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Hairstyling entrepreneurs are experiencing increasing customer demand alongside the market competition. Building commercial friendships are one of their strategies to beat the competition. However, the marketing benefits in terms of loyalty and pricing from this strategy are unknown. Following suggestions from the relationship marketing theory (RMT) that business benefits are gained from commercial friendships, this study aims to use ideas from RMT and those from models proposed by Bove and Johnson (2002) and Han et al. (2008) to examine the impact of hairstylist-client commercial friendship on four dimensions of personal loyalty to individual hairstylists and clients’ willingness to pay a premium price (WTPP).

Quantitative methods were used to collect and analyse data obtained from 562 hairstylists’ clients who had maintained the same hairstylist for 10 months in Johannesburg metropolis. Structural equation modelling using SmartPLS was used to test a conceptual model with eight hypotheses.

The results revealed that commercial friendship positively impacted affective, intention and behavioural personal loyalty dimensions and explained 49%, 47.9% and 46.9% of the variances, respectively. Of the four dimensions of personal loyalty, only behavioural loyalty positively influenced WTPP.

Unlike previous studies’ main focus on business-to-customer relationships and loyalty from a unidimensional perspective, this study contributes by revealing four dimensions of personal loyalty applicable in the haircare service sector. The findings confirm the business benefits suggested by the RMT, by showing that commercial friendship generates clients’ WTPP when they are behaviourally loyal. This guarantees profits and highlights the importance of nurturing close relationships in personal services.

This paper aims to employ the concept of service personal values to predict customer satisfaction and loyalty towards banking services. It also aims to validate the three components of service personal values when being conceptualized as a high‐order construct.

A structural equation model was developed and tested using data surveyed from retail banking customers in Vietnam. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to refine the measurement scales. Path analysis was used to test the model.

With customer satisfaction as a partial mediating construct, the results show that service personal values can explain a significant part of customer satisfaction and a substantial part of customer loyalty. Data also validate the three components of service personal values namely, value to a peaceful life, value to social recognition and value to social integration.

Involvement level in the purchase process, switching barriers and/or corporate image should be added as moderating variables in further research. Impacts of each component of service personal values on satisfaction and loyalty are another research direction.

Service providers should understand personal values of customers that may be different by culture and social demographic characteristics. Providing a service that enhances customer personal values is a key to success because it helps customers to be happy, to be recognized, and to improve their relationship with others.

Employing the concept of service personal values, this study departs from the prevailing use of service attributes, service quality or service value to predict satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, it is among very few studies conducted in a transitional economy.

This paper aims to investigate how employees’ emotional competences affect customers’ responses in the context of emotional-driven and personalized services. Specifically, it proposes a model to analyze the influence of employees’ emotional competence on rapport, trust and loyalty toward the service employee and the company.

The empirical context to validate the proposed theory is the fitness realm. The sample comprises 296 clients from fitness personal training services. Data collection was carried out by means of personal surveys in three relevant fitness clubs in the city of Barcelona (Spain). The study uses partial least squares to test and validate the proposed theoretical model.

Employee emotional competence (EEC) directly affects personal loyalty, trust toward the service employee and rapport. However, higher levels of emotional skills are not significantly associated with loyalty toward the company. The results also suggest that trust significantly enhances loyalty. Interestingly, high levels of rapport between the service worker and the employee could even damage the level of loyalty toward the company.

Prior research documents that emotional intelligence enhances diverse positive customer outcomes, especially in emotionally charged interactions. Nonetheless, few studies have focused on analyzing how customers’ perceptions about services employees’ emotional skills are determining their attitudes and behavioral intentions. This study provides evidence on employee’s influences on consumer behaviors and outcomes, with a specific focus on EEC. It also sheds light on the unintuitive impact of customer employee rapport on loyalty toward the company.

Even though personal values are considered an important variable in consumer studies, rarely has it been related to customer loyalty, especially in the banking context and considering the different loyalty phases. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of personal values on loyalty phases in the private banking industry, taking into account the moderating influence of demographic variables.

After developing a theoretical framework based on the relevant literature, a research model is proposed and empirically tested with data from a survey with 891 bank customers from Brazil. Hypotheses of moderation were tested using structural equation modelling technique.

Results suggested that customers that place more importance on growth and achievement as personal values are less loyal to their bank, considering all four stages of loyalty. Moreover, this effect was more pronounced for female, older and high-income consumers, supporting the moderating effect of these demographic variables.

One of the limitations was that the sample was not probabilistic. To compensate this issue, the authors have used the approach of splitting the sample and use one for calibration and other for estimation. Another limitation was the small subgroups of high and low education, which might be responsible for the nonsignificant finding, due to low statistical power in the z-test. Future studies should consider using quota samples in order to have sample size greater than 150 cases in each category of variables such as age, education and income.

This study emphasizes the relevance of personal values, especially the dimensions of growth/achievement and security/social affiliation, and demographic variables when considering customers’ loyalty in the private banking industry. Managers should give different treatment for customers in distinct loyalty stages and with different demographics, thus increasing the customer orientation and segmentation efficacy.

The study tests a theoretical model that analyses the influence of two dimensions of personal values on loyalty, with originality on the loyalty phases (from cognitive to action) and the contingent effect of demographic variables, such as gender, age, education and income. Moreover, the model is tested in a sample of private banking customers from an emerging market, i.e., Brazil.

Adopting exchange theory and social orientation of loyalty, this research investigates the antecedents of customer loyalty consisting of (1) loyalty layers (i.e. personal loyalty, relationship with consumption communities and local network effects) and (2) loyalty expectations (i.e. service quality, reciprocity and firm innovativeness) and how these relationships are moderated by customer knowledge.

The data were collected from 4,208 customers in the mobile services industry using mall intercept technique.

The findings reveal that loyalty layers, including personal loyalty and relationship with consumption communities, can influence customers' expectations of service providers. The degree to which the firm is able to handle and meet customers' expectations over time would result in the strength of customer loyalty. Customer expectations also mediate the relationships between different loyalty layers and customer loyalty. In addition, customer knowledge significantly moderates the effects of loyalty layers and expectations on both attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty.

The study extends the current body of knowledge by incorporating a sociological perspective to examine the relationships between loyalty layers and customer expectations and customer loyalty. This research enables service operators to establish strategies to sustain customer loyalty across different customer segments with various levels of knowledge.

To the extent that customer relationships with service providers provide value to service firms suggests that these relationships can be viewed as social capital. This paper seeks to use social capital as a theoretical framework to examine the effect of these relationships on customer loyalty.

Data were collected using an online survey of 342 adult consumers of services.

Results of structural equation modeling analyses indicate that social capital variables explain unique variance in customer responses. The effect of each of the three forms of social capital – structural, cognitive, and relational – are contingent on whether the service is personal (e.g. hairstylist, medical services) or non‐personal (e.g. mechanic, banker).

This research suggests that customer relationships can be viewed as social capital and that the form and content of such relationships are important in terms of influencing customer loyalty.

Managers can build “social capital” by focusing on its three forms – structural, cognitive, and relational social capital. The paper provides prescriptions for such relationship building activities. Such social capital translates into firm value/profits through customer loyalty.

This study uses a theoretical framework from research in social capital to help explain the value of customer relationships with individual service providers to the firm. The idea of social capital is compelling to service managers since it implies that investments in relationship building tactics have real results for firm profitability.

Addresses the relationship between work loyalty and individualism in the USA and Canada in a study of 434 subjects from various organizations which participated. Results indicate that national identity has a minimal influence on individualism and work loyalty. Sex, however, influenced both measures. Women were found to be more individualistic and to score higher on work loyalty than male participants. In addition, a high correlation was found between work individualism and loyalty.

Controversy exists about the shape of the relationship between loyalty and profitability. This paper aims to address the possibly nonlinear effects of behavioral loyalty (BLOY) on customer spending (as a proxy for profitability). Building on social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity, it examines the asymmetries between BLOY and customer spending and the moderating influence of personal communication (PCOMM) as a social reward and dispositional positive reciprocity as process evidence.

Study 1a (n = 309) gathered customer data from four restaurants and Study 1b (n = 252) data from hotel guests after they checked out. Study 2 is an experimental study with two manipulated factors (BLOY and PCOMM). In total, 295 participants from a large German online panel completed the study.

The results indicate an inverted-U shaped relationship between BLOY and customer spending: after reaching a turning point, customers gradually curb spending as their BLOY further increases. High PCOMM acts as a reciprocal response while triggering additional customer spending particularly at higher levels of behavioral loyalty; positive reciprocity adjusts the differences in customer spending when social rewards such as PCOMM are present.

The asymmetric relationship between BLOY and customer spending is tested only for hedonic service settings.

Not all loyal customers spend more – companies need to meet their reciprocal obligations before they can benefit from increased customer spending.

The present research re-considers the nature of the relationship between BLOY and customer spending and reveals an inverted-U shaped relationship, with a turning point beyond which greater customer loyalty decreases customer spending. It finds converging process evidence for the mechanism of reciprocity underlying this relationship. This study also details the financial impact of BLOY on the firm by investigating actual customer spending.

Employee loyalty is generally a very positive trait. However, when loyal employees are confronted with dysfunctionality in the workplace the impact on their well-being can be significant. The purpose of this paper is to assess the interaction of employee loyalty and employee experience of inter-professional dysfunction in a hospital setting to predict employee job tension.

The paper is based on the analysis of a cross-sectional attitudinal survey of employees within a hospital setting in Australia. The authors use OLS regression and an SPSS macro (by Hayes, 2013) to assess the regions of significance of the interaction effects.

The authors find, as anticipated, significant direct effects for employee loyalty and inter-professional dysfunction on employee job stress. The authors further find significant interaction effects that suggest that highly loyal employees who experience inter-professional dysfunction also experience disproportionately high levels of job tension.

The main research implication of this research relates to the confirmation of the presence of an interaction effect between loyalty and inter-professional dysfunction in predicting employee job stress. Further, the zone of significance analysis (following Johnson and Neyman) suggests that this effect is evident at even low levels of inter-professional dysfunction.

Organisations should appreciate employee loyalty but should also be aware that loyal employees are more vulnerable to the negative consequences of organisational dysfunction than are employees with limited organisational loyalty.

The paper confirms the importance of managing organisational cooperation between groups in organisations as a precursor to positive employee outcomes.

This is the first paper to investigate this interaction and to apply Johnson-Neyman analysis to confirm the regions of significance for the interaction effects noted.

The current research aims to explore the possible effects of attitude towards complaining (ATC) on intention to remain loyal to hotels and to compare Chinese and American ATC in this perspective.

The sample of the study consisted of Chinese and American graduate students, who were selected through the non‐probability convenience sampling technique. A total of 1,822 questionnaires were found to be useful and data from these questionnaires were tested through SPSS and LISREL statistical software.

Findings indicate that culture clearly affects ATC and general intention to stay loyal which suggests that practitioners should consider the cultural background of their customers while designing and implementing their service recovery systems. Results show that Chinese respondents tend to forgive and forget failures, whereas Americans seek a remedy from third parties.

Only relationships between ATC and loyalty were investigated in this research; thus inclusion of other dimensions would provide further insights. Although the use of student sample and scenario is well‐justified and a common practice, future studies may consider collecting data from actual tourists. Data analyzed in this research were cross‐sectional and collected using convenience sampling; future studies may use random sampling and consider conducting longitudinal research.

There is a paucity of cross‐cultural research investigating ATC. China and America's current and potential significance in global tourism is undeniable. Moreover, they are ideal examples of their respective culture clusters; thus studying Chinese and American ATC provides significant insights for both industry practitioners and academics.