Abstract
Recent policy changes, globalization and competition have called for the application of marketing models in the management of the higher educational institutions around the world. This study conceptualizes and empirically validates a model exploring the relationship between key relational constructs and customer loyalty among university students. A sample of 416 Nigerian university students was taken through multi-stage cluster sampling procedure. Partial Least Squares structural equation modelling was employed to analyse the data. Results suggest that the constructs of bonding, communication and personalization have significant effect on student satisfaction and trust which in turn predict student loyalty. Further, individual student long term orientation has moderating effect on the path between satisfaction and loyalty as against the path between trust and loyalty Theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed and a conclusion drawn. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4p466
Highlights
Research in the domain of services marketing has come a long way with the advent of relationship marketing (RM) which seeks to strengthen the economic and social ties between customers and service providers for sustainable competitive advantage (Gummeson & Gronroos, 2012)
This is astonishing given the critical role of higher education sector (HE) in the development agenda of nations
This paper aims to achieve three research questions: (i) investigates the influence of bonding, communication and personalisation on customer satisfaction and trust (ii) examines the mediating effect of customer satisfaction and trust on the relationship between RM and customer loyalty, and (iii) explore the contingent role Long term orientation (LTO) on the relationship between customer satisfaction, trust and customer loyalty
Summary
Research in the domain of services marketing has come a long way with the advent of relationship marketing (RM) which seeks to strengthen the economic and social ties between customers and service providers for sustainable competitive advantage (Gummeson & Gronroos, 2012). The basic premise upon which RM rests is that understanding customer needs and enhancement of their experience is the key to customer retention, company growth and profitability (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) In effect, both current and prospective customers are important to a business, to retain one existing customer is 5 to 6 times more cost effective than attracting one new customer (Ackerman & Schibrowskey, 2007). The education sector has received marginal research attention which according to Das (2009) accounted for only 0.8 per cent of RM studies. This is astonishing given the critical role of higher education sector (HE) in the development agenda of nations
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