingly.
Relation of Switching Cost with Loyalty
The hypothesis that consumers’ switching cost has a positive relation with loyalty is not true,
according to empirical findings. According to this paper’s inference from literatures, when a consumer
chooses the original supplier, it is in fact equal to saving a switching cost, and besides he can also
continue to enjoy old customer privilege, etc. (Fornell, 1992), so presumably when Switching Cost is
higher, Loyalty will also be higher, but the cause for its falseness may be that, the online auction market at
present is on a growth trend, and therefore there are a lot more competitors trying to set up other network
communities to provide service and attract members. Besides, convenient registration, information
transparency, as well as privileges such as free of commission charge are invisibly weakening the binding
of switching cost, e.g., cumulative evaluation system on users, and thereby reducing the impact of
switching cost on loyalty.
Management Implications
This paper mainly discuss the factors that affect auction website Loyalty, and meanwhile brings the
three research constructs Trust, Satisfaction and Switching Cost into research theme, in the hope of
providing auction website operators with reference in making marketing strategies. Therefore, after
summing up the above inference and empirical findings, this paper makes the following suggestions to
provide auction-website dealers with reference in management practice. 1. In online auction, there are a
mix of factors that affect Trust, both the users themselves and the difference between the perception of the
users and that of the supplier are the causes that make Trust unmanageable. But back to the fundamentals,
the dealers can effectively improve customers’ degree of trust by (1) constructing a secure, reliable and
complete-service auction website, and especially, with respect to security, the operators should put in
more time and effort to make it more secure, in the cooperation between Yahoo!Kimo and Shibli
Technologies, for example, a WOM full-timer is put in charge of security mechanism so as to boost user
confidence, (2) cooperating with physical dealers and establishing a business mode that involves both
tangible and virtual channels, as the existence of a physical store is also a good way to promote Trust for
consumers who have not been in touch with online auction and are taking a wait-and-see attitude and (3)
maintaining a good website WOM reputation, e.g., through ads. or website advocacy, offering ideas and
practices of secure transaction to provide reference for users, and if unfortunately any transaction dispute
arises, there will be a well-established procedure and mechanism to handle it, thereby promoting
customers’ trust of and intention to use the auction website. 2. Website design should feature
user-friendliness and integrity so that new users can know the ropes easily and different user needs can all
be met; flow structure should highlight simple and rapid mastery, because all users in their mind want to
close a deal as soon as possible; last but not least, auction websites should provide good after-sale service
and counseling, which can make consumers have ease of mind after buying, but more importantly, when
standard procedure is still inadequate, leave chances for making it up to consumers, so as to enhance their
intention to come again.
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
65
REFERENCES
The Ministry of the Interior，http://www.npa.gov.tw/NPAGip/wSite/mp, TWNIC，
Internet Survey Research，http://www.twnic.net.tw/download/200307/200307index.shtml, MIC，
http://mic.iii.org.tw/home/pressroom.asp?l=c&f=9&menu=91
Aldrich, E., Marshak, R. T., Frey, M. M., Goulde, M. A., Lewis, J. M. and Seybold, P. B. (2000). Customers.Com Quality of Experience
Benchmark: What Kind of Total Customer Experience Does Your E-Business Deliver? Patricia Seybold Group, Boston MA.
Anderson, R. E. and Srinivasan, S. S. (2003). E-satisfaction and E-Loyalty: A Contingency Framework. Psychology & Marketing,
20(2), 123-128.
Burnham, T. A., Frels, J. K. and Mahajan, V. (2003). Consumer switching costs: A typology, antecedents, and consequences.
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(2), 109-127.
Chen, P. Y. and Hitt, L. M. (2002). Measuring Switching Costs And The Determinants Of Customers Retention In Internet-Enabled
Businesses: A Study Of The Online Brokerage Industry. Information Systems Research, 13(3), 255–275.
Chiou, J. S. (2004). The Antecedents Of Consumers’ Loyalty Toward Internet Service Providers. Information and Management,
41(6), 685-695.
Coleman, R. (1990). Foundations of Social Theory. Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.
Cyr, D. (2008). Modeling Web Site Design Across Cultures: Relationships to Trust, Satisfaction, and E-Loyalty. Journal of
Management Information Systems, 24(4), 47-72.
DeLone, W. H. and McLean, E. R. (2003). The DeLone and McLean Model of Information Systems Success: A Ten-Year Update.
Journal of Management Information Systems, 19(4), 9-30.
Fornell, C. (1992). A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience. Journal of Marketing, 56(1), 6-21.
Fornell, C., Johnson, M. D., Anderson E. W., Cha, J. and Bryant, B. E. (1996). The American Customer Satisfaction Index: Nature,
purpose, and findings. Journal of Marketing, 60(4), 7-18.
Gefen, D., Karahanna, E. and Straub, D. W. (2003). Trust and TAM in Online Shopping: An Integrated Model. MIS Quarterly,
27(1), 51-90.
Hoffman, D. and Marcos, P. (1999). Building Consumer Trust Online
Communications of the Association for Computing
Machinery. Communication of the ACM, 42(4), 80-85.
Jones, M. A., Mothersbaugh, D. L. and Beatty, S. E. (2002). Why customers stay: Measuring the underlying dimentions of serviced
switching costs and managing their differential strategic outcomes, Journal of Business Research, 55(6), 441-450.
Jones, T.O. and Sasser, W. E. Jr. (1995). Why satisfied customers defect. Harvard Business Review, 73(6), 88-99.
Kim, E. and Tadisina, S. (2007). A model of customers trust in e-business: micro-level inter-party trust formation. Journal of
Computer Information Systems, 48(1), 88-104.
Klemperer, P. (1995). Competition When Consumers Have Switching Costs: An Overview With Applications to Industrial
Organization, Macroeconomics, and International Trade. Review of Economic Studies, 62, 515-539.
Kolter, P. and Armstrong G. (2004). Principles of Marketing. 11th edition, Englewood Cliffs, NJ：Prentice-Hall Inc.
Lin, H. F. (2007). The Impact of Website Quality Dimensions on Customer Satisfaction in the B2C E-commerce Context. Total
Quality Management, 18(4), 363-378.
Luhmann, N. (1979). Trust and Power. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England.
Mayor, R. C., Davis, J. H. and Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust, Academy of Management
Review, 20(3), 709-734.
Oliver, R.L. (1980). A Cognitive Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction Decision. Journal of Marketing
Research, 17, 460-469.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A. and Malhotra, A. (2005). E-S-QUAL: A multipleitem scale for assessing electronic service quality.
Journal of Service Research, 7(3), 213–233.
66
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
Peter, J. P. and Olson, J.C. (1990). Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategy. Richard D. Irwin Inc.
Shapiro, D., Sheppard, B. H. and Cheraskin, L. (1992). Business on a Handshake. Negotiation Journal, 8(4), 365-377.
Tsai, H. T., Huang, H. C., Jaw, Y. Y. and Chen, W. K. (2006). Why On-line Customers Remain with a Particular E-retailer: An
Integrative Model and Empirical Evidence, Psychology and Marketing, 23(5), 447-464.
Westbrook, R. A. (1981). Sources of Consumer Satisfaction with Retail Outlets, Journal of Retailing, 57, 68-75.
Williamson, O. E. (1993). Calculativeness, Trust, and Economic Organization. Journal of Law and Economics, 36, 453-486.
Woodruff, R. B. (1993). Modeling Consumer Satisfaction Process Using Experience-Based Norms, Journal of Marketing Research,
20, 296-304.
Zeithaml, V. A. and Bitner, M. J. (2002). Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across The Firm. 3rd edition,
McGraw-Hill, New York, 85-86.
The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 8 Number 1, April, 2013
67