Exploring the main drivers influencing brand loyalty to motorway services areas in Italy

Francesca Canio (), Manuel J. Sánchez-Franco () and Elisa Martinelli ()
Additional contact information
Francesca Canio: University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Manuel J. Sánchez-Franco: University of Seville
Elisa Martinelli: University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

Italian Journal of Marketing, 2020, vol. 2020, issue 2, No 1, 125-141

Abstract: Abstract Due to the emergence of new shopping trends in alternative retailing formats, the paper aims at exploring the role of assortment levers to increase customer loyalty to the retailer’s brand in an on-the-go retailing format, such as motorway service areas (MSAs). Specifically, the paper investigates how the grocery assortment perception (GAP) of MSAs influences shopping satisfaction and shopping enjoyment, generating customer loyalty to the MSA. A mobility proxy, measured in terms of the number of kilometres driven in a month, was included as an antecedent of consumers’ loyalty to MSAs. Survey data were collected from 526 respondents during their stop in three MSAs. The covariance-based structural equation model was computed to estimate the direct and indirect effects. The findings show that the perception of assortment is a significant driver of loyalty to the MSA retailing format. Most remarkably, the results show a positive relationship between the customer’s mobility and his/her loyalty to the MSA brand. The paper focuses on an emerging, although poorly investigated retail context, MSA, in which companies are enlarging the grocery assortment to offer the opportunity to shop during the consumption. Implications in terms of competition between incumbent grocery retailers and companies operating MSAs are derived. Moreover, a new conceptualisation of consumers’ mobility in influencing the retailer’s brand loyalty is prosed when shoppers are on-the-go.

Keywords: Brand loyalty; Mobility; Grocery assortment perception; Shopping satisfaction; Shopping enjoyment; CB-SEM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43039-020-00011-8 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:ijmark:v:2020:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s43039-020-00011-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43039

DOI: 10.1007/s43039-020-00011-8

Access Statistics for this article

Italian Journal of Marketing is currently edited by Daniele Dalli

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