Title: The journey of service quality to loyalty: a gender-based multigroup analysis in car-hailing service

Authors: Wajeeha Aslam; Imtiaz Arif; Kashif Farhat

Addresses: IQRA University, Abid Town, Block-2, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Pakistan ' IQRA University, Abid Town, Block-2, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Pakistan ' Higher Colleges of Technology, University City, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Abstract: The study examines the role of car-hailing service (CHS) online and offline service quality on satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, it examines the impact of satisfaction on trust and its impact on loyalty, and the differences in the perception of males and females. The data was collected through a questionnaire from people who had experience using CHS. PLS-SEM and multigroup analysis (MGA) was used for hypotheses testing. The findings revealed that online and offline service quality both affects satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, significant relationships were found between satisfaction, trust, and loyalty. The results of MGA showed that offline service quality predominantly affects the satisfaction and loyalty of females. Moreover, trust predominantly affects the loyalty of males in comparison to females. The study offers valuable insights to CHS providers as the findings benefit in developing strategies that help in catering to male and female users.

Keywords: car-hailing; loyalty; sharing economy; mobile app; service quality; trust; satisfaction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2024.135692

International Journal of Business Environment, 2024 Vol.15 No.1, pp.1 - 24

Received: 15 Feb 2022
Accepted: 07 Aug 2022
Published online: 22 Dec 2023 *