Study of citizen satisfaction and loyalty in the urban area of Guayaquil: Perspective of the quality of public services applying structural equations

Reputation of Public Organizations: What Dimensions Are Crucial?

This paper explores the relationships among variables and determines the influences of dimensions (i.e., municipal satisfaction, organizational performance, perceived quality, contestations and complaints of the municipal executive) on the notoriety, image, and reputation (NIR) of municipal executives. We attempted to understand if citizens’ opinions influenced the evaluations, recommendations, and contestations based on NIR. Parishes in the municipality of Valongo were selected and analysed, namely Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde; a total of 998 questionnaires were collected. It was concluded that all of the studied dimensions were statistically significant in the final structural estimated model. The structural results point to municipal satisfaction and contestations and complaints of municipal executives as having directly positive and statistically significant influences on NIR. Organizational performance and perceived quality have directly positive but not statistically significant influences on NIR. The results of this research suggest that obtaining the personal opinions of citizens (e.g., regarding the work performances of their mayors) allows citizens to feel heard and active in their municipalities. From the point of view of public executives, the results of this type of study could provide valid information that allows stakeholders to make political decisions that are appropriate for the interests of their communities (e.g., by listening to their citizens).

Municipal Executive Recommendation by Citizens: Who Is Most Significant?

This paper explores which variables are more significant in municipal executive recommendation by citizens. We estimated the influence of public dimensions, such as municipe loyalty, municipe satisfaction, and municipe perceived value in municipal executive recommendation by citizens. Then, we tried to understand if the citizen’s opinions influenced the evaluation of the municipal executive recommendation. The parishes of the municipality of Valongo were selected and analyzed, namely the parishes of Alfena, Campo e Sobrado, Valongo, and Ermesinde, and a total of 998 questionnaires were collected. Data were collected in November 2020 in the different parishes under study. It was concluded that all studied dimensions were statistically significant in the final structural estimated model. The structural results point to municipe loyalty and municipe satisfaction dimensions having a direct, positive, and statistically significant influence on municipal executive recommendation. On the other side, the municipe perceived value dimension has a direct positive but not statistically significant influence on municipal executive recommendation. This study showed that a loyal and satisfied citizen recommends the continuity of the municipal executive in the city’s political leadership in which he or she lives. Therefore, for the municipal executive administration, it is fundamental to know which dimensions the society considers most important in order to be able to remain in the management of the shared destinies of a city. In this sense, political decisions throughout the mandates can be directed, on the one hand, to the satisfaction and loyalty of the citizens and, on the other hand, to the balanced management of the destinies of this type of public entity.