USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications

The benefits, satisfaction, and perceived value of small business membership in a chamber of commerce.

SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

Michael G. Luckett

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

ISSN

1465-4520

Abstract

Nonprofit chambers of commerce have a long history in western culture but little if any empirical research has been conducted to explore why a small business would join one. This study focuses on members' evaluation of chamber assistance programs and benefits and how they mediate the impact of satisfaction and the perceived customer value of paid membership for chamber services. A mail census survey of all 2019 members, in a large category-four chamber of commerce, provided valid and reliable representation of existing membership demographics. Factor analysis identified four main benefits, whereas a LISREL model was applied to identify the mediating impact of relational benefits on satisfaction and perceived value. All four dominant benefits significantly correlated with both membership satisfaction and perceived value as did the correlation between satisfaction and perceived value. However, perceived value was found to have higher correlations with relational benefits than that of satisfaction. This study is important as it provides managers with a framework to identify and balance the benefits desired by the membership and adjust the level of expected satisfaction with perceived value in a nonprofit service-oriented assistance organization.

Comments

Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, doi: 10.1002/nvsm.1485 (online version published 27 November 2013). Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.

Language

en_US

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Share

COinS