Deng Zhaohua 2010 Understanding Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty An Empirical Study Of Mobile Instant Messages In China

International Journal of Information Management 30 (2010) 289–300

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International Journal of Information Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijinfomgt

Understanding customer satisfaction and loyalty: An empirical study of mobile instant messages in China
Zhaohua Deng a,∗ , Yaobin Lu a , Kwok Kee Wei b , Jinlong Zhang a a b

School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, China
Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:

Keywords:
Mobile instant message
Trust
Perceived customer value
Perceived service quality
Customer satisfaction
Switching cost
Customer loyalty

a b s t r a c t
With the rapid development of mobile technology and large usage rates of mobile phones, mobile instant message (MIM) services have been widely adopted in China. Although previous studies on the adoption of mobile services are quite extensive, few focus on customer satisfaction and loyalty to MIM in China.
In this study, we examine the determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The findings confirm that trust, perceived service quality, perceived customer value, including functional value and emotional value, contribute to generating customer satisfaction with MIM. The results also show that trust, customer satisfaction and switching cost directly enhance customer loyalty. Additionally, this study finds that age, gender, and usage time have moderating effects. Finally, implications for the marketing of MIM are discussed. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
With the development of wireless telecommunication technologies, many customer services that are used in the computer-based
Internet have also appeared in mobile phones (Barnes, 2002; Xu,
2003); mobile instant message (MIM) is a typical example. MIM enables consumers, whether sitting at the computer or on the

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