THE STRENGTH OF AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT IN SECURING LOYALTY IN SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS

Heiner Evanschitzky, Gopalkrishnan R. Iyer, Hilke Plassmann, Joerg Niessing, Heribert Meffert

Gonzalez, Kara, Macazaga, Rellama, Velickaite, Wcislo

Services Marketing – IESEG School of Management

Background of the Study

Customer Loyalty• Attitudinal• Behavioral

Commitment• Affective• Continuance

Objective of the Study

To determine the importance of each of

the dimensions of commitment in achieving

customer loyalty.

H1: Affective commitment has a positive impact on attitudinal loyalty.

AC involves the self-evaluation of the consumption context and the active decision to engage in a long-term relationship.

AC → AL: Attitude strength and the extent to which the customer is willing to lock into a specific relationship.

AL is when the relative strength of the attitude towards the brand is stonger.

Reflective measurement models

Affective commitment

Capture the extent to which customers:

• Trust• Identify

• Emotional

Attitudinal loyalty

Was measured using:

• Satisfaction• Affective commitment SUPPORTED

H2: Continuance commitment has a positive impact

on attitudinal loyalty.

• Costumers may remain in a relationship for mainly 2 reasons:

1. They have no reason to evaluate the relationship or to take active measures to seek out alternative relationships.

2. High perceived costs.

Continuance Commitment:

• Definition: The consumer’s desire

to remain in the relationship when

the switching costs are high or

when the costumer perceives that

other viable alternatives are

scarce.

H2: Continuance commitment has a positive impact on attitudinal loyalty

Continuance commitment has a weak, yet significant, impact on attitudinal loyalty, and a relatively strong impact on behavioral loyalty.

Continuance commitment - a formative construct.

Formative indicators: the major factors that costumers identified as being important in their use of a particular service provider, and include:• measures for

scarcity of alternatives

• availability of options involuntary choiseloyalty program membership.

SUPPORTED

H3: Affective commitment has a positive impact on behavioral loyalty.

• Continuance commitment is based on consumers consumptions.

• In some cases…• Consumers are not able to manipulate direct on his/her

continuance commitment level• Example: Continuance commitment = lack of alternatives

• Some customers can be low-satisfaction consumers• Examples of low-satisfaction industries:

• airlines, local phones

SUPPORTED

H4: Continuous commitment has a positive impact on behavioral loyalty.• Model: Formative measurement model with 4 indicators

• Scarcity of alternatives• Availability of options• Involuntary choice• Loyalty program membership

• These indicators explain 60% of the variation (acceptable validity).

• Results: Continuance commitment has a relatively strong impact on behavioral loyalty.

SUPPORTED

H5: The impacts of affective commitment on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty are greater than the impacts of continuance commitment on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty.• Method used: Multi-group causal analysis• End result: The critical value was high and significant,

thus supporting the claims of H5.

SUPPORTED

Summary of ResultsHypothesis Result

Affective commitment has a positive impact on attitudinal loyalty.

Supported

Continuance commitment has a positive impact on attitudinal loyalty.

Supported

Affective commitment has a positive impact on behavioral loyalty.

Supported

Continuous commitment has a positive impact on behavioral loyalty.

Supported

The impacts of affective commitment on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty are greater than the impacts of continuance commitment on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty.

Supported

Managerial Implications• Loyalty has a multi-dimensional construct.• Affective commitment drives behavioral loyalty.

• Loyalty cards, discount cards may not be doing enough to secure loyalty.

• Deep discounts may not even be that necessary at all.• Service-providers must slowly switch to enhancing

customer attachment through non-economic means.• One possible solution: loyalty clubs where customers can share

their own experiences

Limitations and Recommendations• Limited to the Mass Transit industry• The study used cross-sectional survey data, rejecting

possible time-lag effects.

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