The Influence of Customer Satisfaction on Customer Loyalty and the Moderating Effect of Gender

Purpose – Customer satisfaction has been considered important as a way to retain current customers. Specifically, the retention of current customers through customer satisfaction has been considered important in an industry where competition between companies is fierce. Major Korean airlines have confronted fierce competition with the growth of low cost carriers(LCCs). In order to survive, these airlines need to retain their customers. This research aims to investigate the relationships between customer satisfaction and the customer intention to remain loyal. Moreover, this study examines how the influence of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty is moderated by gender. Research design, data, and methodology - A regression model is developed in which customer satisfaction, gender, and an interaction of satisfaction and gender are predictors and the customer’s intention to remain loyal is a dependent variable. To analyze this research model, data were collected from 402 university students taking a marketing class in universities Seoul, Chung-Cheong province, and Kangwon province. After eliminating data from students who had never flown and data with missing values, a final sample of 201 was analyzed. The hypotheses were tested using SPSS 21.0. Internal reliability was supported by the results of Cronbach’s α. Multiple regression was performed. Results - Empirical results showed that customer satisfaction toward the airline’s service had a positive influence on the customer intention to remain loyal to the airlines. Moreover, this influence was moderated by gender. More specifically, a male customer’s intention to remain loyal was more determined by his satisfaction toward airline service than a female customer’s. Conclusions - This research contributes to the aviation service marketing literature by showing how customer satisfaction influences customer intention to remain loyal and how this influence is moderated by gender. More specifically, male