Brand equity, relationship quality, relationship value, and customer loyalty: Evidence from the telecommunications services

Abstract

The paper aims to examine customer loyalty and explore the interrelationships between customer equity variables, namely brand image, company image, relationship quality and relationship value, and customer loyalty. The study conceptualises an integrated customer loyalty model and applies it to Taiwan's telecommunications services industry in the business-to-customer environment. The structural equation modelling technique is employed to empirically test the proposed hypotheses using a sample of 236 customers collected by a questionnaire survey. The findings indicate that brand and company images significantly influence relationship quality, and relationship quality has a significant influence on relationship value. However, customer loyalty is not affected by either dimensions of images and relationship quality directly; rather images and relationship quality affect customer loyalty mediated by relationship value. This study also reveals that relationship marketing variables (i.e. relationship quality and relationship value) act as mediators in the link between brand equity (i.e. brand image and company image) and customer loyalty towards telecommunications services.