How Does the Time Variation of Customer Satisfaction Affect Korean Retail Firms’ Performance?

• Published in: Journal of distribution science Vol. 16; no. 9; pp. 53 - 58
• Main Authors: 김미정, Chul-Ju Park
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국유통과학회 01.09.2018
• Subjects: 경제학
• ISSN: 1738-3110; 2093-7717
• DOI: 10.15722/jds.16.9.201809.53

Purpose - This study aims to examine how the time variations of customer satisfaction influence retail firms’ performance. Research design, data, and methodology - The study employs yearly time series customer satisfaction data of Korean retail secured from the National Customer Satisfaction Index(NCSI) for the 2011~2016 period. Our data includes a total of 90 observations of 15 retail firms in 5 different sector(department store, filling station, large discount store, open market, TV home shopping). We obtained the firm performance data from the KIS Value database. The variables for financial performance include sales and net profit. Results - The results show that customer satisfaction has dynamic effects on retail firms’ performance. More specifically, the time variation of customer satisfaction has the moderating effect on the linkage between customer satisfaction and financial performance as well as direct effects on the firms’ financial performance. Conclusions - Customer satisfaction has the current effect lasting over time on firm performance and changes of customer satisfaction in positive direction also impact on firm performance. Retail firms need to not only focus on improving customer satisfaction in the current term, but make efforts to continuously enhance customer satisfaction in the long term. KCI Citation Count: 0