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The effects of historical satisfaction, provided services characteristics and website dimensions on encounter overall satisfaction: A travel industry case study

Tiziana Laureti, Michela Piccarozzi, Barbara Aquilani

The TQM Journal

ISSN: 1754-2731

Article publication date: 10 April 2018

Issue publication date: 17 May 2018

663

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the real role of historical satisfaction (HSat), i.e., satisfaction only deriving from past experiences, excluding the most recent, in B2C service contexts when services are experienced offline, while the actual services are purchased online through the service providers’ website.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed conceptual framework was tested by focusing on a particular travel industry firm which is responsible for providing travel services as well as managing the website where these services are purchased. The study population included customers who had purchased at least two travel tickets during the last 12 months online. In order to reduce possible self-selection bias and to improve the generalizability of the web survey findings, post-stratification was applied. The measurement model was evaluated by using confirmatory factor analyses. The direct and indirect effects of HSat on encounter overall satisfaction (EOS) were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The direct effect of HSat on EOS was observed to be higher than its indirect effect through offline service dimensions and website dimensions. It was also observed that offline service dimensions have a direct impact on EOS, while they do not have an indirect impact since the website dimensions do not have a direct effect on EOS.

Research limitations/implications

Historical satisfaction is really important in building EOS for services purchased previously online but experienced offline.

Practical implications

The results could provide managers with useful tools for allocating resources and also build an even higher level of EOS. They also shed light on how HSat molds offline service perception for services sold online.

Originality/value

To the authors’s knowledge, only one empirical paper focused on “historical satisfaction,” while no studies have taken into consideration the fact that service offline dimensions and e-customer satisfaction could be indirectly linked by website quality dimensions, the issue studied in this paper.

Keywords

Citation

Laureti, T., Piccarozzi, M. and Aquilani, B. (2018), "The effects of historical satisfaction, provided services characteristics and website dimensions on encounter overall satisfaction: A travel industry case study", The TQM Journal, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 197-216. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-07-2017-0080

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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