Abstract

Purpose: This study compares Korean and Chinese consumers on the impact of customer equity on trust. Although there have been many studies regarding the impact of customer equity, most of them are limited to the retail and banking industry and mostly compare East and West cultures. Therefore, this study compares Korea and China within East Asia in the hotel industry. Research design, data and methodology: Based on reviews in the literature, this study explores different effects of customer equity on brand trust between Korea and China. To confirm the hypotheses, the research collected survey data from 186 Korean and 155 Chinese respondents. After confirming reliability and validity of measures, this study conducted a multiple regression to test proposed hypotheses. Results: The results of the study showed that all of three customer equities influences on trust positively in the hotel industry. Regarding comparing Korea and China, brand equity has stronger impact on trust in Chinese customers than South Korean customers, on the other hand, value equity and relationship equity had a slightly stronger positive effect in South Korea than in China. Conclusions: This study found significant differences between Korean and Chinese customers in the hotel industry. These results show that even two countries in the same region of East Asia, South Korea and China, are different. Also, this finding suggests that hotel management level should consider differentiating their marketing strategies for Korean and Chinese customers.