Interactional Justice as a Moderator of Customer Loyalty and Word-of-Mouth Behavior

Abstract

The study shall conceptualize antecedents for customer loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions to be moderated through interactional justice. Based on the collected data from 500 tourists who took trips in different parts of six locations of northern Pakistan, service quality, relationship quality, and perceived service value would determine and observe their influencing role towards customer loyalty and intentions to express their word of mouth. The results suggest that service and relationship quality have a significant relationship with customer loyalty and WOM intentions, mediated by perceived service value. Interactional justice moderates the mediated effects, thereby bringing out the important role of this variable in the customer outcomes. To my surprise, hotel image was not significant and did not mediate most relationships. These findings imply that hotel marketers should take into consideration the complexity of customer perceptions of value when developing strategies to improve loyalty and WOM intentions. This paper adds to extant theoretical and empirical understanding regarding customer behavior within the hospitality industry and underlines the role of interactional justice in generating positive customer outcomes.