Two-level Hierarchical Model Of The Relationship Between Service Quality And Customer Loyalty Based On Department Stores In Hangzhou

As improvement of production technique, the core value of consumers slowly transferred from material pursuits to spiritual pursuits, which promotes the rapid development of service economy. With it , the topic on service quality attracted a lot of scholars and practitioners, there is still in in "literacy" period in China , and abroad service management research is also young, just start a new stage after Gronroos first put forward the definition of perceived service quality at 1980s.Sum up, two main points of studies on service quality(SQ) as followings: (1)Explored the essence of SQ, specific dimensions and scales for measurement;(2)Investigation illustrated the significance of SQ,explained how to carry out the effective SQ management,which are key of the theoretical and industrial practice. This research deeply explained the relationship between SQ and customer loyalty with two-levels hierarchical model based on department stores in hangzhou,the study is to provide new management measures for the transformation and upgrade of traditional department stores in china. Based on historical literature reviewing,the research constructed the 2-level hierarchical relationship model between SQ and customer loyalty and checked the model through exploratory empirical research. In the model,SQ has two decision factors——the service expectation and service perception, the relationship between those two factors and customer loyalty constructed level-2 model; SQ has 5 dimensions namely tangibles, conveniences, interpersonal interaction, empathising and company policy,the relationship between 5 dimensions of SQ and customer loyalty constructed level-1 model. The questionnaire of this study revised based on the scales from PZB'SERVQUAL and Dabholkar model, and be confirmed according to datas from personal depth interview and exploratory questionnaire investigation, and then use the questionnaire collect datas from customers of local department stores in hangzhou for empirical analysis.The conclusions of final empirical analysis as follows: (1) 5 dimensions of SQ are all positively correlated with attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty and customer loyalty, and the correlation between 5 dimensions and loyal attitude is stronger than between behavioral loyalty; (2)Only convenience and interpersonal interaction among the 5 dimensions of SQ is positively influence attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty and customer loyalty;(3) Perceived service is the mediatoring variables in the relationship between service expectation and customer loyalty.(4)Attitudinal loyalty is the mediatoring variables in the relationship between perceived SQ and behavioral loyalty. (5) based on attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty levels by second clustering analysis method for three segments of the market namely high loyalty, false loyalty and low loyalty, and use the generalized correspondence analysis for three segments got characteristic of consumers as follows: in high loyalty market, customers are 21 to 40 years old, personal income in 6 to 15 million and 20 million RMB per year,undergraduate course or PhD,position distribution in government authorities or state-owned enterprises,the company's managers,self-employed and freelancers groups;in false loyalty market,customers are 41 years old to 50, personal income in 4 to 6 million and 15 to 20 million,master, position distribution in institution staff and teachers. In Low loyalty market customers are under 20 and 51-year-old above, personal income 40,000 below, degree in junior college,high school and technical secondary school, junior high school, position is common employees and other groups.And finnaly get a regression analysis result: in false loyalty market the influence of SQ on the customer loyalty is strongest, stronger in high loyalty market, and is not significant in low loyalty market.Conclusions metioned above pinpointed the particularity of SQ in department stores, expand the theory of SQ, Researching the effect of SQ on the customer loyalty based on different levels in department stores, which offer reference for department stores to improve the loyalty of customers, improved the SQ effectively aim at different customer group according to the differences value on the different attributes of SQ.