Determinants of Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty in an Online Marketplace Environment
(A2021-94517)

AUTHORS

Florian Weyerhäuser, Saarland University; Bastian Popp, Saarland University

ABSTRACT

Online marketplaces currently dominate e-commerce and grow faster than the overall industry. This research extends the domain of service quality by conceptualising customer satisfaction in online marketplaces. Customer satisfaction is modelled as a third-order factor which comprises distinct, actionable dimensions. An empirical study among 324 users of Amazon Marketplace is used both to test this conceptualisation and to identify the most important dimensions of service quality. The structural model further integrates customer loyalty and consumers’ identification with the marketplace to reveal that service quality substantially determines loyalty intentions. A significant effect of marketplace identification on customer loyalty implies that building a strong marketplace brand is also a promising strategy for marketplace operators. Finally, we integrate the perspective of value co-creation and discuss the individual contributions of different actors to service quality.