Assessing the effects of service quality and justice on customer satisfaction and the continuance intention of mobile value-added services: An empirical test of a multidimensional model

a r t i c l e i n f o Understanding the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction in the mobile communications market is important. This study explores the effects of service quality and justice on customer satisfaction, which, in turn, affects continuance intention of mobile services. Service quality, justice and customer satisfaction were measured by multiple dimensions. A research model was developed based on this multidimen-sional approach and was empirically examined with data collected from about one thousand users of mobile value-added services in China. Results show that all three dimensions of service quality (interaction quality, environment quality and outcome quality) have significant and positive effects on cumulative satisfaction while only one dimension of service quality (interaction quality) has a significant and positive effect on transaction-specific satisfaction. Besides procedural justice, the other two dimensions of justice (distribu-tive justice and interactional justice) significantly influence both transaction-specific satisfaction and cumulative satisfaction. Furthermore, both types of customer satisfaction have significant and positive effects on continuance intention. Implications for research and practice are discussed. With the rapid advancements of mobile network technologies, provision of various kinds of value-added services by mobile service providers is on the rise around the world. As the market becomes more and more mature, value-added services become more homogeneous and the competition for acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers becomes more intense. In this environment, customer satisfaction is a critical factor for mobile service providers to maintain or improve their market share and profitability. Prior studies have found that customer satisfaction contributes to a firm's profitability and customer retention [33,35]. In a reorganization of the communications industry in China between 2008 and 2009, the original six mobile network operators were reduced to three. Meanwhile, the availability of third-generation telecommunications technologies suggested that more mobile value-added services would be provided to the customers. A recent value-added services survey report on mobile communications conducted by Analysys in 2010 predicted that, the competition among existing mobile network operators would become fierce after the reorganization of the industry and the introduction of third-generation services. Thus, for these mobile network operators, in order to retain customers, enhancing customer satisfaction is an urgent task to tackle with. Moreover, as new mobile value-added services are released, service providers need to focus on if these new services appeal to customers and on the willingness of customers to continue to use the services. Therefore, understanding the …