Moderating Effects of Involvement on the Relationships Among Perceived Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Customer Citizenship Behavior

The role of customers in service production has been increased in our society. Sport participants also play a significant role in service delivery (Chelladurai & Chang, 2000; Ko & Pastore, 2005). Groth (2005) introduced customer citizenship behavior (CCB) indicating the extra-role behaviors of customers which are not required for service production. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer citizenship behavior (CCB) moderated by customer involvement among campus recreational sport participants. In addition, the relationship between encounter service quality and global service quality was examined. Based on the literature, a theoretical model was developed and tested, using a structural equation modeling (SEM). Data were collected from 228 college students at a large south-eastern university. The results indicated that program quality, client-employee interaction, valence, sociability, ambience condition, and equipment predicted the perception of global service quality. In addition, both perceived service quality and customer satisfaction in the global levels predicted CCB. While perceived service quality influenced customer satisfaction positively, customer satisfaction had a negative effect on perceived service quality simultaneously. The moderating effect of involvement was found in the relationship from the perception of the global service quality to global customer satisfaction. The findings are discussed with managerial implications and directions for future research.