PROPUESTA DE POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS PARA LA GESTIÓN DE LA

In order to overcome the shortcomings of using a single construct to define loyalty, several authors have suggested using the two-dimensional behavioural-attitudinal loyalty approach (i.e., Day, 1969; Jacopy and Kyner, 1973; Jacoby, 1978; Dick and Basu, 1994; Jones and Farquhar, 2003). Table 2.8 provides an overview on how loyalty in the literature is viewed within this approach. The shortcoming of adopting either behavioural or attitudinal measures of loyalty was questioned in an earlier study by Day (1969), who argued that an attitudinal dimension should be added to the behavioural dimension. In practical terms, he described loyalty as “ … a buyer has a brand loyalty score for each brand purchased in a given period based on share of total purchases and attitude toward the brand”(p.30). Further support for Day’s two- dimensional view can be found in the empirical study of Olson and Jacoby (1971, p.49), who define loyalty as “a process in which various alternative brands are psychologically compared and evaluated on certain criteria and the selected brand or brands are selected.” Jacoby and Chestnut (1978) also suggest that researchers should investigate the attitudinal components of loyalty for more understanding of the stochastic representation of behavioural loyalty. Furthermore, Assael (1992, p.87) defined brand loyalty as “a favourable attitude toward a brand resulting in consistent purchase of the brand over time”. Accordingly, the interaction of attitudinal and behavioural components have become frequently used in the theoretical literature conceptualising loyalty. Therefore, in this thesis customer loyalty is considered as a composite concept combining both behavioural and attitudinal loyalty.

Table 2.8: Selected Definitions /Measures of Customer Loyalty

Authors Approach Definitions/Measures Context

Kahn et al. (1986) Behavioural Introduced new measures, including sequence repurchase

Panel data from National Purchase

Diary (NPD) Backman and

Crompton (1991)

Behavioural Measured as proportion of purchases Recreation participant Liljander and Strandvik

(1993)

Behavioural Measured as repeat purchase behaviour

Restaurants

Gwinner et al. (1998) Behavioural Defined as proportion of purchases against use of alternate service providers

Relationship marketing

Crosby and Tylor, (1983)

Attitudinal Defined as psychological

commitment in which there is a tendency to resist switching

Bottle ban

Cronin and Taylor (1992)

Attitudinal Measured in terms of repurchasing intentions

Services

Zeithaml et al. (1996) Attitudinal Measured as willingness to recommend the service to another

Services

Day (1969) Behavioural

and Attitudinal

Defined as a buyer with brand loyalty score for each brand purchased in a given period , based on share of total purchases and attitude toward the brand

Buyer behaviour

Dick and Basu (1994) Behavioural and Attitudinal

Repeat purchase coupled with relative attitude

Relationship marketing Pitchard et al. (1999) Behavioural

and Attitudinal

Defined as a ratio of proportion of purchase and attitude in which commitment is linked to loyalty

Airline and hotels

Jones and Farquhar (2003)

Behavioural and Attitudinal

Interaction between relative attitude and intention to repurchase

Regarding which perspective (behavioural or attitudinal) is more important in capturing the nature of customer loyalty, it seems that different authors have different views. For example, some researchers have been more balanced in weighting the importance of either behavioural or attitudinal aspects in their definitions of loyalty. For example, Lemmink and Mattson (1998) describe loyalty as the sum of likelihood of return and likelihood of recommending the service. On the other hand, in their acknowledgment of the need to incorporate a psychological component of loyalty, Stum and Thiry (1991) argue that loyalty is skewed towards behaviour rather than attitude. However, Dick and Basu (1994) argue that loyalty is only achieved when relative attitude is coupled with high repeat patronage. The view of Dick and Basu is better suited to this thesis, as they used variables including emotions as antecedents of loyalty (similar to this thesis).

In describing the interaction (or the relationship) between loyalty as an attitude and behaviour, further progress has been made by Dick and Basu (1994) who catalogue four different types of loyalty. These were presented in a two by two matrix to conceptualise customer loyalty as a combination of repeat patronage and relative attitude towards the target (brand/ services/ store/ vendor). These include the following four types, which are presented in order of preference:

• True loyalty: customers present favourable correspondence between relative attitude and repeat patronage.

• Superior loyalty: customers present low relative attitude accompanied by high

repeat patronage.

• Latent loyalty: customers present high relative attitude, with low repeat

patronage.

• Low or no loyalty: customers present weak or low levels of both relative

Oliver’s (1997) work also provided a comprehensive view of the loyalty construct, when he proposed four sequential brand-loyalty phases. First, cognitive loyalty refers

to the existence of belief that a brand is preferable to others. Second, affective loyalty

represents a favourable attitude that refers to customer liking or positive attitude towards a brand. Third, conative loyalty includes a deeply held commitment to the

development of behavioural intention. Finally, action loyalty is where customers

translate intentions into actions. Even though this last phase is ideal, there is difficulty in observing and measuring it. This is the reason that most researchers tend to include conative or behavioural intentions measures (Yang and Peterson, 2004). A similar view was adopted by Gremler and Brown (1997), who divided service loyalty into a three-dimensional construct that included behavioural loyalty, affective loyalty, and cognitive loyalty. However, consistent with similar studies conducted in a relationship marketing setting, this thesis is limited to investigating loyalty as a two-dimensional construct (comprising behavioural and attitudinal), rather than loyalty types.