The complex relationship between school policy, service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty for educational tour bus services: A multilevel modeling approach

Abstract

The results of this study provide useful information for schools and bus companies. Schools are offered guidance as to how to choose quality bus services, and bus firms are given ideas as to how to be profitable by building customer loyalty and satisfaction. For this purpose, data were gathered through a mail survey of 3261 teachers from 742 schools. The study applied a multilevel SEM technique to investigate a research question that had not been previously studied. The results from the model indicated that service quality has a positive influence on satisfaction, which was found to be significantly and positively related to loyalty at both the individual and school levels. The quality of bus services was measured using three factors: type of vehicle, driver response, and bus management. These factors were determined to be priorities for bus businesses in developing user loyalty and satisfaction. When investigating the school level, factors related to government-allocated school resources, participation, and safety policies were found to have a significant direct effect on service quality.