Identifying the antecedents of brand commitment and its leading effect on behavioural loyalty in Turkish GSM industry

It is especially important for companies in the mobile telecommunications industry to deliver value added services and create customer loyalty since subscribers of a certain service provider have higher levels of switching intentions. To minimize the customer churn rate, companies impose disincentives like obligatory contracts, high termination or switching costs as well as such incentives like price discounts, membership benefits, and reward programs. This study aims to explore antecedents and measurement of customer brand loyalty (attitudinal and behavioural) in the Turkish GSM sector considering commitment as attitudinal loyalty leading to behavioural loyalty. Triangulation is chosen as a method of inquiry. After reviewing the relevant literature, a conceptual model has been developed. In the second stage, ten semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted to explore whether the developed model has relevance in the eyes of consumers. Interview results indicated that the model has high validity, but two additional variables were included: brand image and resistance to change. In the last phase of the study, after piloting the survey on a sample of 70 participants, a quantitative research was conducted on a sample size of 505 mobile subscribers by questionnaire. Convenience sampling was used when selecting sample. Drop and collect in seven cities in Turkey and social media (Facebook) were used for data collection. After ensuring that there was statistically nonsignificant difference between these two data collection methods, the data was splitted into two parts randomly using select cases tool on SPSS. Exploratory factor analysis was run on the first half of the data and confirmatory factor analysis on the other half. After examining fit index values and ensuring that they were within acceptable limits, structural equation modelling was run on the whole data. Results revealed that the proposed research model was acceptable in general. Trust was found to be statistically significantly associated with commitment while switching costs was not. On the other v hand, affective commitment and calculative commitment were found to be positively and statistically significantly related to behavioural loyalty, while normative commitment was not. Keywords: commitment, attitudinal loyalty, behavioural loyalty, triangulation, structural equation modelling