The effect of demographic characteristics on the relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty among passengers of Railway Transport Services in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find the effect of demographic characteristics on the relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty among passengers of railway transport services in Kenya. The study employed pragmatism paradigm and descriptive, convergent mixed methods research design. Proportional stratified random sampling procedure was employed in picking samples from each railway service provider. Stratified sampling ensured all the subgroups were represented in the sample. A sample size of 357 respondents was realized through the use of simple random sampling. The study population comprised all railway customers who had frequently used passenger services in Kenya. A self-administered questionnaire was employed to gather data. Pilot study was carried out to test questionnaire reliability and validity. Descriptive and inferential statistics was employed to analyze quantitative data. Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Factor analysis tested convergent validity, divergent validity and construct validity. The study findings hypothesized that there was no significant moderating effect of demographic characteristics on the relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty (p-value>0.05, ΔR2 = 0%). The study concluded that Demographic characteristics have no significant moderating influence on the relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty. The relationship did not improve upon the introduction of interaction term and it was not positively and statistically significant (Pvalue≥ 0.05).