The Influences of Customer Equity Drivers on Customer Equity and Loyalty in the Sports Shoe Industry: Comparing Korea and China

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅과학회
· 수록지 정보 : Journal of Global Fashion Marketing / 1권 / 2호 / 110 ~ 118페이지
· 저자명 : HAO ZHANG, 고은주, 김경훈

초록

The concept of customer equity brings together customervalue management, brand management, and relationship/retention management. However, the model put forth by Rust,Lemon, and Zeithaml (2000) does not include a considerationof the concept of loyalty, as in Vogel, Evanschitzky, andRamaseshan (2008). In contrast to customer equity, customerloyalty involves an intention to engage in future purchasebehavior with the same firm or brand. Its drivers are complexand dynamic, usually changing over time. Although plenty ofresearchers have studied those factors, the present studyfollows that of Johnson, Herrmann, and Huber (2006) andVogel et al. (2008), which suggest that customer equity driverscan also drive customer loyalty.
Thus, the present paper sets out to support this conclusionin the sports shoes industry, and to discover the differences inthe influence customer equity drivers have on customer loyaltyin Korea and China. This is because the product choices ofconsumers and their preferences for a particular product orbrand are generally influenced by complex social factors (Yau,1994).From 450 respondents in the countries’ capitals whoanswered the study questionnaire, the Korean sample included125 university students and 75 fashion industry employeesfrom Seoul, while the Chinese sample included 150 universitystudents and 59 fashion industry employees from Beijing.
To test the hypotheses, we first employed structural equationmodeling with the maximum likelihood estimation methodusing the model without moderator. Then, for testing thedifferences between the two groups, a multi-group analysiswith AMOS 7.0 was used to assess the moderating variableeffects on the structural model (Byrne, 2001).
Our research extends the literature on the outcomes of thethree drivers of customer equity: value equity, relationshipequity, and brand equity. The survey data of the study wereused to examine their effects on customer loyalty, and theeffect of customer loyalty on customer equity. The study’sfocus on a specific industry, sports shoes, also extends thecustomer equity research into a different area. Our findings show that the customer equity model can beonly partly supported. Relationship equity and brand equity candrive customer equity in the sports shoes industry. Results alsoshow that value equity, relationship equity, and brand equitypositively influence customers’ loyalty toward sports shoesbrands, whereas customer loyalty has a positive effect oncustomer equity in that industry. Thus, value equity,relationship equity, and brand equity are not only the driversof customer equity, but can drive customer loyalty as well. Inthe sports shoe industry, firms should keep investing inmarketing activities targeted toward increasing the perceivedequity of value, relationships, and brand. However, differentnationalities can show different relationships among thecustomer equity drivers, customer loyalty and customer equity.
Our study, though subject to several limitations, can provideseveral managerial implications for sports shoe firms. First,findings from testing customer equity in the sports shoe marketshow that value equity, relationship equity, and brand equityare the drivers of customer loyalty, suggesting that a sportsshoes firm must meet customer expectations, create betterrelationships with customers, and increase the equity of thebrands. Second, when managers make decisions about how toenter a new market, or how to improve customer loyalty,cultural and market differences should be considered.

참고자료

· 없음