Evaluating Group Differences in Gender During the Formation of Relationship Quality and Loyalty in ISP Service - End User Computing Challenges and Technologies: Emerging Tools and Applications - page 254

gender-based market segmentation strategies can
associate relational selling behavior and network
quality with relationship quality. Segmenting the
market in such a manner and modifying appeals
and strategies to fit these segments may assist
ISPs in competing in this increasingly crowded
market.

the subjects over time and using larger sample
sizes so that the genuine relationships of loyalty
may then be more transparently revealed.

aCknowledgment

This work was supported partially by the National
Science Council, Republic of China. The authors
wish to thank Kang Chuang Chen of Chunghwa
Telecom, Taiwan, for providing the data.

limitations and Future
researCh direCtions

This study suffers from some limitations. The first
limitation relates to the measurement of customer
loyalty. True customer loyalty may be reflected
partially, given that it was based on self-reports.
Database relating to actual purchasing history
can be used as an input for measuring customer
loyalty. The second limitation is the possibility of
common method bias. The third limitation is that
the results cannot be construed to be representative
of all consumers of ISPs from all countries around
the world due to the highly delimited nature of
the sample. Indeed, cultural psychologists suggest
that national cultural differences may influence
consumer evaluations (Crotts & Erdmann, 2000)
and decision making (Dann, 1993). For example, it
has been commented that loyalty is a key concept
in collectivist Eastern cultures, and such cultures
are highly loyal because of their greater reliance
on word of mouth about a service (Usunier, 1996).
From a cross-cultural perspective, it was found
that gender differences between males and females
go along with the masculinity dimension (Brady
& Robertson, 1999; Hofstede, 1980). Therefore,
without further research from the cultural perspec-
tive (especially in the dimension of masculinity),
it is far too premature to make a generalization
that applies to all circumstances. Instead, the
focus of this study should be limited to a test of
theory examining the influence of four different
antecedents on consumers' evaluations of a service
as well as their loyalty. Future researchers can take
note of these shortcomings by directly observing

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