Trust, Service Quality, and Perceived Value as Predictors of Customer Satisfaction in Somalia’s Telecommunications Sector: Evidence from Mogadishu

Abstract: Customer satisfaction is a central concern in telecommunications, yet empirical evidence from Somalia remains limited. This study examines the relationships between trust, service quality, perceived value, and customer satisfaction in Mogadishu, Somalia. A quantitative, cross-sectional correlational design was used with 77 employees of Hormuud Telecom and Somtel who were also telecommunications service users and responded based on their own service experiences. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS. Service quality and perceived value were positively and statistically significantly associated with customer satisfaction under two-tailed inference, whereas trust showed a positive but weaker association that did not reach the 5% significance level. Service quality had the largest standardized coefficient, followed by perceived value and trust. Together, the three predictors explained 57.5% of the variance in customer satisfaction. The findings support a multidimensional view of satisfaction involving functional service performance, perceived exchange value, and relational confidence. The study extends customer-satisfaction research to an under-researched telecommunications context in Somalia and offers practical insights for managers.