Intrinsic value dimensions and the value-satisfaction-loyalty chain: a causal model for services
Abstract
Purpose
Within the abundant and not always unanimous body or research on conceptual and methodological approaches to consumer value in services, there are two areas of relative consensus: the multidimensional nature of value (intra-variable approach) and the existence of causal relations with other constructs (inter-variable approach). This work aims to contribute additional knowledge in both areas, with a joint approach in a structural model tested for hospitality services.
Design/methodology/approach
The study proposes four scales of intrinsic values (entertainment, aesthetics, ethics and spirituality as relaxation), based on Holbrook’s (1999) value typology, and a casual model to be used to measure the relationships between these four values and overall perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty. The model is tested with PLS on a sample of 585 hotel guests on the island of Sardinia (Italy).
Findings
The psychometric properties of all four value scales, created ad hoc, are tested and approved. Results on the causal model show contrasted links on the intra-variable approach, entertainment, aesthetics and spirituality (measured as relaxation), are positive antecedents of perceived value, while the path ethics-overall value is not confirmed. The value–satisfaction–loyalty chain is fully confirmed, with strong linkages.
Research limitations/implications
The authors acknowledge the use of a convenience sample, of mainly leisure tourists.
Practical implications
The implications for managers are derived on the need of considering extra drivers (intrinsic and therefore fully experiential) of satisfaction and loyalty.
Originality/value
Research on value has been qualified as not univocal and controversial. This study adds knowledge on the use of four less common value types (intrinsic ones) and sheds light on their nature as antecedents of the well-known value–satisfaction–loyalty chain.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for this study (National R&D Plan ECO2010/1745 and ECO2013-43353-R). The authors are also deeply thankful to Morris B. Holbrook for his help in the qualitative phase, in the choice of indicators according to his conceptual framework on value.
Citation
Gallarza, M.G., Arteaga-Moreno, F., Del Chiappa, G. and Gil-Saura, I. (2016), "Intrinsic value dimensions and the value-satisfaction-loyalty chain: a causal model for services", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 165-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-07-2014-0241
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited