Loyalty in Crisis: Evidence from Greece

This chapter examines customer loyalty across the supply chain during the economic crisis in Greece. The authors posit the following research questions: How does customer's loyalty change in light of the financial crisis and to what extent does customer loyalty contribute to a firm's performance during an economic crisis? The factors discussed are satisfaction, exchange of information, trust, competition, and finally, customer loyalty in fragile economic conditions. In order to examine customer loyalty in a period of crisis, the authors drew their sample from Greek manufacturing companies in 2012. They received 131 usable questionnaires. The total response rate was 13.1%. The results indicate that there is a quite high level of loyalty, which drives them to continue their partnership in the future, but also to recommend their partner to other firms.