如何讓線上顧客更忠誠？顧客感恩的中介效果

How Can Online Customers Be More Loyal? The Mediating Effect of Customer Gratitude

顧客感恩是關係行銷理論中，被新提出另一個影響買賣雙方關係的重要中介因子。儘管顧客感恩的議題曾被探討，然而，在網路與社群媒體的環境下，仍缺乏相關文獻的研究。本文根據社會交換理論的互惠原則，以網路購物為範疇，建構顧客感恩的完整模型。模型以關係利益為因，顧客感恩為中介，探討其對顧客忠誠度的影響。研究中蒐集網路購物平台的顧客資料，以結構方程模式來驗證所提出的理論模型；尤其，模型中將顧客忠誠度分為態度忠誠和行為忠誠，並分別以問卷調查資料和顧客的實際購買次數與金額來衡量。研究結果顯示，顧客感恩對顧客忠誠度有正向影響，在三種關係利益(信任利益、社會利益、特殊利益)中，社會利益對顧客感恩有最大的影響效果；此外，調節效果分析發現，感恩人格特質能強化信任利益對顧客感恩的影響。

Customer gratitude is a new construct that has been found to play an important role in buyer-seller relationships. Recent studies on relationship marketing have investigated customer gratitude, but none of the extant literature has examined customer gratitude in an online shopping context. The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of customer gratitude in the context of online shopping. Based on the social exchange theory's reciprocity norm, our theoretical framework considers customer loyalty as a consequence of consumer gratitude. We also consider relationship benefits to be an antecedent of customer gratitude. More importantly, we incorporate customer loyalty into attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, which are measured via customer survey data and purchase record data, respectively. Using data gathered from members of an online shopping platform, the results of this research show that, among the three types of relational benefits (i.e., confidence, social benefits, and special treatment), social benefits have the largest impact on customer gratitude. The analysis further shows that the personality trait of gratitude moderates the path between confidence benefits and customer gratitude.