How attitudes translate to loyalty: revising loyalty in regards to its components and antecedents in relationship marketing
Date
2015
Authors
Akhgari, Mehdi
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Abstract
Consumer loyalty is generally considered the ultimate goal of relationship marketing. Although accepted definitions of loyalty include both behavioral and attitudinal aspects, the fact is that little is known about the components of behavioral and attitudinal loyalty and their relationship. In addition, hedonic and utilitarian attitudes are important antecedents of consumer behavior that can be manifested in behavioral loyalty. However, little is known about the relationship between hedonic and utilitarian attitudes and different loyalty components. To investigate the above mentioned theoretical gaps, this study identifies and tests several components of attitudinal and behavioral loyalty in a comprehensive model. This model investigates the effect of various hedonic and utilitarian attitudes, and trust, on each attitudinal and behavioral loyalty component. Moreover, it looks at the relationship of each attitudinal loyalty component to each behavioral loyalty component. In the proposed model, attitudinal loyalty components are (1) relationship satisfaction, (2) continuance commitment, (3) affective commitment, and (4) identification, and the behavioral loyalty components are (1) repurchase intention, (2) word-of-mouth (WOM), and (3) cooperation. The survey approach was implemented to collect data in a pretest (80 participants), a pilot study (177 participants), and a main study (1028 participants). Results of the analyses, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), confirmed that consumer’s hedonic and utilitarian attitudes affect behavioral loyalty directly, and indirectly through the mediation by trust and attitudinal loyalty components.
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Keywords
Loyalty, Attitudinal loyalty, Behavioral loyalty, Hedonic attitude, Utilitarian attitude, Trust, Commitment, Relationship marketing