The mediating effects of value on service quality-satisfaction relationship in Malaysian tourism industry

Abstract

The ways to maintain and increase customer satisfaction are always the concern of business providers because high satisfaction is closely related to the customers’ positive word of mouth, revisit intentions, and loyalty; which are the key for the success of long term businesses in today’s customer-focused industry. For that reason, more satisfaction studies, especially on the elements that contribute to higher satisfaction level are needed. Previous researches discovered several explanatory predictors to satisfaction. Nevertheless, in this study, only two variables, i.e. service quality and value were chosen as the antecedent variables associated to satisfaction among international tourists in the context of Malaysian tourism. This study further focused on examining whether service quality has an indirect impact on satisfaction through value, i.e. the mediator effect. The relationships proposed were analysed with structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis using the data gathered from 301 international tourists that have travelled to Malaysia. The findings indicated that both service quality and value are the significant predictors that influence tourist satisfaction. Additionally, the results also indicated that value plays a mediator role in the service quality-satisfaction relationship in the tourism context.