1. THE STRENGTH OF AFFECTIVE
COMMITMENT IN SECURING LOYALTY IN
SERVICE RELATIONSHIPS
Heiner Evanschitzky, Gopalkrishnan R. Iyer, Hilke
Plassmann, Joerg Niessing, Heribert Meffert
Gonzalez, Kara, Macazaga, Rellama, Velickaite, Wcislo
Services Marketing – IESEG School of Management

2. Background of the Study
Customer Loyalty
• Attitudinal
• Behavioral
Commitment
• Affective
• Continuance

3. Objective of the Study
To determine the
importance of each of
the dimensions of
commitment in
achieving customer
loyalty.

4. H1: Affective
commitment has a AC involves the self-evaluation of the
positive impact on consumption context and the active
attitudinal loyalty. decision to engage in a long-term
Reflective measurement relationship.
models
Affective commitment
Capture the extent to AC → AL: Attitude strength and the
which customers:
• Trust
extent to which the customer is willing to
• Identify lock into a specific relationship.
• Emotional
Attitudinal loyalty AL is when the relative strength of the
Was measured using:
attitude towards the brand is stonger.
• Satisfaction
• Affective
commitment SUPPORTED

5. H2: Continuance
commitment has
a positive impact
on attitudinal
loyalty.
Continuance
Commitment:
• Definition: The
• Costumers may remain in a relationship
consumer’s desire for mainly 2 reasons:
to remain in the
relationship when 1. They have no reason to evaluate the
the switching relationship or to take active measures to
costs are high or seek out alternative relationships.
when the costumer
perceives that 2. High perceived costs.
other viable
alternatives are
scarce.

6. H2: Continuance Continuance commitment has a weak,
commitment has a yet significant, impact on attitudinal
positive impact on loyalty, and a relatively strong impact
attitudinal loyalty on behavioral loyalty.
Continuance
commitment - a
formative construct.
Formative indicators:
the major factors that
costumers identified as
being important in their
use of a particular
service provider, and
include:
• measures for
scarcity of
alternatives
• availability of
options involuntary
choiseloyalty
program
SUPPORTED
membership.

7. H3: Affective commitment has a positive
impact on behavioral loyalty.
• Continuance commitment is based on consumers
consumptions.
• In some cases…
• Consumers are not able to manipulate direct on his/her
continuance commitment level
• Example: Continuance commitment = lack of alternatives
• Some customers can be low-satisfaction consumers
• Examples of low-satisfaction industries:
• airlines, local phones
SUPPORTED

8. H4: Continuous commitment has a
positive impact on behavioral loyalty.
• Model: Formative measurement model with 4 indicators
• Scarcity of alternatives
• Availability of options
• Involuntary choice
• Loyalty program membership
• These indicators explain 60% of the variation (acceptable
validity).
• Results: Continuance commitment has a relatively strong
impact on behavioral loyalty.
SUPPORTED

9. H5: The impacts of affective commitment
on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty
are greater than the impacts of
continuance commitment on attitudinal
and behavioral loyalty.
• Method used: Multi-group causal analysis
• End result: The critical value was high and
significant, thus supporting the claims of H5.
SUPPORTED

10. Summary of Results
Hypothesis Result
Affective commitment has a positive impact on attitudinal Supported
loyalty.
Continuance commitment has a positive impact on Supported
attitudinal loyalty.
Affective commitment has a positive impact on behavioral Supported
loyalty.
Continuous commitment has a positive impact on behavioral Supported
loyalty.
The impacts of affective commitment on both attitudinal and Supported
behavioral loyalty are greater than the impacts of
continuance commitment on attitudinal and behavioral
loyalty.

11. Managerial Implications
• Loyalty has a multi-dimensional construct.
• Affective commitment drives behavioral loyalty.
• Loyalty cards, discount cards may not be doing enough to
secure loyalty.
• Deep discounts may not even be that necessary at all.
• Service-providers must slowly switch to enhancing
customer attachment through non-economic means.
• One possible solution: loyalty clubs where customers can share
their own experiences

12. Limitations and Recommendations
• Limited to the Mass Transit industry
• The study used cross-sectional survey data, rejecting
possible time-lag effects.

13. THANK YOU!