Consumer Loyalty and Supplier Switch in SMEsThe Hairdresser Case

Resumen

The first objective in this thesis (Chapter 2) is to identify in advance how the hairdressing market performs globally, identify its key dynamics and peculiarities, get to know who are the main competitors, understand core go-to-market strategies and establish comparisons with similar business models (retail). The main contributions of Chapter 2 are first, to understand the global and local (Spanish) hairdressing market from manufacturer’s perspective. Second, get to know the hairdressing market (Global and local) from hairdresser perspective. Third, to identify the core differences versus other business models such as business-to-consumer (B2C) or haircare retail. Fourth, to learn the distinctive characteristics and key go-to-market strategies of hairdressing industry. The role of loyalty in the success of SMEs has been poorly studied and has focused on the antecedents and the measurement of loyalty. Additionally, previous research focused mainly on large companies. Within Chapter 3, we contributed to the previous literature by adopting a managerial vision. To this end, we asked hairdressers about the strategies they implement and about consumer loyalty in their salons. Chapter 3 has two main purposes: first, to establish an adequate theoretical framework. Second, to provide empirical evidence related to the most successful marketing plans in achieving behavioral loyalty in SMEs in the hair salon market. Therefore, the main Chapter 3 contribution to the previous research, consist in analysing the effect of the strategy (price, range of services, communication, size and location) in the achievement of loyalty in SMEs. The core findings have interesting implications for hairdressers as they need to understand the optimal strategy to succeed in the market. Also, the key insights of this study could also apply to other sectors as health, personal care or wellness services. The third objective raised in this thesis (Chapter 4) presents an investigation of the drivers of switching behaviours by SMEs in a B2B context. Despite the availability of various studies of customer loyalty (Watson et al., 2015), few contributions address switching behaviours by SMEs. The Chapter 4 research, first establish a suitable conceptual framework and second, to provide empirical evidence related to the most important drivers that cause SMEs to switch suppliers, reflecting price-related reasons, in a B2B context. The originality of this research is that it extends current literature by investigating switching drivers for SMEs in the B2B beauty sector. Thus, these findings may apply to other service sectors too, such as health services, beauty and personal care, and well-being. The results offer implications for managers and academics, as well as some directions for further research. Moreover, to establish service strategies for customer retention and best-in-class go-to-market efforts, suppliers can use this study’s findings regarding key switching drivers and thus avoid future customer losses. Structure of the thesis This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 is a summary of the thesis in Spanish. Chapter 2 is an introductory chapter. The objectives of Chapter 2 are first, to understand the global and local (Spanish) hairdressing market from manufacturer’s perspective (Section 2.1.1). Second, get to know the hairdressing market (Global and local) from hairdresser perspective. (Section 2.1.2). Third, to identify the core differences versus other business models such as business-to-consumer (B2C) or haircare retail. Fourth, to learn the distinctive characteristics and key go-to-market strategies of hairdressing industry. Third and fourth objectives are located at (Section 2.1.3) The next Chapters 3 and Chapter 4, each one are containing an introduction of the topic and a review of the literature to describe the current state of the and to delineate the hypotheses. Together with a description of the data to be used, each chapter includes an exploratory analysis of the variables of interest. The presentation and discussion of the main results is followed by general discussion and managerial implications. Chapter 3 is based on the published paper cited as: López-Jáuregui, Á., Martos-Partal, M. and Labeaga, J.M. (2019), "Impact of SMEs strategy on loyalty: the hairdresser case", Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 273-293. https://doi.org/10.1108/SJME-11-2018-0051 Chapter 3 is organized as follows. In Section 3.1 we introduce the chapter. In Section 3.2 we review the related theoretical and empirical literature, from we will outline our main hypotheses. In Section 3.3 the dataset and variables to be used in the empirical analysis are presented. Also, we include a descriptive analysis of the variables of interest. In section 3.4, we specify two empirical models. Model 1 specifies the relationship between our dependent variable defined as the share of weekly visit of customers to hairdressing salon and the independent variables related to marketing strategies: hypothesis (H1-H7). Model 2 provides the test of the moderation hypothesis (H8;H9;H10). Additionally, we analyze the main results of the empirical estimations. Core conclusions and implications related to the effect of the strategy (price, range of services, communication, size and location) in the achievement of loyalty in SMEs are provided in Section 3.5. Finally, Section 3.6 describes the study limitations that suggest further research. The Chapter 4 is at second round at the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. López-Jáuregui, Á., Martos-Partal, M. and Labeaga, J.M. (2020), " Why do SMEs switch suppliers?" (second round), Chapter 4 is organized as follows. In Section 4.1 we introduce the chapter. In Section 4.2 we review the related theoretical and empirical literature, from we will outline our main hypotheses. In Section 4.3 the dataset and variables to be used in the empirical analysis are presented. Also, we include a descriptive analysis of the variables of interest. In section 4.4, we specify two empirical models. Model 1 specifies the relationship between our dependent variable defined as the utility of changing providers for price reasons and the independent variables related to marketing strategies : hypothesis (H1-H7).Model 2 provides the test of the moderation hypothesis (H9). Additionally, we analyze the main results of the empirical estimations. Core conclusions and practical implications related to the most important drivers that cause SMEs to switch suppliers, reflecting price-related reasons, in a B2B context are provided in Section 4.5. Finally, Section 4.6 describes the study limitations that suggest further research.