Relationship Quality and Customer Loyalty in Taiwan -- A Longitudinal Aspect

Relationship quality in the practice of relationship marketing serves as the most primary intervening variable which determines customers´ purchase. The relationship quality that enterprises offer decides customers´ intention of retention and influence customers´ future behaviour. Therefore, relationship quality serves as an important research issue in the process of relationship marketing. However, an overview of previous studies indicates that the study on the relationship between relationship quality and customer loyalty is cross-sectional data based, and thus there are considerable constraints on the causal inference. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the pattern on the causal relationship between the relationship quality and customer loyalty based on the long-term vertical-sectional data. The population is the customers of men´s and women´s apparel sale counters in the department stores in Taiwan, issuing a total of 400 questionnaires, with 328 valid copies and 82% effective response rate. Questionnaires are collected and then conducted by empirical analysis through regression analysis to verify the research hypotheses among variables. The results indicate that satisfaction and trust dimensions of relationship quality have a positive influence on behaviour loyalty and attitude loyalty dimensions of customer loyalty.