E-Lifestyle, Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty among the Generation Y Mobile Users

Technology advancement is gaining a great deal of attention among young individual. Technology has significantly impacted and changed the context and the way young people live in recent years particularly in developing countries across Asian regions. Telecommunication companies have noticed the importance of e-lifestyle factors which largely will influence on their identity. This research determines the impact of e-lifestyle on customer satisfaction and loyalty from mobile consumer users in emerging county. The data collected using the survey form among 197 respondents from Generation Y that aged between 18 to 37 years old. The data was analyzed using Smart-PLS and the results show that two predictors under the e-lifestyle which are eactivities and e-opinion influence consumers’ satisfaction that is strongly affect consumer loyalty for four main service providers in Malaysia. Keyword: E-lifestyle, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty, Mobile user, Generation Y. I. I-TRODUCTIOMobile services and applications are emerged due to the convergence of Internet, media, IT and advanced telecommunication technologies has stimulated phenomenal influence of information and communication technology (ICT). There are numerous different mobile services and applications available to consumers in the telecommunication market. Individual acceptance and adoption of mobile services have not been full-fledged (Bouwman, López-Nicolás, MolinaCastillo, & Van Hattum, 2012; Karnowski & Jandura, 2014) or shown an asynchronous pattern(Carlsson, Hyvonen, Repo, & Walden, 2005).This is due to the exponential growth in the mobile telecommunications andthe dynamic nature of the market. For this reason, many service providers’ think that the mobile service market has not yet reached its optimal level and there are still huge opportunities to improve it services. Malaysia has also witnessed advancement and keeping appropriate pace with global technology advancements, especially the mobile telecommunication market. The major Telco companies in Malaysia are TM Berhad, Celcom, Maxis, DiGi and U Mobile. Others are the 4G providers such as YES 4G and P1 WiMax which are fully Digital WiMAX Operators. The growth rate in the use of telecommunication facilities has increased dramatically, especially in the rank of increasing number of mobile service subscribers. There are many reasons why consumers choose a particular type of mobile service provider. One of the factors effecting the selection of service provider is e-lifestyle. Technology has significantly impacted and changed the context and the way people live in recent years (Yu, 2011). The aim of this study is to understand consumer elifestyle and how this factor influences consumer satisfaction and affect customer loyalty. The understanding of this relationship is important in tailoring and delivering appropriate services to Generation Y and service related to mobile technologies. II. LITERATURE REVIEW The main objectives of marketing activities are often the development, maintenance, or enhancement of customer loyalty (Dick & Basu, 1994).Customer loyalty has significant positive impact on the profitability of business. Loyal customers, who continuously use the same service provider and ignore the competitor’s will offer a long-term revenue for a company (Lam, Shankar, Erramilli, & Murthy, 2004). In mobile service industry context, loyal customers are more likely to focus on long-term benefits and engage in cooperative actions beneficial to both partners. However, most mobile service providers face