Value or Quality? Differences in Airlines’ Customer Satisfaction Strategies across National Markets

Abstract

Global strategists suggest to deploy a value for money strategy both in emerging and developed markets. This study uses reviews from 24,926 airline passengers across 29 countries, and investigates in a multi-country context how value for money and service quality perceptions influence customer satisfaction. This study also advances strategic-fit research of value-for-money marketing strategies on an international level by theorizing and empirically investigating the moderating influence of a country’s economic condition and hedonic value orientation on customer satisfaction. The results clearly oppose an emerging versus developed world thinking.