The effect of demographic characteristics of passengers on relationship quality in airline industry

Transcription

1 The effect of demographic characteristics of passengers on relationship quality in airline industry Akram Hadizadeh Moghadam Associate professor, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University Gholam Hosein Khorshidi Associate professor, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University Akbar Alam Tabriz Professor, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University Amir Mohammad Menhaj (Corresponding Author ( PH.D Candidate, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University Abstract When the relationships between passengers and airlines matter, relationship quality (RQ) is replacing service quality and/or customer satisfaction as a key source of superior performance and competitive advantage. In spite of a growing body of research on RQ, there continues to be a high degree of ambiguity about its nature, determinants, and dimensions. Based on a review of the research on RQ, this paper aims to investigate the demographics characteristics of passengers on RQ in the context of airline industry. Statistical population was airline passengers in the area of Tehran. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for data analysis. Data was collected on passengers' characteristics, sending a questionnaire to 500 passengers of Imam Khomeini and Mehrabad Airports in Tehran, Iran. Finding reveals that marital status influences service quality. Educational level has a significant impact on satisfaction, trust, and commitment. Additionally, passenger s job influenced widely satisfaction. Keywords: Relationship quality, Demographic characteristics, Airline industry, Iran 1. Introduction One of the basic models to explain purchase intention and/or behavior in a noncontractual customer-firm relationship is the Satisfaction-Profit Chain or Relationship Quality Model (RQ): high levels of relationship quality result in accordingly high levels of purchase intention and behavior (Reichheld, 1996). Many authors have used relationship quality concepts such as trust (e.g. Morgan and Hunt, 1994), commitment (e.g. Pritchard, Havitz, and Howard, 1999), satisfaction (e.g. Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman, 1996) and service quality (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2001) as antecedents of behavioral intention. Research does confirm the intuitive impact of these antecedents of relationship quality on behavioral intentions (e.g., Ebner, Hu, Levitt and McCrory, 2002). Moreover, studies show that customer characteristics moderate customer behavioral intentions (Mittal and Kamakura 2001) and share of wallet (Cooil et al. 2007). Hence, we hypothesize that passengers characteristics influence the dimensions of relationship quality as actual behavior of passengers, that is, that passengers'' characteristics explain differences in the composition of overall relationship quality. The article is organized as COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 170

2 follows. In the next section, we describe the dimensions of relationship quality in the marketing literature that may vary with passenger characteristics. The third section describes the empirical research setting, the data and variable measures. The fourth section presents results of using ANOVA to test the effects passenger characteristics on the dimensions of relationship quality. We conclude with a discussion of managerial implications, limitations, and directions for future research. 2. Dimensions of relationship quality The concept of relationship quality has arisen from theory and research in the field of relationship marketing (e.g. Crosby, Evans and Cowles 1990). Although, previous research of relationship quality (eg. Hennig-Thurau and Klee 1997; Kumar, Sceer, Steenkamp 1995; Storbacka, Strandvik and Gronroos 1994; Walter, et al. 2003; de Wulf, Odekerken-Schroder and Iacobucci 2001) has discussed and tested the concept of relationship quality in various research contexts, the definition and operationalisation of relationship quality differs from research project to research project. However, these authors agree that the concept of relationship quality is a higher-order construct consisting of several distinct but related components or dimensions. These components are trust (Gronroos 1990; Hennig-Thurau and Klee, 1997; Kumar et al., 1995; Moorman et al.1992; Wray et al. 1994), satisfaction (Crosby et al. 1990; Lagace et al. 1991), commitment (Dorsch et al. 1998; Hennig-Thurau and Klee 1997; Kumar et al. 1995; Moorman et al.1992) and perceived quality (Hennig-Thurau and Klee, 1997; Moorman et al.1992). Building on past research, this study proposes that relationship quality is comprised of perceived service quality, trust, commitment and satisfaction. The selection of these four dimensions is also based on the literature and suitability to the context of B2C markets Perceived Service Quality As a critical measure of organizational performance, service quality remains at the forefront of both the marketing literature generally and the service marketing literature specifically (Jensen and Markland 1996). Both practitioners and academics are keen on accurately measuring perceived quality in order to better understand its essential antecedents and consequences and, ultimately, methods for improving quality to achieve competitive advantage and build customer loyalty (Palmer and Cole 1995; Zahorik and Rust 1992). Several authors insist that the link between perceived quality and various outcomes could be enhanced through further empirical work. Firm- and industry-level assessment of the quality-service loyalty link provides useful information to shareholders on the viability of future performance Satisfaction with the relationship The fulfillment of achieving the desired outcomes leads to satisfaction with the partnership (Anderson and Narus, 1990). For instance, in a distribution channel s context, the manufacturer s role performance is positively related to dealer satisfaction with the manufacturer (Frazier, 1983). If a channel member contributes largely to the other member goals, the second will consequently be more satisfied with the overall relationship with the first (Kumar et al., 1992). Hence, meeting or exceeding the performance goals results in satisfaction with the partner, and thus satisfaction is a close COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 171

3 proxy for perceived relationship quality (Anderson and Narus, 1990). Satisfaction with the relationship may be defined as a positive emotional state resulting from the assessment of the exporter s working relationship with the importer (Geyskens et al., 1999). While taking into consideration past experience results, another definition is provided in a B2C context. Satisfaction with the relationship is defined as the "cognitive and affective evaluation based on personal experience across all [...] episodes within the relationship" during past interactions with the firm (Roberts et al., 2003, p. 175). Satisfaction with the relationship is considered to be a key dimension of relationship quality because it has been demonstrated that more satisfied buyers have higher quality relationships with selling firms (Dorsch et al., 1998) as they tend to be more knowledgeable about the roles of selling firms and more perceptive about the quality of the relationship Trust Trust is an important indicator of relationship quality. Only when a person trusts the trustee will he/she be likely to perceive that there is a high quality relationship between the trustee and him/her. A relationship that lacks trust is unlikely to be perceived as of high quality. It is also important to note that trust is difficult to foster, can be shaken easily, and once shaken, is extremely difficult to rebuild (Shneiderman 2000). Parasuraman et al. (1985) introduced trust as a critical success factor in successful service relationships. The authors suggest that customers need to feel safe in dealings with suppliers and need to be assured that their interaction is confidential in that they are able to trust their suppliers. Berry (1995, p.242) suggests that relationship marketing is built on the foundation of trust. In relation to customer loyalty, Reichheld and Schefter (2000, p.107) highlight the importance of trust in that to gain loyalty of customers, you must first gain trust. In addition, trust is an important feature or aspect in the development of quality relationships built through a process of making and keeping promises (Dwyer et al., 1987; Gronroos, 1990; Hewett and Bearden, 2001) Commitment It is argued that customer commitment to the supplier is a very important driver of customer loyalty in service industries (Fullerton 2003).The construct of commitment has also been shown to be an important dimension of relationship quality (e.g. Hennig- Thurau et al. 2002). In similar way to trust, commitment is considered as an important ingredient in successful relationships (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). The construct of commitment is regarded as the central construct in relationship marketing (Garbarino and Johnson, 1999, Pritchard et al. 1999). The concept of commitment stems from industrial and organizational psychology and has been viewed as an intention to continue a course of action or activity such as maintaining a relationship with a business partner. In the buyer-and-seller relationship literature, commitment is defined as an implicit or explicit pledge of relational continuity between exchange partners (Dwyer et al. 1987). In simpler terms, commitment refers to the motivation to stay with a supplier or supplier (Moorman et al. 1992). In a business relationship, commitment is a psychological sentiment of the mind through which an attitude concerning continuation of a relationship with a business partner is formed (Wetzels, de Ruyter and Birgelen. 1998). COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 172

4 3. Methodology The framework embraces information on four dimensions, including passenger satisfaction (4 items), trust (5 items), commitment (4 items), and perceived service quality (6 items) all measured by using a five-point Likert-type scale. The advantage of using an interval scale is that it permits the researchers to use a variety of statistical techniques which can be applied to nominal and ordinal scale data in addition to the arithmetic mean, standard deviation, product-moment correlations, and other statistics commonly used in marketing research (Malhotra, 1999). A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from prospective passengers who referred to Imam Khomeini and Mehrabad Airports in the area of Tehran. The questions are based on a review of the literature and specific product contexts, and the questionnaire was pretested and revised. The questionnaires were distributed based on a convenience sampling method and collected at the two mentioned airports in Tehran. Six hundred questionnaires were distributed and 500 useable samples were obtained after excluding the incomplete ones, yielding a 83% response rate from those who agree to participate. Cronbach s alpha was used to verify the internal consistency reliability. The customer satisfaction shows a significant internal consistency of Cronbach s coefficients of passenger satisfaction, trust, commitment, and perceived service quality were 0.87, 0.84, 0.75, 0.83, and 0.86, respectively. The reliabilities of the different measures in the model range from 0.75 to 0.87, which exceed the recommended threshold value of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978). Statistical analysis was computed using the Windows versions of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 15.0). Data analysis involves descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. ANOVA was used to analyze passenger satisfaction, trust, perceived service quality, and commitment (dependent variables) using age, gender, education, trip purpose, marital status, and experience of using airline services by determining the main and interaction effects of the independent categorical variables on multiple dependent interval variables. 4. Results 4.1 Sample profile Of the 500 respondents, the majority were male passengers (80.8%). Respondents who were years old (40. 6%) comprised the largest age group. In addition, the majority were married (72.6%). 51.2% of the respondents had degree or below, and 48.8% of the respondents had postgraduate degree. In terms of experience of using airline services, most of passengers (90.8%) were used airline services in the past more than five times. Finally, in terms of trip purpose, business (28.0%), official mission (21.8%), and vacation (20.2%) had the higher frequency among others. Descriptive statistics are illustrated in Table 1. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 173

5 Table 1. Demographical characteristics of respondents Characteristic Percentage Age group Below or above 11.2 Gender Male 80.8 Female 19.2 Marital status Single 27.4 Married 72.6 Education Degree or below 51.2 Postgraduate 48.8 Experience of using airline services Never 0.0 One time to 5 times 6.4 More than 5 times 90.8 Trip purpose Vacation 20.2 Business 28.0 Praying 10.0 Visiting friends and family 15.8 Official mission 21.8 Education Analysis of variance An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze how respondents satisfaction, trust, perceived service quality, and commitment (the dependent variables) are influenced by age (four levels), gender (two levels), marital status (two levels), education (two levels), trip purpose (six levels), and travel experience (four levels), collectively the independent variables. The results are presented bellow. Gender. As shown in Table 2, there were no significant differences found between gender types on the dependent measures including satisfaction, trust, perceived service quality, and commitment (p-value>0.05). COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 174

6 Statistical index Table 2. ANOVA analysis for customers gender Groups Mean S.D F Male Satisfaction Female Trust Male Female Commitment Male Female Perceived Male service quality Female P Age. As illustrated in Table 3, there were no significant differences found among marital status groups on the dependent measures including passenger satisfaction, commitment, and trust (p>0.05). However, marital status has a significant impact on perceived service quality (F-value= 3.41, p=0.05<0.05). Post hoc analyses to the univariate ANOVA for the perceived service quality scores on marital status conducted to find which independent variable (marital satus group), have a most strong impact on the dependent variable (perceived service quality). Each pairwise comparison was tested using the Scheffe method. Results indicated that single respondents had perceived higher level of service quality than married respondents. Table 3. ANOVA analysis for passengers marital status Statistical index Groups Mean S.D F Single Satisfaction Married Trust Single Married Commitment Single Married Perceived service Single quality Married P Education. As Table 4 shows, there were significant differences found among education levels on the dependent measures including passengers satisfaction (F-value= 8.36, p= 0.000<0.05), trust (F-value= 4.25, p= 0.04<0.05), and commitment (F-value= 3.26, p= 0.050<0.05). Further, significant difference was not found among education levels on perceived service quality (F-value= 0.20, p= 0.66>0.05). Post hoc analyses to the univariate ANOVA for the satisfaction, trust and commitment scores on education conducted to find which independent variable (education level), have a most strong impact on the dependent variables (satisfaction, trust and commitment). In all of variables, the lower level of education, the higher perceptions of satisfaction, trust, and commitment. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 175

7 Table 4. ANOVA analysis for passengers educational level Statistical index Groups Mean S.D F Degree or below Satisfaction Postgraduate Trust Degree or below Postgraduate Commitment Degree or below Postgraduate Perceived service Degree or below quality Postgraduate P Experience of using airline services. According to Table 5, there were no significant differences found among experience of using airline services categories on the dependent measures including passengers satisfaction, trust, perceived service quality, and commitment (p>0.05). Table 5. ANOVA analysis for passengers travel experience Statistical index Groups Mean S.D F P Satisfaction One time to 5 times More than 5 times Trust One time to 5 times More than 5 times Commitment One time to 5 times More than 5 times Perceived service One time quality 2 to 5 times More than 5 times Trip purpose. As Table 6 shows, there were no significant differences found between the trip purpose of passengers on the dependent measures including satisfaction, trust, commitment, and perceived service quality (p>0.05). COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 176

8 Table 6. ANOVA analysis for passengers trip purpose Statistical index Groups Mean S.D Vacation Satisfaction Business Praying Visiting friends and family Official mission Education Vacation Trust Vacation Business Praying Visiting friends and family Official mission Education Commitment Vacation Business Praying Visiting friends and family Official mission Education Perceived service Vacation quality Business Praying Visiting friends and family Official mission Education F P Conclusion, limitations, and future research This paper aims to determine the effects of demographic characteristics on the dimensions of relationship quality including trust, satisfaction, commitment, and perceived service quality. To our knowledge, no study exists in this area that is related to our purpose. Thus, current study is the first paper that investigated the effects of demographic characteristics on relationship quality dimensions. The findings suggest that marital status influences service quality. Educational level has a significant impact on satisfaction, trust, and commitment. Additionally, passenger s job influenced widely satisfaction. This paper also has several directions for future research. This study can be performed in other service industries such as hospitality and transportation industries. In addition, the effect of cultural and religious characteristics on the dimensions of relationship quality can be investigated in future research. As a limitation of current study, this study performed in the area of Tehran that generalizability of findings will be restricted. COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 177

9 References Anderson, J.C., and Narus, J.A. (1990), A model of distributor firm and manufacturer firm working partnerships. Journal of Marketing, 54(1): Berry, L. (1995), Relationship Marketing of Services-growing interest, emerging perspectives, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23 (4), Cooil, B., Keiningham, T.L., Aksoy, L. and Hsu, M. (2007), A Longitudinal Analysis of Customer Satisfaction and Share of Wallet: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Customer Characteristics, Journal of Marketing, 71, Crosby, Lawrence A., Kenneth R. Evans, and Deborah Cowles (1990), Relationship quality in services selling: An Interpersonal Influence perspective, Journal of Marketing, 54 (July), Dorsch, M. J., Swanson, S. R. and Kelley, S. W. (1998), The role of relationship quality in the stratification of vendors as perceived by customers, Journal of the Academy of Maketing Science, 26 (2), Dorsch, M.J., Swanson, S.R., and Kelley, S.W. (1998), The role of relationship quality in the stratification of vendors as perceived by customers. Journal of Academy Marketing Science, 26(2): Ebner, M. A., Hu, A., Levitt, D. L., and McCrory, J. (2002), How to rescue CRM. McKinsey Quarterly, special edition, Fullerton, G. (2005), The service quality-loyalty relationship in retail services: does commitment matter? Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 12 (2), Garbarino, E. and Johnson, M. S. (1999), The different roles of satisfaction, trust, and commitment in customer relationships, Journal of Marketing, 63 (2), Geyskens, I, Steenkamp, JBEM, and Kumar, N. A. (1999), meta-analysis of satisfaction in marketing channel relationships. Journal of Market Research; 36(2): Gronroos, Christian (1990), Service management and marketing: Managing moments of truth in service competition: Lexington Books. Hennig-Thurau, T., Langer, M., Hansen, U., (2001), Modeling and managing student loyalty: an approach based on the concept of relationship quality. Journal of Service Research, 3 (4), Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten and Alexander Klee (1997), The impact of customer satisfaction and relationship quality on customer retention: A critical reassessment and model development, Psychology and Marketing, 14 (8), Hewett, K. and Bearden, W. O. (2001), Dependence, Trust, and Relational Behavior on the Part of Foreign Subsidiary Marketing Operations: Implications for Managing Global Marketing Operations, Journal of Marketing, 65 (October). Jensen, J.B. and Markland, R.E. (1996), Improving the application of quality conformance tools in service firms, Journal of Services Marketing, 10 (1), COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 178

10 Kumar, N., Scheer, L. K. and Steenkamp, JBEM. (1995), The effects of supplier fairness on vulnerable resellers, Journal of Marketing Research, 32 (1), Lagace, R. R., Dahlstrom, R.and Gassenheimer, J. B. (1991), The Relevance of Ethical Salesperson Behavior on Relationship Quality: The Pharmaceutical Industry, The Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 11 (4), 39. Malhotra, N.K. (1999). Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation. 3rd ed., Prentice- Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Mittal, V. and Kamakura, W. A. (2001), Satisfaction, Repurchase Intent, and Repurchase Behavior: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Customer Characteristics, Journal of Marketing Research, 38, Moorman, C., Zaltman, G. and Deshpande, R. (1992), Relationships between providers and users of market research: the dynamics of trust within and between organisations, Journal of Marketing Research, 24 (August), Morgan, R. M. and Hunt, S. D. (1994), The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing, Journal of Marketing, 58 (July), Nunnally, J.C. (1981). Psychometric Theory. Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi. Palmer, A. and Bejou, D. (1995), The effects of gender on the development of relationships between clients and financial advisers, The International Journal of Bank Marketing, 13 (3), 18. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A. and Berry, L. L. (1988), Servqual: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perc, Journal of Retailing, 64 (1), 12 Pritchard, M. P., Havitz, M. E., and Howard, D. R. (1999), Analyzing the commitmentloyalty link in service contexts. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27(3): Reichheld, F. F. (1996), The loyalty effect: The hidden force behind growth, profits, and lasting value. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Roberts K, Varki S, and Brodie R. (2003), Measuring the quality of relationships in consumer services: an empirical study, European Journal of Marketing, 37(1/2): Shneiderman, B. (2000), Designing Trust into Online Experiences, Communications of the ACM (43:12), Storbacka, K., Strandvik, T. and Gronroos, C. (1994), Managing Customer Relationships for Profit: The Dynamics of Relationship Quality, International Journal of Service Industry Management, 5 (5), Walter, A., Muller, T. A. Helfert, G. and Ritter, T. (2003), Functions of industrial supplier relationships and their impact on relationship quality, Industrial Marketing Management, 32 (2), 159. Wetzels, M., De Ruyter, K. and Van Birgenlen, M. (1998), Marketing service relationships: the role of commitment, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 13 (4/5), COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 179

11 Wray, B., Palmer, A. and Bejou, D. (1994), Using neural network analysis to evaluate buyer-seller relation, European Journal of Marketing, 28 (10), 32. Wulf, K. D. and Odekerken-Schroder, G. (2003a), Assessing the impact of a retailer's relationship efforts on consumers' attitude and behavior, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 10, Zahorik, A. J. and Rust, R.T. (1992), Modeling the impact of service quality on profitability: A review: JAI Press. Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. R., Parasuraman, A. (1996), The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal of Marketing, 60(2): COPY RIGHT 2014 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 180