The power of perceived firm innovativeness in influencing customer loyalty towards tour operators

Abstract

The concept of innovativeness has received increasingly more attention in marketing and innovation research in recent years. However, innovativeness as perceived by the customers, has not. As tour operators rely heavily on how consumers perceive the firm in order to be successful, it was interesting to look at the effect perceived firm innovativeness has on the overall customer loyalty towards the tour operator. In order to research this, a survey was conducted. In this survey, consumers were asked to give their opinion about four hypothesized dimensions of perceived firm innovativeness. The result of the survey with 213 respondents showed that none of the four dimensions of perceived firm innovativeness affected the credibility of the firm and the customer loyalty. However, a second scale for measuring perceived firm innovativeness was also included in the survey. This scale did show an effect of perceived firm innovativeness firm credibility and indirectly on customer loyalty. This conclusion was in line with previous research on the topic of perceived firm innovativeness, firm credibility and customer loyalty.