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 *