The analysis of antecedents of customer loyalty in the Turkish mobile telecommunication market

Abstract

Purpose - Corporate image, perceived service quality, trust and customer switching costs are the major antecedents of customer loyalty, and loyal customers may buy more, accept higher prices and have a positive word-of-mouth effect. Also we know that the cost of selling to new customers is much higher than the cost of selling to existing customers. Although this fact is apparent to everyone, many companies are still losing customers at a formidable rate. In this context the main aim of this paper is to examine the relationships between these factors and customer loyalty, and the relationships among these factors in the Turkish GSM sector. Design/methodology/approach - Data was obtained from 1,662 mobile phone users in Turkey via questionnaire. The data was analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to test all the relationships between variables in the model. Findings - The findings supported the proposed hypotheses, which are consistent with the theoretical framework. Analysis results showed that perceived service quality is a necessary but not sufficient condition for customer loyalty. Research limitations/implications - In order to generalize the findings from the paper, the model should be studied in different sectors. The contribution of this paper is to model all the relationships between customer loyalty and its antecedents, and to test these relationships simultaneously. Practical implications - In order to better understand customer loyalty, as well as perceived service quality, corporate image, perceived switching costs and trust should be taken into consideration. Lately, technological change has shifted competition in the GSM sector from price and core service to value-added services. Therefore, operators should differentiate their services and guarantee their services' quality because of this shift in competition. Originality/value - In this paper, the effects of all the factors on customer loyalty are analyzed simultaneously via SEM.