ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING AND CUSTOMER RETENTION IN UPSCALE RESTAURANTS IN PORT HARCOURT: MEDIATING ROLE OF CORPORATE IMAGE

Abstract

The study investigated the direct and indirect relationship of entrepreneurial marketing on customer retention in upscale restaurants in the hospitality industry with corporate image as a moderating variable in the garden city of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The study adopted quasi-experimental design which employed survey approach gathered data from 144senior employeeswho work in upscale restaurants in Port Harcourt. A well-structured questionnaire containing 33 items, with nine demographic items was used to elicit primary data from the respondents. After data editing, and reliability analysis of the instrument, inferential statistics was conducted with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The result of the inferential statistical analysis revealed that customer retention towards the upscale restaurants is driven by entrepreneurial marketing. The mediating role of corporate image also exists significantly between entrepreneurial marketing and customer retention. The study concluded that entrepreneurial marketing will go a long way to guarantee success in terms of customer retention in upscale restaurants. It was recommended that management should adopt entrepreneurial marketing as a tool to reduce customer defection, increase repeat purchase and encourage high referrals, while corporate image of the organisations should be improved upon.