Page 112 - FREN-C2021 PROCEEDINGS

Customer Loyalty
Oliver (1999) suggested that a traditional concept of consumer loyalty is an action that is strongly
involved in actively participating, buying, and consuming a desired product or service in the future.
Customer loyalty is also known as customer commitment, and it refers to the strength of an
individual’s relationship with a brand (Bansal et al., 2003; Dick & Basu, 1994).
Since there is a paradigm shift from customer acquisition to customer retention, customer loyalty
becomes one of the most attractive research subjects. There is a rising interest in determining the
determinants of customer loyalty in diverse settings such as consumer products (Fornell et al., 1996;
Hallowell, 1996; Oliver, 1996), tourism (Kwok et al., 2017; Mohammed & Al-Swidi, 2019;
Mohammed Shobri & Putit, 2015; Othman et al., 2019) banking services (Ong at el., 2017; Thaker at
el., 2019), education (Hassan et al., 2019), restaurant (J. Hwang & Hyun, 2012), and
telecommunication services (Abdullah et al., 2014; Quoquab et al., 2018).

Studies have shown that an improvement in loyalty is the aptitude to make repurchases and
measurements have originated from service providers. A closer look at the aforementioned literature
reveals several gaps and shortcomings that this aptitude was not adequate to define the concept of
loyalty (Sürücü et al., 2019; Reinartz & Kumar, 2000). The “behavioural loyalty” characterized by
repurchases can be classified as “artificial loyalty” (Dick & Basu, 1994). In other words, in the face of
better alternatives to products or services, the behavioural loyalty of consumers does not suffice or
may not even be observed (Sürücü et al., 2019). Customers, on the other hand, experience emotional
intimacy and loyalty to the brand, and thus alternatives do not easily affect them (Shankar, Smith, &
Rangaswamy, 2003; Sürücü et al., 2019). Based on behavioural and physical dimensions, consumer
loyalty is described (Kumar & Shah, 2004; Schoenbachler, Gordon, & Aurand, 2004; Sürücü et al.,
2019). This research considers consumer loyalty as a feature of attitude and actions (Sürücü et al.,
2019).

Ravald and Grönroos (1996) claim that one of the most critical factors for generating consumer
loyalty is customer satisfaction, so a pleased customer can have longer loyalty to the business relative
to a dissatisfied customer. Thus, customer satisfaction is an important antecedent for customer loyalty.
An analysis of previous studies show that customer satisfaction can have a beneficial impact on
customer loyalty, repeat purchases (e.g., Beloucif et al., 2004; Chen, 2012; Flint et al., 2011; Qiu, Ye,
Bai, & Wang, 2015; Russell-Bennett et al., 2007; Thakur & Singh, 2012), and increasing positive
word of mouth (Anderson, Fornell, & Lehmann, 1994; Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2000; Noyan &
Suhartanto, 2000).

Saleem & Raja, (2014) citing Kandampully and Suhartantor (2000) in the research, explained that
customer loyalty refers to customers who repurchase from the same mobile service provider whenever
possible and who continue to recommend or maintain a positive attitude towards the mobile service
provider. Saleem & Raja, (2014) also citing Julander et al., (1997), explained that customer loyalty
has two magnitudes: the first one is behavioural and the other is attitudinal. Behavioural loyalty
means the customer has the intention to repurchase the brand or services from the service provider
over time (Bowen & Chen McCain, 2015), whereas attitudinal loyalty means the customer intends to
repurchase and also recommend to others which is a good sign of customer loyalty (Saleem & Raja,
2014). Customer loyalty is developed through a progression process (Bowen & Chen McCain, 2015).
Oliver (1999) indicates that loyalty develops in a cognitive-affective-conational pattern. There are
four loyalty stages, and customers can become loyal at each attitudinal stage. The first stage is
cognitive loyalty, in which customers prefer one brand over others based solely on brand belief. The
second stage is effective loyalty, in which customers like the product and have developed a positive
attitude toward the brand as a result of continuous satisfying experiences. At this stage, there is no
strong commitment to generating the intention to repurchase, since research has shown that satisfied
customers do not always return (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Barber et al., 2010). The intention to
return has been formed in the third stage as a brand-specific commitment to repurchase is generated.

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