Resisting temptation: gender differences in customer loyalty in the presence of a more attractive alternative

•Research stressed the importance of taking competition into account while investigating customer loyalty.•This research investigates gender differences in customer loyalty to employees versus companies in the presence of a more attractive alternative.•The results suggest that female and male consumers are willing to forego a more attractive alternative, yet for different objects of loyalty.•Whereas females tend to be loyal to individual employees; males concentrate their loyalty at the level of organisations.

Assessing customer's vulnerability to competitive offers and separating loyalty owned by employees versus company-owned loyalty are strategically important for a firm's survival. This paper investigates gender differences in the willingness to forego a more attractive alternative to stay loyal to a particular organisation or employee. Across three experimental studies the results suggest that female and male consumers are willing to forego a more attractive alternative, yet for different objects of loyalty. Whereas females tend to be loyal to individual employees; males concentrate their loyalty at the level of organisations. The paper concludes with several strategic implications for marketing managers with respect to strategic recourse allocation and relationship marketing.

Chinese abstract评估客户在面对竞争性选择时的脆弱性以及区分客户对某位员工和对该员工所属公司的忠诚度，对企业的生存具 有重要的战略意义。本文旨在探讨男女之间在是否放弃更有吸引力的选择而保持对特定组织或员工的忠诚度时所 体现的性别差异。经过三项实验研究，结果均表明，女性和男性消费者都会愿意放弃更有吸引力的选择，但这是出于不同类型 的忠诚度。女性倾向于保持对个别员工的忠诚；而男性更多的是保持对企业组织的忠诚。本文针对战略资源分配和客户关系营销总结出了几项战略要点，以供营销管理人员参考。