Abstract

The purpose of this study was to provide a casual model to explain the effect of relationship quality on customer loyalty via the mediating effect which might be provided by customer satisfaction. The 335 subjects were randomly selected from 49 franchising beverage stores in Taiwan. The proposed casual model of three variables was developed. Structure equation modelling was conducted to explore customer group homogeneously and examine the mediating effect. The results indicate that relationship quality can result to customer loyalty via increasing customer satisfaction, thus, affecting the firm’s relationship quality leading to customer intention through customer satisfaction. The study also examined whether the model differed across segments. The subsequent multi-group analyses suggested that the research models are vary across different consumption patterns demographic segments, such as age, income and occupation. The managerial implications of findings for the franchising beverage stores and further research are discussed.   

Key words: Customer loyalty, relationship quality (RQ), customer satisfaction, mediator.