The Influence of Culture and Personality on Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Analysis across Countries

221 Pages·2016·2.69 MB·English

by  Franziska Krüger (auth.)

International Management Studies
Edited by
B. Wolff , Frankfurt a. M., Germany
M. Gunkel, Bolzano, Italy
Die Schrift enreihe trägt dazu bei, Erkenntnisse aus der internationalen Unterneh-
mensforschung zu verbreiten. Die meisten Beiträge zeichnen sich durch eine Fun-
dierung auf die theoretische Basis der Neuen Institutionenökonomik sowie eine
empirische Analyse aus. Die Reihe ist off en für Arbeiten in deutscher und engli-
scher Sprache.
Th e series aims at circulating insights from research projects on international cor-
porations. Most of its contributions are characterized both by a foundation on a
theoretical basis of the New Institutional Economics and an empirical analysis. Th e
series is open to works in German and in English.
Edited by
Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff Prof. Dr. Marjaana Gunkel
Goethe University Free University of Bozen
Frankfurt a. M., Germany Bolzano, Italy
Franziska Krüger
The Infl uence of Culture
and Personality on
Customer Satisfaction
An Empirical Analysis
across Countries
Franziska Krüger
Magdeburg, Germany
Dissertation Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany, 2015
International Management Studies
ISBN 978-3-658-12556-1 ISBN 978-3-658-12557-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-12557-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015960961
Springer Gabler
© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016
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To My Dear Family
Acknowledgement
This thesis presents the results of my doctoral studies at the Faculty of Management and
Economics at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg. In the course of my studies I had
the chance and pleasure to receive support and help of so many people. Therefore, I want to
express my special gratitude.
I cannot thank enough my thesis supervisor Birgitta Wolff for all the guidance, advice, and
encouragement she gave me. She always put the confidence in me to manage the project.
Without her trust and support I would not have started my doctoral studies. My second advi-
sor Christopher Schlägel deserves a special appreciation and gratitude for his time, effort, and
patience he took to teach me statistical methods and to comment on the project.
During my time at the Department of International Management I had the honor to work with
wonderful colleagues. I owe a special thanks to my former colleague and today's friend
Marjaana Gunkel for the time she invested to read the first draft of the dissertation and her
valuable comments and assistance. I thank Fan Wu for helping me to translate the question-
naires. I also like to thank the student assistants and graduate students of the Department of
International Management who helped me to collect and enter the data, especially Katja
Becker, Caroline Bernstein, and Frosina Stevkovska.
In the course of my research, I had the chance to collect data in Germany, China and the USA.
I thank Yiming Wang of the School of Economics, Xiamen University, for organizing my
research stay in China. I owe a special thank you to Mohammad Elahee of the International
Business Faculty, Quinnipiac University, for his help and assistance and to his lovely family
who gave me such a warm welcome and a home during my research stay in the USA.
Most importantly, I want to express my thanks and gratitude to my family and friends. With-
out their confidence in me I would not have come that far. The encouragement, support, and
trust of my parents were driving forces during my entire studies. Their love and believe in me
always encouraged me to achieve even more. Finally, I cannot thank enough my husband
Andreas und my daughters Helene and Elise for all their love and patience during the last
years. Writing this doctoral dissertation was not always easy. Andreas trusted in me and
supported me - he simply was there for me when I needed him.
Franziska Krüger

VII
Table of Contents
Table of Content ................................................................................................................... IX
List of Figures ................................................................................................................... XIII
List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... XV
List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... XVII
List of Symbols .................................................................................................................. XIX
1 The Satisfied Customer in International Business - An Introduction .......................... 1
2 Customer Satisfaction, Culture, and Personality – Definition of the Research
Variables ............................................................................................................................. 7
2.1 Customer Satisfaction and its Related Variables and Constructs – Definitions and
Findings from Literature............................................................................................... 8
2.1.1 Customer Expectations ....................................................................................... 8
2.1.2 Performance ...................................................................................................... 10
2.1.3 Disconfirmation ................................................................................................ 10
2.1.4 Defining Customer Satisfaction ........................................................................ 11
2.2 Theoretical Approaches Explaining Customer Satisfaction ....................................... 15
2.2.1 Adaptation Level Theory .................................................................................. 15
2.2.2 Assimilation Theory .......................................................................................... 16
2.2.3 Contrast Theory ................................................................................................ 17
2.2.4 Assimilation-Contrast Theory ........................................................................... 18
2.2.5 Generalized Negativity Theory ......................................................................... 19
2.2.6 Prospect Theory ................................................................................................ 20
2.3 Defining Culture and Personality in the Context of Consumer Behavior .................. 21
2.3.1 Culture and its Operationalization .................................................................... 21
2.3.2 Personality and the Five-Factor-Model ............................................................ 26
2.3.3 The Link between Culture and Personality ....................................................... 29
2.4 Development of the Research Design in a Cross-Cultural Setting ............................. 30
2.4.1 Challenges of Cross-National Customer Satisfaction Research ....................... 31
IX
2.4.2 The Design of the Research Project .................................................................. 34
3 Study I: The Structure of the Zone of Tolerance Across Countries and
Individuals ........................................................................................................................ 37
3.1 The Zone of Tolerance ............................................................................................... 37
3.2 The Generalizability of the ZOT across Countries and the Potential Effects of
Culture and Personality .............................................................................................. 41
3.3 Description of the Method of Study I ......................................................................... 42
3.3.1 Questionnaire Design and Measures ................................................................. 44
3.3.2 Cleaning the Data .............................................................................................. 46
3.3.3 Aggregation of Importance Data ...................................................................... 47
3.3.4 Test for Normality, Reliability, and Validity .................................................... 49
3.3.5 Descriptive Statistics ......................................................................................... 60
3.4 A Cross-National Investigation of the ZOT – Results of Study I .............................. 62
3.4.1 The Position and the Width of the ZOT across Countries ................................ 63
3.4.2 The Effects of Culture on the Determinants of the ZOT .................................. 71
3.4.3 The Effects of Personality on the Determinants of the ZOT ............................ 75
3.4.4 The Effects of Culture and Personality on the ZOT ......................................... 79
3.4.5 The Effects of Culture and Personality on Importance and Involvement ......... 82
3.5 Summary of Study I: Discussion of the Results, Implications, Limitations, and
Future Outlook............................................................................................................ 92
4 Study II: The Confirmation/Disconfirmation-Paradigm in a Cross-Cultural
Perspective – A Study across Countries ...................................................................... 103
4.1 The Process of Customer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction Formation Across Nations .. 103
4.1.1 The C/D-Paradigm .......................................................................................... 103
4.1.2 Cross-Cultural Applicability of the C/D-Paradigm and the Potential Effects
Culture and Personality ................................................................................... 108
4.2 Description of the Method of Study II ..................................................................... 111
4.2.1 Scenario Based Surveys for Research on Customer Satisfaction ................... 111
4.2.2 Scenario Formulation ...................................................................................... 115
4.2.3 Questionnaire Design and Measures ............................................................... 118
X
4.2.4 Data Collection, Entry, Cleaning, and Manipulation Checks ......................... 121
4.3 A Cross-National Investigation of the C/D-Paradigm - Results of Study II ............ 133
4.3.1 The C/D-Paradigm in Cross-National Comparison –- A Macro-Perspective . 133
4.3.2 The Effects of Individual Cultural Values and Personality on the
C/D-Paradigm - A Micro-Perspective............................................................. 137
4.4 Summary of Study II: Discussion of the Results, Implications, Limitations, and
Future Outlook.......................................................................................................... 143
5 Summary, Conclusions and Future Outlook .............................................................. 149
List of References ............................................................................................................... 155
Appendix ............................................................................................................................. 169
Appendix 1: Questionnaire of Study I ................................................................................. 169
Appendix 2: Questionnaire of the Pre-study (Freelisting) .................................................. 180
Appendix 3: Questionnaire of Study II .............................................................................. 188
Appendix 4: Pair-wise Correlations - Study II (China) ...................................................... 206
Appendix 5: Pair-wise Correlations - Study II (Germany) ................................................ 207
Appendix 6: Pair-wise Correlations - Study II (USA) ....................................................... 208
XI