Cultural Impact on the Relationship Among Perceived Service Quality, Brand Name Value, and Customer Loyalty

This paper examines how cultural effects can be integrated into the relationship between customer value (perceived service quality and brand name) and customer loyalty. Hofstede's individualism-collectivism dimension is used for illustration, because some research has shown that it is a key cultural aspect influencing response to marketing tactics. However, the key issue is to demonstrate an approach to understanding cultural impact, not to argue that any specific cultural dimension or schema is most important. The article proposes that culture could influence customer perceptions of perceived service quality and brand name, i.e., it has a direct effect on how people perceive these things. Moreover, culture could also moderate the relationships between service quality, brand name and loyalty, i.e., it influences the strength of the relationship between perceptions about the service a key form of purchase behavior. Results from a survey of 611 airline passengers across three Asian and three Western nationalities indicate this way of thinking about culture's impact on marketing models is plausible. (C) 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.