Customer Loyalty

5.2.1.7. Customer Loyalty

  Loyalty in general has already been dealt with in chapter 4. (Customer loyalty) Yet, in this section loyalty will be evaluated according to its component role in the ECSI model, where loyalty is the consequence of some level of satisfaction, which in turn is linked to its determinants.

  5.2.1.7.1. Definition Customer loyalty is the ECSI model’s ultimate dependent variable, and should therefore

  be seen as a result-variable. Customer loyalty is the focal point of the conceptual model and could be defined as the following, as suggested by Oliver (1997);

  132 Fornell, Claes et al. (1996) 133 Oliver, Richard L. (1997), ch. 4 134 Svanholmer, Bent (1996), pp. 58-59 135 Reichheld, F. (1996) Svanholmer, B. (1996)

  “Customer loyalty is a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future, despite situational influences and marketing

  efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior” 136 .

  In the conceptual model, the main focus will be on reader loyalty. For the purpose of this thesis, reader loyalty is defined as;

  “Reader loyalty is a deeply held commitment to repatronize a preferred paper consistently in the future, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the

  potential to cause switching behavior. 137 ”

  The above definition is an alteration of Oliver’s definition of customer loyalty to fit reader loyalty in the case of WLNs, where e.g. repurchase is not a relevant issue. It should be noticed, however, that the definition is not significantly different from that of customer loyalty, and it is therefore evaluated that the research on customer loyalty can be applied to reader loyalty as well.

  5.2.1.7.2. Empirical Research Much evidence is provided by theorists and practicians who suggest that a loyal customer-base is important and can be a very profitable investment, as mentioned in section 4.4. According to Kandampully Suhartanto, customer loyalty can be viewed from two different dimensions: the behavioral and the attitudinal loyalty. 138 The behavioral loyalty is operationalized by choosing to pick up the paper and spend time reading it, instead of just throwing it away. Behavioral loyalty is measured on a regular basis by Index Denmark, which among others measure the number of readers for the individual WLN, the coverage of each WLN and total coverage.

  This thesis mainly evolves around measuring and determining the attitudinal loyalty. This refers to the reader’s intention to read the paper again in the future along with the reader’s intention to recommend the paper to others.

  It is chosen to combine the determinants satisfaction and loyalty as one result-variable in the conceptual model. The arguments for this choice will be presented in section 7.6.

  Quote: Oliver, Richard L. (1997), p. 392 137 Own definition, but simply an alteration of Oliver’s definition of customer loyalty

  138 Kandampully, Jay Suhartanto, Dwi (2000), p. 347

  Chosen variables

  Since this thesis focuses on reader loyalty for WLNs, the model will not include all the original ECSI variables, 139 as illustrated in figure 8. The conceptual model will include image and perceived value as variables defined by ECSI and satisfaction loyalty will be

  a large part of the model as well. In contrast, the variables hard ware and expectations are included as superior categories as mentioned in section 5.2.1.3. and 5.2.1.2. for the additional variables in chapter 7.

  ECSI Model ECSI Model

  Image Image

  Expectations Expectations

  Perceived Value Perceived Value