The impacts of ethical sales behaviour on customer loyalty in the life insurance industry

Abstract

This study focuses on how a salesperson's ethical and unethical sales behaviour can build or deplete both customer trust in the salesperson and in the company, which in turn influences customer loyalty in the life insurance industry. The main findings of this study show that the salesperson's ethical sales behaviour does play a crucial role in winning customer loyalty through customer trust. Moreover, there exists a reciprocal relationship between customer trust in the salesperson and customer trust in the company, with the latter having a stronger impact on the former than the other way around. Finally, customer trust in the company exerts more influence on customer loyalty than does customer trust in the salesperson, which has implications for the life insurance industry.