Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between employee authenticity and customer loyalty. This study also examined whether rapport positively mediated the above relationship. In addition this study address the moderating role of customer emotional intelligence in the relationship between employee authenticity and rapport. By developing moderated a mediation model, we addressed indirect conditional effect of customer emotional intelligence on the relationship between employee authenticity and customer loyalty via rapport.
Methods: The survey data was collected by customers who used various services in Korea. The main hypotheses were tested using a cross-sectional design, with questionnaires administered to 292 customers.
Results: The result of empirical analysis has shown that employee authenticity was significantly positively related to customer loyalty. We have also found that rapport positively mediated the relationship between employee authenticity and customer loyalty. While there was a significant moderating effect of customer emotional intelligence on the relationship between employee authenticity and rapport, the moderated mediating role of customer emotional intelligence was found.
Conclusion: The results provide useful theoretical and practical implications to the organizations and managers who want to improve customer loyalty. Future research directions with the limitation of the study were discussed.