Investigating customer intentions influenced by service quality: using the mediation of emotional and cognitive responses in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Mobile service operators are struggling to build strong relationship with their customers. The Saudi Market is described as a highly regulated and competitive sector. Consequently, it is essential that mobile service operators re-evaluate the level of their service quality and understand its critical factors that influence customer eWOM and switching intention through emotional and cognitive responses. According to the literature review, there is a need for studies on customer behaviour to demonstrate whether customer responses are prominent indicators of how customers feel. In addition, there is a lack of empirical study and theoretical modelling of the relationships between customers’ emotional response and constructs based on other service experience. The main aim in this research is the investigating customer intentions influenced by service quality using the mediation of emotional and cognitive responses in Saudi Arabia. This research develops a theoretical framework that integrates a set of cognitive and emotional response (pleasure and arousal) to examine the influence of service quality on customer intention by using theory of reasoned action (TRA) and stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R), merged into one framework. Therefore, hypotheses are developed to test the relationship between the framework variables. This research adapts a quantitative methodology along with the positivist philosophical approach to investigate hypothetical relationships within the conceptual framework. This research used online surveys completed by mobile and social media users, including a survey with 601 responses out of 621. To analyse and validate the data, this study applies the structure equation model by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) AMOS V. 23. The result indicates that there are significant relationships between service quality dimensions and emotional response (pleasure and arousal). Moreover, subjective norms have a significant relationship with customer intention and emotional response. In addition, emotional response has, both directly and indirectly, a significant relationship with customer intention. The overall results of this research indicate that both the effect of service quality on eWOM and switching intention were mediated by customer attitude and by the pleasure and arousal emotional responses. These research outcomes yield several theoretical and practical implications. A key limitation of this research is its data collection by using a quantitative research approach and cross-sectional methodology; consequently, the data collection was done solely in the KSA.