A qualitative study on perceived value and loyalty: A moderated-mediation framework

Abstract

This research conducts a qualitative study by proposing a conceptual framework that explains customer loyalty, as well as its mediators and moderator based on the signaling theory. The signaling theory was originally derived from information economics under conditions in which buyers and sellers possess asymmetric information during their interactions in the market. This study refers to perceived brand prestige as the underlying and unobservable signal that fulfills the needs or demands of consumers observing the signal. In the proposed framework of this study, loyalty is indirectly related to CSR disclosure quality and perceived brand prestige through the full mediation of customer satisfaction and desirable expectation of new products. Moreover, the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty and between desirable expectation of new products and loyalty are both moderated by perceived brand prestige. This study is a pioneer in proposing the desirable expectation of new products as a mediator and perceived brand prestige as a moderator in the loyalty formation. This study suggests that marketers successfully shaping brand prestige can reduce the mutable influence of customer satisfaction on loyalty, leading to stable loyalty. Lastly, managerial implications for marketers based on the propositions of this study are provided.