Title: The path to brand loyalty in the beer market

Authors: Mário Gomes Augusto; Pedro Marcelo Torres

Addresses: School of Economics and Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Av. Dias da Silva, 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal ' School of Economics, University of Coimbra, Av. Dias da Silva, 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal

Abstract: This research studies the path to brand loyalty in the beer market, and tests a model that integrates consumer-brand identification with the factors that are usually considered as predictors of brand loyalty (perceived value, consumer satisfaction, and trust). For this purpose an application of structural equation modelling was used and a sample of 1,192 university students. Our findings provide several actionable insights that are discussed in the paper. The results suggest that consumer-brand identification has a crucial role in the process of brand loyalty formation. Moreover, we stress the link between perceived value and consumer satisfaction, and of the latter with customer trust, thereby contributing to the debate regarding the causal order of these constructs.

Keywords: brand loyalty; consumer-brand identification; trust; perceived value; consumer satisfaction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.087025

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.32 No.3, pp.287 - 298

Received: 07 May 2016
Accepted: 30 May 2016
Published online: 05 Oct 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article