The impact of customer equity drivers on loyalty intentions among Chinese banking customers: The moderating role of emotions

Abstract

Purpose: The implementation of customer equity drivers (CED) as a crucial marketing tactic to surge customer loyalty intentions has received a considerable importance in the literature. However, most of the research done in the past has mainly centralized around western societies. To make it even more interesting is the fact that the significance of customer emotions has been ignored by the previous studies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper to explore the impacts of CED on loyalty intentions along with exploring the moderating role of customer emotions (positive emotions and negative emotions).

Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 661 Chinese banking customers was collected by making the use of store-intercept survey design. The gathered data were then utilized to empirically validate the proposed model by making the use of hierarchical moderated regression.

Findings: Loyalty intentions were found to be driven by emotions of Chinese banking customers. Consequently, in order to better forecast the loyalty intentions of the customers, the emotional aspect is vital and therefore should be incorporated along with other cognitive aspects (value equity, brand equity and relationship equity).

Practical implications: The managers of the banks should make every effort to make the visit of their customers as pleasant as possible as the emotional responses of customers have a significant impact on the formation of loyalty intentions.

Originality/value: The current study holds its unique contribution by including emotions in the service-oriented settings.