An Integrative View of Emotion and the Dedication-Constraint Model in the Case of Coffee Chain Retailers

Daekil Kim,Byoungsoo Kim

doi:10.3390/su10114284

Abstract

Following the phenomenal growth of and competition among coffee chain retailers, the coffee chain market has expanded substantially thanks to rising income levels, the increasing young population, and rapidly changing lifestyles. Attracting consumers’ attention and enhancing their loyalty behaviors has become very difficult for coffee chain retailers. This study seeks to understand the mechanisms through which emotions and the dedication-constraint model lead to brand loyalty and willingness to pay more to certain coffee chain retailers. Emotion responses and dedication-constraint model-based factors are major roles in the formation of loyalty behaviors, but few studies have combined them. To fill this knowledge gap, this study synthesizes emotional responses and the dedication-constraint model to develop a theoretical model. Based on the ambivalent view of emotions, it also examines how positive and negative emotions affect the combination of brand loyalty and willingness to pay more to certain coffee chain retailers. Moreover, it identifies the antecedents of affective and calculative commitments. Our findings indicate that affective commitment had significantly positive effects on positive emotion, brand loyalty, and willingness to pay more. It negatively affects negative emotion. Calculative commitment had significantly positive effects on positive emotion, brand loyalty, and willingness to pay more. However, contrary to our expectations, calculative commitment was positively related to negative emotions. Furthermore, service quality, quality of physical environment, and price fairness significantly affect affective commitments, while only price fairness significantly affects calculative commitments.

Highlights

The coffee industry provides high quality coffee, and proposes a culture-oriented industry and, unlike the manufacturing industry, the coffee industry provides intangible assets such as emotions or human feelings
Our findings indicate that dedication- and constraint-based factors play a vital role in developing brand loyalty and willingness to pay more
Consistent with the results of previous studies, this study found that both affective and calculative commitments were strong determinants of consumers’ brand loyalty and willingness to pay more in the context of coffee chain retailers

Summary

Introduction

The coffee industry provides high quality coffee, and proposes a culture-oriented industry and, unlike the manufacturing industry, the coffee industry provides intangible assets such as emotions or human feelings. These have pushed coffee chain retailers to focus more on the perceived values like favorable feelings and emotions over their brands and develop a sustainability strategy to establish long-term relationships with consumers to inspire brand loyalty, form positive emotions, and induce customers to pay more. Willingness to pay more has been proven to be a key determinant of consumer loyalty behaviors in many studies [1,2,3]. A key to the construction and maintenance of healthy customer relationships is consumers’ emotions [7,8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion