The impact of other customer perception on consumer-brand relationships

Abstract

Purpose

Extant research evidence demonstrates that customer satisfaction in a service encounter is influenced by other customer perception (OCP). However, scholarly research on the impact of OCP on brand love and the moderating influence of customers’ attachment styles in the context of hospitality industry is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap in the literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected from customers of five and three-star hotels in India. Regression-based process analysis (Hayes, 2013) was used to test the proposed set of hypotheses.

Findings

The data analysis shows that OCP predicts brand love through the mediation of satisfaction. Individual’s anxious attachment style positively moderates “other customer perception-satisfaction” relationship, and avoidant attachment style negatively moderates the same relationship. Thus the effect of OCP is positively moderated by anxious attachment style, and negatively moderated by avoidant attachment style.

Originality/value

The value of this study lies in quantitatively investigating the roles played by OCP and individual attachment styles in shaping brand love in hospitality industry. In contrast to findings from previous research, the findings from this study suggest that anxious attachment style positively influences brand satisfaction and formation of brand love.

Citation

S., S., Sarkar, J.G., Sarkar, A., Eshghi, A. and M.R., A. (2018), "The impact of other customer perception on consumer-brand relationships", Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 130-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-11-2016-0207