Consumer-brand relationships and brand loyalty in technology-mediated services

The successful diffusion of broadband services has substantially contributed to economic growth in the last decade. Broadband markets are now in the maturity phase and therefore, competition for customers is intense. However, while companies invest heavily on customer acquisition, there are few efforts for customer retention through the development of profitable long-term brand relationships. This study aims to develop and test a model to investigate the effect of three brand relationship dimensions, namely brand trust; brand satisfaction (cognitive dimensions), and brand commitment (emotional/affective dimension) on brand loyalty (repurchase intentions; positive recommendations, and price tolerance) in the broadband services market. Results indicate that the cognitive aspects of brand relationships are the major drivers of behavioral intentions followed by the affective one. On the other hand, the affective aspect of brand relationships has a stronger effect on price tolerance, while trust has no direct effect. Managerial implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.