Resumo

Service Dominant Logic (SDL) emphasizes resource sharing for co-creating superior services. Actor engagement is vital in service ecosystems, linking relationship quality and loyalty (Barari et al., 2020). Relationship quality enhances offerings and loyalty. However, studies differ on engagement's role: mediator or moderator. Consequently, the role of engagement remains unclear.

As credit unions excel in engagement through collaboration, this study tries to answer the following question: what is the role of engagement in the connection between relationship quality and loyalty within a credit union? Understanding engagement aids marketing strategies in financial services organizations (Kumar & Pansari, 2016).

Engagement involves resources’ voluntary investment for value co-creation (Hollebeek et al., 2016). Relationship quality encompasses a combination of customer satisfaction, trust, and commitment, resulting in loyalty. Engagement can be viewed as a process, as it enables long-term customer retention with the brand (Pansari & Kumar, 2016). Alternatively, it can be viewed as a customer characteristic, since the impact of relationship quality on loyalty may be stronger for customers who are highly engaged, compared to those who are less engaged (Thakur, 2019).

This research is descriptive and quantitative, utilizing survey data collection. Structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed. To operationalize the constructs, satisfaction, trust, commitment, loyalty and engagement scales that have already been validated in the literature were utilized. Data collection was conducted at Sicredi Credit Union.

Results indicate that engagement partially mediates the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, engagement negatively moderates the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. This means that highly engaged customers exhibit a weaker association between satisfaction and loyalty compared to less engaged customers. On the other hand, commitment and trust influence loyalty exclusively through engagement, where engagement acts as the sole mediator in this relationship.

Engagement development is recognized as a tool for creating competitive advantages in the financial services market. In this study, we explored the role of this construct as both a mediator and a moderator in the relationship between the quality of the member's relationship with a cooperative financial institution and their loyalty. The results suggest that the dimensions of relationship quality (satisfaction, trust, and commitment) have an influence on and precede customer engagement, supporting most studies found on the subject (Barari et al., 2020).

Barari, et al. (2020). A meta‐analysis of customer engagement behaviour. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 45(4). Hollebeek, et al. (2016). S-D logic–informed customer engagement: integrative framework, revised fundamental propositions, and application to CRM. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1). Kumar & Pansari (2016). Competitive advantage through engagement. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(4). Thakur (2019). The moderating role of customer engagement experiences in customer satisfaction–loyalty relationship. European Journal of Marketing, 53(7).