Not the relationship type? Loyalty propensity as a reason to maintain marketing relationships

Jeremy S. Wolter (), Dora E. Bock (), Christopher D. Hopkins () and Michael Giebelhausen ()
Additional contact information
Jeremy S. Wolter: Auburn University
Dora E. Bock: Auburn University
Christopher D. Hopkins: Auburn University
Michael Giebelhausen: Clemson University

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2022, vol. 50, issue 5, No 8, 1052-1070

Abstract: Abstract The relationship marketing literature largely overlooks the most common type of loyal consumer, one who feels no personal attachment to a firm (Guo et al., Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,45(3), 357–376, 2017). To explain why so many consumers engage in this pragmatic form of loyalty, we bridge the loyalty and relationship marketing literature to reconsider the conceptualization and measurement of loyalty propensity. In particular, the present research provides evidence of loyalty propensity as a multi-dimensional relational schema that draws from consumers’ self-identity as a moral actor and less altruistic traits (e.g., deal proneness). As per these theoretical foundations, we develop a two-dimensional scale for loyalty propensity and assess it across four studies. The results indicate that loyalty propensity predicts loyalty outcomes (e.g., loyalty and economic exchange), whereas relational constructs (i.e., preference for closeness) predict relational outcomes (e.g., attachment and social exchange). A field study shows that loyalty propensity strongly predicts consumer responsiveness to a firm’s loyalty investments (e.g., sales agents’ customer orientation). Overall, the present research provides a way to expand the view of consumers as either relational or transactional.

Keywords: Customer loyalty; Relationship marketing; Relational schema; Moral identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11747-022-00847-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:joamsc:v:50:y:2022:i:5:d:10.1007_s11747-022-00847-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... gement/journal/11747

DOI: 10.1007/s11747-022-00847-w

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science is currently edited by John Hulland, Anne Hoekman and Mark Houston

More articles in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().