Global Journal of Management and Business Research, E: Marketing, Volume 23 Issue 1

fitness business by offering additional workout options. The Chinese fitness industry comprises commercial and traditional fitness clubs (Deloitte, 2019; Nan, 2022). Commercial fitness clubs are privately owned clubs providing personal training and group sessions (Nan, 2022; Zhou & Tuo, 2022). However, the Chinese fitness business is highly fragmented and lacks a clear market share leader (Reogma, 2020). According to Deloitte (2019), “the top 10 gym and fitness clubs in China account for only about 10% of the total market.” United Fitness, Anytime Fitness, and Orange Fitness dominate this industry and compete for market share among foreign fitness clubs (Henry, 2019). Thus, new entrants and network expansions are likely to increase competition (Malleret, 2021; Santos, 2016). b) Consumer Loyalty Building customer loyalty (CL) has become a primary goal for many sports and fitness organizations, as loyal customers provide the financial foundation for a program and support all of the organization's objectives (Bowen & Shoemaker, 2003; Butcher et al., 2001; Zeithaml et al., 1996). Oliver (1999defines CL as a firmly held commitment to continuously buy a chosen product or service from the same organization or brand set, despite situational factors and marketing efforts that may trigger switching behavior (Kim et al., 2020). Thus, it is important to comprehend the needs and expectations of customers, and to gain the aims, an organization needs to focus on CL. CL can be understood as a two-dimensional variable, attitudinal and behavioral (Rowley & Dawes, 2000). Attitudinal loyalty is a deeply held commitment to consistently repurchase or patronize a specific product, service, or brand in an exchange relationship based on experience (Czepiel et al., 1987). Behavioral loyalty, the usual emphasis highly on the behavioral aspect of consumers, can be defined as a going propensity to buy repetitively from the same brand or store, usually as one of several (Khajeheian & Ebrahimi, 2020). CL is critical for businesses as it shows consumers’ biased responses over time toward a particular product or stores out of a set of stores (Suchánek & Králová, 2019). Marketing practitioners are increasingly concerned with CL patronizing a profitable customer relationship with their clients (Chiou & Droge, 2006). It was previously estimated that wining new customers creates six times more cost than maintaining existing customers (Rosenberg & Czepiel, 1984). Hence, CL becomes a crucial trait that underpins the success or failure of an organization (Lee et al., 2010). c) Consumer Satisfaction Customer faces a diverse range of products that can satisfy their certain needs (Kotler, 1997). They choose among those products that best fit their expectation (Suh et al., 2019). Spreng et al. (1996) state that satisfaction is a feeling of content that arises when one compares their perception of the quality of a product as a whole with their expectation. According to Fornell et al. (1996), consumer satisfaction (CS) is a feeling of pleasure and disappointment after the consumption or use of a particular product or service. According to the “expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, ”CS is also based on perceived value (Zhang et al., 2022), leading to a personal comparison between EXP and the PSQ given by firms to their customers (Oliver, 1980). The paradigm suggests that CS is a relative concept that is always judged against a standard about a product or service, brand or business (Mittal & Lassar, 1998). Moreover, consumers always buy goods and services with anticipated service quality. The expectation level then becomes a standard against which the product is judged. Once the product or service has been used, outcomes are compared against expectations. If the outcome matches the EXP, confirmation occurs. Conversely, disconfirmation occurs where there is a difference between EXP and PSQ. In this stage, a customer may be either satisfied or dissatisfied as a result of a positive or negative difference between EXP and PSQ. When service quality is better than initially expected, there is a positive disconfirmation between EXP and PSQ that results in satisfaction. However, when service quality is not as good as expected, there is a negative disconfirmation between EXP and PSQ, which causes dissatisfaction. This causal sequence has also been supported in the sports and fitness club context (Bhattacherjee, 2001). Earlier literature has also viewed satisfaction as transactional and global (or cumulative) (Gonçalves & Diniz, 2015; Tsitskari et al., 2014b; Xu et al., 2007). Transactional satisfaction focuses on assessing a consumer’s perception following a particular transaction experience (Fournier & Mick, 1999). Transaction satisfaction is short-term, and research in this context focuses relatively on narrow conceptual boundaries (Jones & Kim, 2010; Theodorakis et al., 2004). Global satisfaction is determined by comparing the overall EXPs of the firm’s delivered products or services to their perceptions of product quality (Fornell et al., 1996; Hallowell et al., 1996). Since fitness clubs are service- oriented, global satisfaction research is more appropriate to understand CS to gain a competitive advantage over competitors (Daryanto et al., 2010; Marandi & Harris, 2010). d) Marketing Communication Communication is the exchange of knowledge and information with others (Dimyati, 2015). Marketing communication educates and persuades new and potential consumers and builds long-term relationships with existing customers (Kwak et al., 2006). Based on these considerations, we may conclude that marketing Customer Loyalty in the Fitness Club Industry: The Role of Club Communication, Customer Expectation and Perceived Service Quality 45 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXIII Issue I Version I Year 2023 ( )E © 2023 Global Journals