Examining The Relationship Between Commitment And Airline Loyalty And The Moderating Effect Of Uncertainty Avoidance

Abstract

Customer loyalty has long been of significant interest to both academic scholars and marketing practitioners. Considerable researches in marketing has long supported commitment as a major predictor of loyalty. Notwithstanding that the association between customers’ commitment and loyalty is well documented, little understanding of how the multi-dimensions of commitment influence customer loyalty in the airline context. Thus, the impact of the multidimensional conceptualization of commitment (informational complexity, position involvement and volitional choice) on loyalty was investigated in the airline context. Besides commitment, the examinations of the influence of brand affect and brand trust on loyalty constructs were also included. Moreover, the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance on the links between brand affect and brand trust and loyalty was also taken into account. The empirical findings supported the three dimensions of commitment as the determinants of loyalty. But no support was found for the hypothesized relationships between informational complexity and attitudinal loyalty and between volitional choice and attitudinal loyalty. As hypothesized, brand affect contributes to predicting both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty; while brand trust influences solely on behavioral loyalty. Contrary to expectations, no support was found for the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance on the relationships between brand affect and brand trust and loyalty constructs.