The relationships between loyalty satisfaction and other related factors among the decision makers of residents at nursing homes

Abstract

Customer loyalty influences companies’ benefit and the issue of repurchasing is the most important for company business Previous literatures indicated that service quality and satisfaction were related to loyalty however there was few studies concern nursing homes which is a particular service of long-term care Hence the aims of this study were to: (1) to explore the relationships among loyalty and service quality satisfaction and other important factors and (2) to explore whether satisfaction mediated the relationship between service quality and loyalty The study used convenient sampling and participants were the decision-makers of the residents who live at a nursing home in Taiwan The research methods included two steps: First qualitative methodology was used to explore the important items of the questionnaire (n=15) Second data collection included demographic variables loyalty satisfaction service quality switching cost and alternative attractiveness (n=205) Multiple regression analysis and path analysis were used The results showed that the participants who perceived higher service quality (beta = 15 p < 001) and satisfaction (beta = 42 p < 001) had higher loyalty but alternative attractiveness (beta = - 10 p = 024) was negatively correlated with loyalty In addition there was a positive correlation between service quality and satisfaction (beta = 73 p < 001) Satisfaction mediated partially the relationship between service quality and loyalty the beta value of the pathway between service quality and loyalty decreased from 25 to 16 after controlling satisfaction but still remained significant The owners of nursing homes should keep enhancing service quality including care knowledge skill experience and positive attitude of staff; updating hardware and keeping the environment clean High evaluation of service quality will bring high satisfaction and high loyalty

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English
Supervisor	Sheng-Yu Fan (Supervisor)