Is Store or Service Satisfaction More Important to Customer Loyalty?

Understanding causes of customer loyalty is important to the discount retail industry, however limited research has been reported that examines the multiple dimensions of customer satisfaction and loyalty and how they may interact. This paper addresses the impact of two dimensions of satisfaction on two dimensions of customer loyalty in discount retailing. The research is based on a sample of Wal-Mart and Target retail customers and partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses. The moderating effect of gender and store brand is also examined. The results indicate that both store and service satisfaction are related to attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. Gender was not found to moderate these relationships whereas store brand was. The paper contributes to the literature by providing insights on the interplay between multiple dimensions of customer satisfaction and loyalty in a discount retailing setting