Mediation effect of customer satisfaction on the relationships between service quality and customer loyalty in the Nigerian foods and beverages industry: Sobel test approach

The objectives of this paper are to explore the most common constructs for quality in the food and beverages industry that influence customer satisfaction, and to examine the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in the context of the food and beverages industry in Nigeria. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 208 valid respondents by a simple random sampling method. SPSS version 18 was used to analyse the data and SOBEL was used to test the mediating relationships. The results of the study show that there is a positive and significant link between customer satisfaction and the constructs of service quality, and further study inferred that customer satisfaction is positively significantly related to customer loyalty. Consequently, firms have to specifically focus on these variables in order to forge long-term and jointly profitability relationships with customers and create loyalty as competitive advantages in the market.