Member Values Over Time. A Study of the Relationship Between Member Values, Age and Length Of Membership

Peter Suter, Markus Gmür
2018 Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing  
Expectations from association members change over time in two respects: age and length of membership. In product and service marketing literature the fact of changing needs and expectations during a customers' life cycle is already well explored. So far, this is not the case in the research of member in nonprofit organizations. The paper closes this research gap from a member value perspective discussing the link between age respectively length of membership and value perception. Survey data
more » ... m 1,613 members of a Swiss hiking trail association reveal that both temporal metrics show significant positive relationships with all member value dimensions: Enjoyment, affection, identity, power, participation, understanding and safety. In this respect, length of membership shows stronger effects than age, the only member value unaffected by time are the individual economic goals. The paper closes with practical implications for the management of membership associations. This is an Accepted
doi:10.1080/10495142.2018.1452825 fatcat:dkgtam75hfeqbo5gwsntiufk4m