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This paper aims to examine the differential effects of gamified loyalty programmes and conventional loyalty programmes on customer engagement behaviours.

A 2 × 2 × 2 experiment was conducted that manipulated gamification (gamified vs non-gamified), reward levels (high vs low) and reward type (economic vs social). Data collected from a sample of 315 individuals were analysed through partial least squares and tests of means.

Gamification can improve the attractiveness of loyalty programmes by influencing perceptions of playfulness and reward satisfaction. In fact, gamification lowers the importance that customers attach to reward levels. As a result, customers perceive higher hedonic and utilitarian value, which positively influences their engagement behaviours.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first studies to attempt to empirically analyse whether incorporating gamification into loyalty programmes influences customer engagement behaviours in the hospitality context.

本文研究了游戏化忠诚计划和传统忠诚计划对顾客参与行为的不同影响。

本文进行了2 x 2 x 2实验, 操纵了游戏化（游戏化 vs 非游戏化）、奖励水平（高 vs 低）和奖励类型（经济 vs 社交）。通过对315名个体样本收集的数据进行PLS（偏最小二乘）和均值测试进行分析。

游戏化可以通过影响玩味感和奖励满足感来提高忠诚计划的吸引力。实际上, 游戏化降低了顾客对奖励水平的重视程度。因此, 顾客感知到更高的享乐和功利价值, 从而积极地影响了他们的参与行为。

本研究首次尝试在酒店业背景下经验性地分析将游戏化纳入忠诚计划是否影响顾客参与行为。

The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of perceived benefits offered by loyalty programmes on store patronage behaviour and repeat purchase behaviour of customers. Another purpose of this study is to assess the impact of mediating and influencing factors on patronage behaviour and customer loyalty.

The convenience sampling method was adopted for the sample selection. Structured questionnaire instruments were distributed to subscribers who are enrolled or subscribed to any loyalty programme and asked them to mark their opinions about subscriptions to a loyalty programme and the benefits or perceived values that customers get from the subscribed loyalty program. To determine respondent responses, closed-end questions and Likert scales were used. A SmartPLS statistical programme was used to analyse the coefficient and p-value of the perceived value of the loyalty programme and its relation with patronage behaviour.

The study finds a significant impact of various loyalty programme determinants on store patronage behaviour, supported by hypothesis testing. Researchers have used variable commitment to the test with satisfaction and trust and found it supportive. Another hypothesis tested for the impact of satisfaction on trust shows a significant relationship. They found a significant relationship between the perceived benefits of a loyalty programme and satisfaction with the store and trust. Another hypothesis tested for the impact of satisfaction on trust shows a similar relationship. The impact of commitment on loyalty behaviour (store patronage) was analysed and found to be significant.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, to date, this methodology has not been used to measure the influence of loyalty programme values on patronage behaviour in the present context. Based on the understanding that the measurement of the impact of perceived values of loyalty programmes on repeat purchase behaviour could be very useful in providing guidance for decision-making in consumer retention strategy, this paper contributes to the literature on the evaluation of store patronage behaviour with its influencing variables.

As internet dividends are gradually disappearing, loyalty programs have become the panacea for monetizing traffic, attracting new customers and retaining existing customers. Improving their effectiveness has thus become key to enterprises’ market competitiveness. However, member customers’ hedonic adaptation to this relationship strategy undermines its effectiveness. Based on the hedonic adaptation theory, this study aims to analyze the process of member customers' hedonic adaptation to preferential treatment in loyalty programs and explore the boundary conditions of alleviating this effect.

This study surveyed 271 member customers in China and tested the hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis.

Preferential treatment suffers from hedonic adaptation to member customer engagement and customer gratitude, and customer tenure is a key condition for these effects. Customer gratitude is an intermediary mechanism that explains the hedonic adaptation effect of preferential treatment to member customers engagement. In addition, the structural characteristics of loyalty programs form the boundary condition that alleviates hedonic adaptation. The authors found that high-tier and -payment strategies are more likely to mitigate hedonic adaptation of preferential treatment to customer gratitude.

This study elucidates the factors that influence the effectiveness of preferential treatment and provides constructive insights into customer relationship management and for improving enterprise performance.

This study aims to present a taxonomic framework that categorizes hotel loyalty program members on the basis of involvement and a mix of behavioral outcome variables.

The taxonomy is derived through mixture modeling from a sample of 1,395 loyalty program members of two global hotel chains.

Study results suggest the presence of four classes of program members across both hotels. Class members differ with respect to the attitudes they hold, the behaviors they exhibit, and the motivations they have for maintaining membership in the program.

First, the study enhances understanding of member differences that exist within loyalty programs. Second, the study advances understanding of the ways through which loyalty programs can best be managed. Third, the study illustrates the usefulness of mixture modeling as a classificatory tool.

Study results are not generalizable beyond the sample used in deriving them. Further, decisions pertaining to what variables to include in developing a taxonomic framework are critical to its usefulness. The choice to include certain variables as well as their related measures, to the exclusion of others, represents a second limitation.

The study is but the second to empirically categorize loyalty program members, and the first to do so in a services context. Two classes of high‐involvement customers emerge, each with contrasting attitudes and behaviors. Thus, our findings suggest that high levels of involvement invoke the most extreme of customer attitudes and behaviors.

This paper aims to demonstrate both the positive and negative effects of loyalty programs. The study proposes a model to demonstrate why and how loyalty program strategies can result in good customer relationships and customer entitlement behaviors. Various configurations of three different loyalty program strategies are analyzed – tangible rewards, preferential treatment and perceived status.

The authors’ hypotheses were tested by analyzing the survey data of 152 frequent flyer program members in China through partial least squares-structural equation modeling. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to test different configurations of the three loyalty program strategies.

A net effects analysis demonstrates that loyalty programs are a double-edged sword. While loyalty programs can improve customer relationships, strategies based on perceived status have a positive relationship to customer entitlement, which may lead customers to expect extraordinary efforts from companies, such as greater discounts and extra privileges. Using fsQCA, the authors determined four sufficient configurations of high level of relationship quality and high level of customer entitlement, which also support their findings.

First, this study expands the research on loyalty programs by providing an examination of their positive and negative consequences. Second, by proposing the configuration paths that lead to high level of relationship quality and high level of customer entitlement using fsQCA, this research enriches research on the net effects of loyalty programs, providing researchers and practitioners with a more comprehensive understanding of loyalty programs. Third, this research extends the concept of customer entitlement to the context of buyer–seller relationships by introducing perceived status as an important antecedent of customer entitlement and by identifying four sufficient configurations.

This study aims to investigate ways in which hotel loyalty programs can be designed to enhance customer’s identification with a hotel brand and develop a sustainable customer-brand relationship.

The study adopted a cross-sectional design survey questionnaire for data collection and used structural equation modeling data analysis to test the conceptual model.

The three loyalty program experiences proposed (member-to-member similarity, memorable loyalty program experience and loyalty program social benefits) exerted significant positive effects on customer-brand identification (CBI), which, in turn, influences customer-brand relationship elements, including trust, commitment and switching resistance.

This study expands the scope of CBI literature, which previously focused substantially on brand level experiences, by being the first to explore a new set of CBI antecedents with a focus on loyalty program experiences. Furthermore, the current study’s findings delineate specific strategies to uphold the social and experiential aspects of loyalty programs that can develop sustainable customer-brand relationships.

The purpose of the paper is to examine how members at different levels in a multi-level loyalty program react when they are allowed the opportunity to compare the rewards they receive with the rewards received by other members. The authors believe this is crucial, as previous research often ignores the social setting in which exchanges concerning loyalty rewards take place. The authors believe such interactions in social settings are likely to induce justice perceptions, which in turn will affect customer satisfaction and repatronizing intentions.

The research question was addressed through a between-subjects experiment in an airline setting.

The results show that belonging to the top-tier level of a multi-level loyalty program seems to boost perceived justice. Participants assigned to this level in the experiment perceived the program as more just than did participants assigned to the lower level. Importantly though, members assigned the second-tier who compared themselves to the top-tier did not perceive to program as more unjust than did second-tier members comparing themselves to other second-tier members. The levels of customer satisfaction and repatronizing intentions followed the same pattern. In social settings, multi-level loyalty programs thus seem to be able to increase justice perceptions, customer satisfaction and repatronizing intentions of top-tier members, while at the same time avoiding the potential drawback of alienating second-tier members.

The study bridges the gap between research on perceived justice, loyalty programs and the effects of social settings on consumer interactions. In doing so, it brings valuable insights to both researchers and practitioners.

This study aims to investigate the impact of the loyalty program members’ satisfaction toward the hotel loyalty program benefits and the customer management relationship initiatives of individual hotels on the brand relationship quality (BRQ), i.e. their relationship quality with the hotel brand, and its outcomes. The moderating impact of membership level on the hypothesized relationships was also investigated.

A usable sample of 920 active members of a hotel loyalty program was obtained. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares method was used to estimate the structural relationships and to investigate the moderating effect of membership level.

Employee’s customer orientation, membership communication and hotel stay-related benefits are determinants of the loyalty program members’ BRQ. BRQ is also confirmed as a higher-order construct of three latent variables which include trust, satisfaction and commitment. Moderating effects of the membership were partially supported in this study. The strongest effect of BRQ is on members’ word of mouth followed by shares of purchase. BRQ is found to have negative relationship with members’ willingness to serve as marketing resource, but the impact was small.

This is a cross-sectional study with a population of active loyalty program members of only one luxury hotel group. The sample size of the top-tier members is also smaller in comparison to the other two groups.

This study contributes to the understanding of the antecedents and consequences of BRQ and the body of knowledge about loyalty program for hotel industry.

This is one of the few studies investigating the effectiveness of hotel loyalty programs from the active members’ perspective and the moderating effect of membership level on the relationships among BRQ, its antecedents and its outcomes.

This paper sets out to determine the benefits offered to customers and activities taken by retailers, whether or not they have formal customer loyalty programs, whether there are differences in the benefits/activities of retailers with and without formal loyalty programs and finally, whether specific benefits/activities of retailers can predict whether or not they have formal loyalty programs.

A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of retailers in one US state. In addition, respondents reporting that they had formal loyalty programs received a telephone call lasting less than ten minutes designed to gather further information regarding their loyalty program. χ², Kendall's W and logistic regression analysis were used to test the purposes of this study.

The most used benefits/activities of participating retailers are: demonstrating having the customers' interests at heart, providing financial incentives to selected customers, sending thank you notes to customers, and identifying customer preferences and recording them to guide future actions. In addition, a model was developed that was used to predict those retailers that had formal loyalty programs.

Given the nature of the sample, there is a need for replication to corroborate these findings. A larger‐sized sample would be needed to determine the presence of moderating and mediating factors that should be taken into account, such as size, environment, and competition.

Customer loyalty is one critical key to business success and retaining an existing customer costs far less than acquiring new ones. One way to do this is to create customer loyalty programs that effectively reward one's best or potentially important best customers. Further, these program participants will spend more than the non‐participants.

This empirical research provides support for retailers' usage of loyalty programs. Further, insights are provided into the activities that can be used to retailers' competitive advantage by identifying the types of benefits they can offer.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the fairness of loyalty programs to consumers regarding two emerging criticisms of loyalty programs: discriminating value proposition segmentation and potential exploitation of captured personal information.

Equity theory and exchange theory are the theoretical foundations used for evaluation of the aspects of loyalty program fairness.

First, through the application of equity theory, firms can more effectively recognize and reward more valuable customers without alienating less valuable customers. Second, through the use of exchange theory, firms can secure authorization to collect and use individual customer information from customers in exchange for enhanced value proposition offerings via loyalty programs. Loyalty programs can induce customers to give up their personal information in exchange for benefits they would not otherwise receive. Marketers use the higher level of benefits available through loyalty programs as a form of compensation to customers for sharing personal information.

Customer loyalty programs that are equitably administered and thoroughly communicated will be perceived favorably by consumers.

This paper marks the first study to examine the issue of consumer fairness as it relates to how firms use loyalty programs to collect proprietary information and differentiate value propositions among customer segments. The findings can be used by managers to strengthen the marketing position of the firm through a loyalty program without compromising on their customers' perceptions of fairness.