Customer value in tourism and hospitality: Broadening dimensions and stretching the value-satisfaction-loyalty chain

Customer value research consists of two main streams, with broad recognition in tourism literature: value dimensions (intra-variable perspective) and relationships among value, satisfaction and loyalty (inter-variable perspective). The conceptual framework reviews and categorizes graphically both streams, evidencing the need of research combining both perspectives. The empirical study uses PLS to validate among a sample of 340 hotel guests, a comprehensive causal model with a high number (eight) of value dimensions -functional (efficiency and excellence), social (status and esteem), hedonic (aesthetic and entertainment) and altruistic (ethics and escapism). Moreover, the model adds to previous works a) a second order value construct within the value-satisfaction-loyalty chain, b) the distinction between affective and cognitive satisfaction. All effects are highly significant in this intra-inter approach. Findings are relevant for practitioners by posting a multifaceted value provision and for scholars by revisiting customer value and satisfaction: a higher order measure embedded in a doubled chain.