Unlocking Loyalty: Investigating the Nexus of Alternative Attractiveness, Value Perceptions, Brand Knowledge, and Relationship Time in Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Dynamics

Abstract

This study scrutinizes the role of diverse antecedents of customer satisfaction and loyalty for the smart phone devices. The antecedents comprise of alternative attractiveness, value and brand knowledge.  Path analysis and multivariate techniques have been applied to check the variance in CS and CL explained by the relevant independent variables. Representative sample of 215 users of smart phones in three cities of Pakistan (Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Faisalabad) was selected.  Results signify that value and brand knowledge have a significant and constructive impact on customer loyalty, whereas alternative attractiveness has an unconstructive but significant impact on customer loyalty. CS shows partial mediation between alternative attractiveness, brand knowledge and customer loyalty, whereas it plays full mediation between value and customer loyalty. In this study, the moderation effect of relationship period has also been checked between CS and CL. Results explain the association period positively moderates the association between CS and CL. Managerial implications of the study have been discussed in the report.