Customer Engagement in Increasing Affective Commitment within Hospitality Sector

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the influence of customer engagement on affective commitment in hospitality sector. Customer engagement has recently emerged in both academics and practitioners as an outstanding customer relationship construct and as a predictor of affective commitment. However, empirical examination on customer engagement is relatively limited. As hospitality sectors have widely adopted customer engagement practices for managing customer relationships, further understanding of this notion is important. Descriptive statistics, correlation, regression analysis and a sample of two hundred thirty service customers were used in the hospitality sector. Samples consisted of customers from four star hotels, (sixty one percent) and five star hotels, (thirty nine percent) in Jammu and Kashmir, India. The findings suggest that customer engagement have significant and positive effects on affective commitment in the hospitality sector. The results can prove vital to practitioners in engaging customers while branding and marketing their products and services so as to strengthen a customer emotional and loyal base. Moreover, customer engagement acts as a useful tool in the relationship building strategies in hospitality sector. This research not only expands the academic research on customer engagement but also presents an outline for service firms particularly hospitality to improve and design their customer engagement activities. This research also offers number of vital avenues for future research.

Keywords: Customer Engagement, Affective Commitment, Jammu and Kashmir, Hospitality Sector

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