Customer Non-Transactional Value Measurement

Abstract

The Customer Non-Transactional Values Measure (CNTVM), developed by Shin and Perdue (2023), is a concise, 15-item psychological instrument specifically designed to quantify the non-transactional values generated by customers through their customer engagement behaviors within the environment of online hotel brand communities. This measure addresses a significant gap in tourism and marketing research by focusing exclusively on value creation that extends beyond simple monetary transactions.

The scale’s development was rigorous, involving an initial pool of 38 items derived from an extensive literature review. After administration to members of the Marriott Bonvoy Insider Community, the final structure was refined through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The result is a robust second-order, four-factor model that demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including excellent internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and nomological validity.

Keywords

Customer to Business Innovation Value, Customer Online Engagement Behaviors, Customer Value, Functional Value, Influential Experience Value, Non-Transactional Values, Online Brand Community, Relational Value, Consumer Attitudes, Consumer Behavior, Tourism, Online Behavior, Consumer Measures

Authors

Hakseung Shin, Richard R. Perdue

Purpose

The primary function of the Customer Non-Transactional Values Measure (CNTVM) is to systematically quantify the non-transactional values that customers generate when participating in online engagement behaviors. These values are critical for understanding long-term customer relationships and brand health, moving beyond traditional transactional metrics like sales or purchases.

Specifically, the measure allows researchers and practitioners in the tourism and hospitality industries to evaluate how online engagement behaviors translate into intangible benefits for the brand or community, such as relational enhancement, influential capacity, functional assistance, and contributions to business innovation (C-to-B innovation value).

Construct

The CNTVM measures the complex, multi-dimensional construct of Non-Transactional Values arising from customer participation in online communities. These values are defined as the non-monetary benefits that accrue to the brand or the community due to active customer contribution, which ultimately supports brand loyalty and attachment.

The scale is structured as a 15-item, second-order model, encompassing four distinct first-order factors:

• Influential-experience Value: Reflects the value derived from customers sharing experiences and influencing the perceptions and behaviors of others within the community.
• Customer to Business (C-to-B) Innovation Value: Measures the extent to which customer input and engagement contribute directly to brand innovation, product development, or service improvements.
• Relational Value: Captures the value inherent in strong, supportive relationships built between the customer and the brand, often manifesting as loyalty or attachment.
• Functional Value: Pertains to the practical help or information customers provide to other users or the brand itself, enhancing the overall functionality of the community, such as answering questions or providing technical support.

Validity

The CNTVM demonstrated robust psychometric properties across several validation tests, including content, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity were established by analyzing the Average Variance Extracted (AVE). All AVE values ranged from 0.66 to 0.74, comfortably exceeding the standard threshold of 0.5. Crucially, the AVE for each construct was greater than the squared correlation between that construct and all other constructs, providing strong evidence for both adequate distinctiveness and convergence among the factors.

Nomological Validity was confirmed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings indicated that intrinsic motivation positively influenced all four engagement behaviors contributing to non-transactional values. Extrinsic motivation showed a significant positive impact specifically on engagement behaviors related to Functional Value. Furthermore, engagement behaviors contributing to C-to-B Innovation Value, Relational Value, and Functional Value significantly impacted brand attachment, while Influential Experience Value and C-to-B Innovation Value positively influenced brand loyalty.

Reliability

The reliability assessment confirmed the strong internal consistency of the Customer Non-Transactional Values Measure.

The Internal Consistency of the four constructs was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha (𝛼) coefficients, which ranged from 0.84 to 0.92, indicating high reliability across all dimensions. Further supporting the reliability of the measure, the composite reliabilities (CR) for all four constructs were high, falling between 0.85 and 0.92. Additionally, all standardized factor loadings were statistically significant (p < .001) and strong, ranging from 0.62 to 0.91, indicating that the items reliably measure their respective latent variables.

Factor Analysis

The scale development utilized a two-step approach involving both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to establish a clean and stable factor structure.

The EFA phase, which employed principal component extraction and varimax rotation, led to the systematic removal of items with low factor loadings (< 0.5), cross-loadings, or those negatively impacting reliability. Initially identifying four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 that accounted for 75.9% of the variance, the final EFA on the reduced set of 22 items revealed a clear four-factor pattern explaining 78.3% of the total variance.

The CFA phase confirmed the final 15-item measure, which resulted from merging two constructs identified earlier. The final model provided evidence for a second-order factor model with covariance among the four latent variables. The model demonstrated acceptable fit indices: χ² = 220.632 (p < .001), CFI = 0.946, TLI = 0.935, SRMR = 0.052, and RMSEA = 0.088, confirming the structural validity of the CNTVM.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: Inventory/Questionnaire

Language Available: English

Population Group: Human (Male; Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years & older); Young Adulthood (18-29 years); Thirties (30-39 years); Middle Age (40-64 years); Aged (65 years & older)

Population Details: Respondents were members of the Marriott Bonvoy Insider Brand Community, indicating a focus on engaged customers within the hospitality sector.

Test Methodology: Test Validity; Content Validity; Convergent Validity; Discriminant Validity; Nomological Validity; Test Reliability; Internal Consistency; Factor Analysis; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Exploratory Factor Analysis; Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).

Keywords

Customer to Business Innovation Value, Customer Online Engagement Behaviors, Customer Value, Functional Value, Influential Experience Value, Non-Transactional Values, Online Brand Community, Relational Value

Authors

Shin, Hakseung

Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9209-7430

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected]

Correspondence Address: Hanyang University, College of Social Science, Department of Tourism, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Korea, Republic of, 04763

Perdue, Richard R.

Affiliation: Virginia Tech, Pamplin College of Business Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author

Commercial: No

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

References

Shin, H., & Perdue, R. R. (2023). Developing a multi-dimensional measure of hotel brand customers’ online engagement behaviors to capture non-transactional value. Journal of Travel Research, 62(3), 593–609. https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875211073618

Items of the Customer Non-Transactional Values Measure

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

No data is Available.