Customer voluntary performance: The effect of customer satisfaction and the mediating role of customer-company identification

Customer voluntary performance refers to helpful, discretionary customer behaviors that support a service company's service performance and quality. Drawing on identification theory, we offer an explanation as to why some satisfied customers display customer voluntary performance. Specifically, we hypothesize and test customer-company identification as a mediator of customer satisfaction on customer voluntary performance. The results reveal that customer-company identification partially mediated the relationship between customer satisfaction and two dimensions of customer voluntary performance, word of mouth and customer cooperation, but fully mediated the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer participation. It is concluded with a discussion of research findings and implications for both marketing theory and practice.