The relationship between service quality, client satisfaction, perceived value and client loyalty: A case study of Fly Emirates

Abstract

Client loyalty is one of the biggest challenges for the airline industry and marketers are see-king information on how to build client loyalty. This study will explore the relationship between service quality, client satisfaction, perceived value and client loyalty in the airline industry. The purpose of this study is to develop and implement a method for airline to identify attributes that will increase client loyalty. 384 respondents participate in this study and questionnaires were distributed randomly to passengers traveling by Emirates. In particularly a deductive approach adapted to collect specific quantitative information to accept or reject the hypothesis. Current study applies Structural Equation Modeling SEM-PLS to investigate the relationship among the constructs in proposed model. This study found that service quality has appositive relationship on passengers’ satisfaction and client loyalty and negative relationship on perceived value and client loyalty. The results of this study indicated that service quality and passenger’s satisfaction are important factors effect of client loyalty. In conclusion Emirates must be able to understand the importance of service quality and passenger’s satisfaction to fulfill the client loyalty and improve the service quality that make most significant in airline industry.

RESUMEN: La lealtad del cliente es uno de los mayores desafíos para la industria de las aerolíneas. Por eso, los profesionales de marketing están buscando información sobre cómo desarro-llar la lealtad del cliente. Este estudio explorará la relación entre la calidad del servicio, la satisfacción del cliente, el valor percibido y la lealtad del cliente en la industria aérea. El propósito de este estudio es desarrollar e implementar un método para que la aerolínea iden-tifique atributos que aumentarán la lealtad del cliente. Unos 384 encuestados participan en este estudio y los cuestionarios se distribuyeron al azar entre los pasajeros que viajaban en Fly Emirates. En particular, un enfoque deductivo adaptado para recopilar información cuan-titativa específica para aceptar o rechazar la hipótesis. El estudio actual aplica el modelo de ecuación estructural SEM-PLS para investigar la relación entre los constructos en el modelo propuesto. Este estudio encontró que la calidad del servicio tiene una relación positiva en la satisfacción de los pasajeros y la lealtad del cliente. Por otro lado tiene una relación negativa en el valor percibido y la lealtad del cliente. Los resultados de este estudio indicaron que la calidad del servicio y la satisfacción del pasajero son factores importantes que afectan a la lealtad del cliente. En conclusión, Fly Emirates debe ser capaz de comprender la importancia de la calidad del servicio y la satisfacción del pasajero para cumplir con la lealtad del cliente y mejorar la calidad del servicio que es más importante en la industria de las aerolíneas.Palabras clave: Satisfacción; calidad del servicio; valor percibido; fidelización del cliente, líneas aéreas.1. INTRODUCTIONAirline industry is an increasingly growing industry and it has developed to become one of the most common means of travel (Law, 2017). Specifically, airline industry faci-litates tourism and contribution to the growth of businesses which depend on airlines, such as hotels, restaurants and car hire operators (Lupiyoadi and Putra, 2014). Currently, passenger’s loyalty in the airline industry is becoming ever important and relevant due to the fact that the delivery of high quality service is essential for airlines survival and crucial to the competitiveness of the airline industry (Ganiyu, 2016). To achieve client loyalty a high level of client satisfaction and high standard of service quality should be delivered by the service provider (Reshidi, 2013), since service quality is considered the basis for client satisfaction and client loyalty (Abu Rumman et al., 2013; Jawabreh, 2017a; Alananzeh et al., 2018; Clemes et al., 2008).Client loyalty plays a very crucial role for achieving competitive advantage in any organization. Olsen and Johnson (2013) found that client loyalty has an incredible impact on business profits. Azad et al. (2014) found that client loyalty is one major driver of success in tourism industry. Recently many studies have growing interest in research on client loyalty. Client loyalty defined by Oghojafor et al. (2016) as the adherence of clients