Faroughian, Frank Farhang (2009) The impact of value in developing loyalty in e-services : the case of UK e-banking. (DBA thesis), Kingston University, .
Abstract
There considerable debate amonst academics and practitioners that the delivery of value to customers represents a focal element through which competitive advantage can be generated. Extent research confirms the impact of value on the development of satisfaction and ultimately customer loyalty in both the business-to-consumer and business-to-business domains. However there paucity of research that focuses on the role and behaviour of value in the broad domain of technology and the specific area of e-services within the b2b domain. This study attempts to address the above identified shortcoming. In order to address the above aim a theoretically grounded model is propsed in which customer perceptions of value of e-banking is treated as a higher order construct of the related get (or benefits) and give (or sacrifices) components. Quality and risk associated witht he use of e-banking are determinants of customer perceptions of value while satisfaction and three forms of behavioural intention (i.e., word of mouth, switching and lock-in) are modelled as outcomes of value. Interrelationships between the antecedents and outcomes of value are also included in the model. Data, obtained from senior executives, from a random sample fo 167 UK based SME organisations operating across different industrial sectors were analysed using the Partial Least Square structural modelling technique. The results make the following a number of theoretical contributions to the subject matter. The conceptualisation of value as formative higher order construct, comprising the get and give components, is analytically supported. However, the differential behaviour of these two components implies that research should examine the nomological structures if get and give separately rather than as a composite, overall, construct. Following from above, it is suggested that related research should treat sacrifices as a component of rather than a determinant of value. Although some results are in line with extant literature there are a number of divergences that are attributed to the specificities of the research domain. This is attributed to and confirms the idisyncratic nature of value and results in the need for value research to account fot domain specific characteristics. Both components of value are significant determinants of satisfaction; however there is considerable different in their relative impact with the get component being dominant. The need for separation of loyalty into different forms of behaviour when examining the impact of value is demonstrated. Specifically, value as an effective mechanism for locking-in customers is demonstrated by the significant impact of both the get and give components. On the other hand neither of the value components are significant determinants of intention to switch and only the get component generates positive word-of-mouth. Finally, the importance of risk in the study of value in the b2b domain is confirmed. On the strength of the above managerial guidelines are proposed.
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