LIST OF DEFINITIONS
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.3 Happiness
2.3.3 Happiness Factors
Other measurements that concern happiness at work are as follows: Job Involvement Measurement (Lodahl & Kenjer, 1965), Engagement Measurement (Kahn, 1992), Job-Related Affective Well Being Scale (Van Katwyk et al. 2000).
The concept of happiness gained more interest with a range of effective factors including health, income, employment, societies, political regimes, economic, and quality of public services. In addition, Dolan, Peasgood, and White (2008) summarized some effective factors on happiness such as; personal characteristics, social characteristics, political characteristics, economic characteristics, time spending, and relationships. In addition, Tkach and Lyubomirsky (2006) conducted their study among 500 undergraduate students, eight happiness-increasing strategies via factor analysis techniques were revealed. These are affiliation, mental control, partying, passive leisure, goal pursuit, active leisure, religion, and direct attempts at happiness. This finding is significant in the business world as a company that develops related services in accordance with happiness-increasing strategies, new opportunities shall be created.
Frey and Gallus (2013) proposed that there is a statistically significant relationship between happiness and income at a certain point and in a given country. The paradox then emphasizes that in developed countries, higher income does not seem to translate into significantly higher levels of happiness over time. Easterlin (1974) asserts that on average, people in Japan, America, and Europe have gained high increases in their income and wealth over the past decades.
Uchida and Oishi (2016) argued that cultural change also has an impact on how people feel happiness. Uchida and Oishi (2016) argued that the conflicts between traditional societies and modern societies are considered as a challenge to understand some behavior that have been transferred through globalization. With the transformation toward collaborative action with the governments and the significance of happiness and well-being, other factors such as innovation and co-production have to be taken into consideration. However, the scholarly literature on effective factors on happiness and well-being remains limited or confined to certain factors that can affect happiness and well-being such as wealth, health, and employment.
Gong and Yi (2018) investigated the applicability of a service quality model cross-nationally over five Asian countries, being Japan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and South Korea. The research investigated whether a service quality model is able to be conceptualized in the same manner over the previously listed countries and findings from one country are comparable to another. Furthermore, the research investigated whether service quality positively influences customer satisfaction leading to increased customer loyalty and happiness over the five studied countries.
FIGURE 5:CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF SERVICE QUALITY AND ITS RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE KEY CONSTRUCTS (GONG &YI,2018,P.41)
Gong and Yi (2018) state that customer happiness is firmly established as providing critical means for enhancing firm performance. Customer happiness is conceptualized as their perception of the extent that their quality of life and well-being is enhanced. The culmination of customers subjectively based evaluation of their particular current life circumstances, is reflected within their level of perceived happiness. This evaluation can take place over a series of service encounters that build perceptions and form the basis for customer’s satisfaction
evaluations. These evaluations then lead to customer reactions, with customer happiness being one. Furthermore, customer satisfaction built by concrete events is found to spill over to life domains, which in turn lead to customer happiness. The bottom-up theory of customer happiness is based on customer satisfaction from specific service encounters spilling upward to form part of the customer’s overall customer satisfaction. This customer satisfaction further spills upward to the most superior domain of life satisfaction including customer happiness.
Customer loyalty, defined as the desire to maintain a relationship, is driven by the interactions with service staff members and is found to arouse positive emotions which in turn increase customer loyalty and positively influence customer happiness (Gong & Yi, 2018). It was found that connecting customers with friends and family through loyalty to the service provider increased customer’s interactions, sense of security and social connections and therefore happiness. Gong and Yi (2018) contend that individuals have a need for belonging and interdependence, which can be fulfilled through customer loyalty. This loyalty promotes the development of affectionate bonds with services which are then argued to form a catalyst for customer happiness.
The most influential factors affecting customer’s happiness, as researched by Gong and Yi (2018), differ between countries. In China, performance quality is the most important factor in determining happiness whereas in Hong Kong it is delivering quality, Japan environment quality, South Korea both delivery quality and performance quality is important and in Singapore service quality dimensions are important factors in determining happiness. Gong and Yi (2018) state that overall service quality positively influences customer satisfaction, which leads to increased customer loyalty and happiness. The statement of general patterns of structural relationships being valid over the five researched countries is found to be valid. The
paths followed in the above diagram were found to be not significantly different over the five countries researched.
Gong and Yi (2018) conclude that the results of their research provide evidence that service performance, delivery and environment are determinants of overall service quality perceptions.
Overall service quality perceptions, in turn, were identified as being a determinant of customer loyalty and happiness and customer loyalty was found as being a determinant of customer happiness. The results found that there is strong evidence of cross-country stability in the determinants of happiness.