O papel da interação em serviços na identificação do consumidor-empresa: uma abordagem no contexto de ensino superior

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this research is to test university students' interaction with service providers (other students/customers and employees), verifying the impact of that interaction on consumer-company identification. Similarly, positive word-of-mouth is tested as a consequence of customer identification. Theoretical framework: Based on the theories of social identity, social impact, and the service-profit chain perspective, we analyze the consumer's perception of a social group (identification) and how this participation will fulfil a voluntary role for services.

Design/methodology/approach: To test the hypotheses, a descriptive and quantitative research was carried out, consisting of 229 students from two Brazilian universities. Data were treated based on the structural equation modeling technique based on covariance.

Findings: The results show that the interaction with employees and the perception of other customers positively impact the customer-company interaction. The data show that word-of-mouth is explained by the consumer's identification with the university.

Originality/value: The results confirm that word-of-mouth is explained by the consumer-company identification – based on a unidimensional perspective. Furthermore, the results highlight the relationships of the consumer-company identification construct in the context of services, contributing to the external validity of the construct when evaluating it in the higher education environment.