The relative contribution of love and trust towards customer loyaltyShu-Ching Chen a Pascale G Quester b

a College of International Management Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University 1-1 Jumonjibaru Beppu Oita 874-8577 Japanb Business School The University of Adelaide 10 Pulteney Street Adelaide SA 5005 Australia

A R T I C L E I N F O

Article historyReceived 24 October 2013Revised 10 December 2014Accepted 25 December 2014Available online

KeywordsCustomer loyaltyLoveTrustService encounter

A B S T R A C T

This study examines the respective role of two constructs love and trust as drivers of customer loyaltyin a business-to-consumer service context A review of the psychology and marketing literature sug-gests prominent roles for both love and trust in relation to long-term interpersonal relationships Thelikely interaction between love and trust foreshadowed in prior studies also suggests the need of study-ing both factors simultaneously Yet to the authorsrsquo knowledge the relative contribution of love and trustto loyalty has never been examined in the context of B2C service relationships This study collected 293valid consumer self-administered questionnaires in a personal care service setting Analysis results usingstructural equation modelling show that customer experience of love and trust are both significant pre-dictors of customer loyalty However love is a stronger driver of loyalty than trust This study contributesto our understanding of consumersrsquo unspoken needs or wants for love and confirms their need for trustin service encounters helping frontline employees and managers to perform better in their efforts to gen-erate and maintain customer loyalty The study also makes a cross-disciplinary contribution to the literatureon loyalty love and trust in marketing and psychology

copy 2014 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

1 Introduction

Maintaining a long term relationship with customers is a chal-lenge for organizations (Gummesson 2008 Oliver 1999) A keyobjective for organizations seeking to build customer loyalty (Badgettet al 2007) may be to create superior customer experience Nu-merous studies on understanding customer experiences and theirimpacts on consumer behaviour or on business can be found (egPuccinelli et al 2009 Verhoef et al 2009 Yim et al 2008) Despitethis research on customer experience continues to be lacking in thefield of marketing (MSI 2010 2012 2014)

Scholars have called for varied views on customer experience(eg Puccinelli et al 2009 Verhoef et al 2009) Amongst the rel-evant studies of interpersonal relationships in the disciplines ofmarketing and psychology scholars have specifically called for astudy of love Whilst marketing studies investigating the notion oflove in commercial relationships are scarce (Vlachos et al 2010)the question of whether the notion of love is applicable to busi-ness contexts has interested researchers from the field of psychology(Berscheid 2010) Therefore a study of love in the business contextshould contribute to our understanding of its application beyondpsychology and in doing so would address the call for more re-search on love

In contrast with the concept of love the concept of trust is wellrecognized for its significance to long term business relationships(eg Bove and Johnson 2000 2006 Chaudhuri and Holbrook 2001Doney and Cannon 1997) In most studies of interpersonal rela-tionships across the disciplines of marketing and psychology trustappears to be the critical factor in engaging customers in a rela-tionship (eg Johnson and Grayson 2000 Rempel et al 1985)Significantly the likely interaction between love and trust fore-shadowed in prior studies (eg Fehr 1993) suggests the need forboth factors of love and trust to be examined simultaneously Yetto the authorsrsquo knowledge the relative contribution of love and trustto customer loyalty has never been examined in the context of B2Cservice relationshipscommercial relationships

Whilst previous research on loyalty has focused on identifyingthe attitudinal and behavioural dimensions of the constructs (egHaumlrtel and Russell-Bennett 2010 Melnyk et al 2009) as well asestablish their consumer manifestation (intention to purchase orwillingness to pay) (eg Dick and Basu 1994 Oliver 1999) this studyaims to provide a novel explanation of why customers stay loyalin a B2C service relationship by introducing the concepts of loveand trust In the case of a service encounter it is the interactionbetween consumers and frontline employees that creates the cus-tomer experience (Frow and Payne 2007 Verhoef et al 2009)Consumersrsquo experience of love and trust in their interactions withfrontline employees in the service encounter should thereforeprovide some insight into why they may become loyal consumersIn the service encounter is it effective to use the concepts of loveand trust to predict a customerrsquos loyalty What are the respective

Corresponding author Tel +81 0977 78 1082 fax +81 0977 78 1123E-mail address schenapuacjp shu-chingchenalumniadelaideeduau

(S-C Chen)

httpdxdoiorg101016jausmj2014120031441-3582copy 2014 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

Australasian Marketing Journal (2015) ndash

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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Australasian Marketing Journal

journal homepage wwwelseviercom locate amj

contribution of the consumerrsquos experience of love and trust in theformation of customer loyalty From these research questions twohypotheses are developed that guide this empirical work Firsthowever the extant literature on customer loyalty love and trustfrom both the marketing and psychology literature provide the the-oretical background for this study

2 Theoretical background and hypotheses

21 Customer loyalty

This study is concerned with the loyalty exhibited by current cus-tomers towards the firm The significance of maintaining andstrengthening on-going relationships with current customers is un-derscored by its tremendous impact on financial performance(Gummesson 2008 Oliver 1999) Given that the cost of customerretention is lower than that of customer acquisition (Reichheld 2001)retaining current customers may be key to ensuring business successIn addition according to past studies the role of frontline employ-ees is critical in developing a basis for customer loyalty (eg Frowand Payne 2007) The interactions between customers and front-line employees can lead to the customer being or not loyal to thefirm (Bove and Johnson 2000 2006) This study thus examines cus-tomer loyalty by focusing on the potential and direct influence ofcustomerndashemployee interactions on the customerndashfirm relationship

In this study customer loyalty is defined as a consumerrsquos loyalattitude and behaviour towards a specific service firm despite com-petitors providing alternative services in the market Definitions ofloyalty vary but common elements can be identified including theexpression of psychological (attitudinal) and process (behavioural)loyalty in a relationship between an actor and another entity in thepresence of alternative entities For example Melnyk et al (2009p 82) defines ldquothe core of the loyalty conceptrdquo as being ldquothat thereis a relationship of some sort (ie ranging from very shallow to verystrong) between an actor and another entity and that the actor dis-plays behavioural or psychological allegiance to that entity in thepresence of alternative entities rdquo Oliver (1999 p 392) definesldquoultimate loyaltyrdquo in the service context as being ldquoa deeply held com-mitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred service consistently inthe future thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing despite situational influences and marketing effortshaving the potential to cause switching behaviourrdquo In additionloyalty can be demonstrated from consumer attitudes of liking andhaving a preference for a specific firm (affective loyalty) and theirre-patronization of the same firm in the future regardless of marketfactors (conative loyalty) (Chaudhuri and Holbrook 2001 Dick andBasu 1994) Based on the acknowledgment of attitudinal andbehavioural components of loyalty different types or levels of loyaltyhave also been proposed by researchers For example Dick and Basu(1994) list spurious latent true loyalty and no loyalty Oliver (1999)describes cognitive affective conative and action loyalty and Haumlrteland Russell-Bennett (2010) discuss varied functions of emotionaland cognitive consumer loyalty

This study investigates customer loyalty from the perspective ofconsumersrsquo experiences of love and trust Though human relation-ships are temporal in nature (Berscheid 2010) studies of personalrelationships suggest that an emotional bond derived from expe-riences appears essential for any relationship development andreinforcement (eg Bowlby 1979) A cross-disciplinary review ofthe psychology and marketing literature also suggests that love andtrust play a prominent role in relation to loyalty For example cus-tomersrsquo adoration and commitment which is one component of awell-known theory of love (Sternberg 1986) in psychology are sug-gested as motives for customersrsquo self-isolation from competitorsrsquoovertures which in turn sustains loyalty (Oliver 1999) On the otherhand trust also appears to be a key affective antecedent to the for-

mation of loyalty (eg Macintosh and Lockshin 1997 Rempel et al1985) A high level of customer trust in a service employee can resultin a customerrsquos favourable attitude towards a firm and can lead tothe customerrsquos patronage of the firm (Bove and Johnson 2000 2006)

22 Customer experience of love

The notion of love has mainly been studied in relation to per-sonal relationships in the context of psychology (eg Berscheid 2010Hendrick and Hendrick 1989 Lemieux and Hale 1999 Overbeeket al 2007 Shaver et al 1996) Love is an affectionate bond betweentwo parties (Shaver et al 1987) Love is noteworthy because it pro-vides an important interpersonal connection (Guerrero and Andersen2000) and because people have an intense desire to sustain a re-lationship when love exists (Shaver et al 1996) Given theimportance of keeping customers loyal for an organizationrsquos busi-ness performance applying the concept of love to the servicecommercial context could make a meaningful contribution towardsour understanding of business relationships Remarkably howeverthe concept of love is only now receiving greater attention from mar-keting academics (Beetles and Harris 2010)

This study uses Sternbergrsquos (1986) love theory as the founda-tion of its proposed variable of love Sternbergrsquos (1986) theory oflove is cited in most conceptualizations of love in studies of inter-personal relationships in the field of psychology (eg Berscheid2010 Guerrero and Andersen 2000) The construct of love com-prises three components intimacy passion and decisioncommitment In his study intimacy refers to the feeling of closenessconnection and bond It can derive from a personrsquos emotional in-vestment in the relationship including ldquomutual understanding withthe loved onerdquo (Sternberg 1986 p 121) Passion refers to the anal-ysis and response to the needs of another person and the actionstaken to fulfil those needs It can derive from a personrsquos motiva-tional involvement in the relationship through psychological andphysiological arousal due to a longing for union with the other partyDecisioncommitment refers to the short-term decision to love andthe commitment to maintain that love in the long-term throughactions It can derive from a personrsquos cognitive decision regardingand commitment to an interpersonal relationship Noticeably thecomponent of decisioncommitment in Sternbergrsquos studies of loveis not a construct of its own despite its wide application in the re-lationship marketing domain but is only one dimension of theconstruct of love Moreover the existence of three distinct compo-nents of Sternbergrsquos (1986 1997) love construct has been supportedin past psychology studies of personal relationship (eg Overbeeket al 2007) According to Sternberg (1986) it would be simplisticto assume that all three components are equally weighted and awide variety of close relationships can be described through varia-tions of the three components of love Given Sternbergrsquos (1986) lovetheory customer interactions with frontline employee should relatepositively to all three components of the love construct

This study uses Sternbergrsquos (1986) three-dimensional con-struct of love to capture the complex and dynamic feelings ofcustomersrsquo experience from frontline employees in the service en-counter This may provide an insight into the love construct in thebusiness relationship and its implications for both theory and prac-tice in marketing It should also help managers to understand howfrontline employeesrsquo efforts can be made to serve customers betterin the critical service encounter In addition past studies suggestthat the boundary-spanning role of the frontline employee has adecisive influence on the customerrsquos perceptions of the firm whichis vital to business success (eg Bove and Johnson 2000 Frow andPayne 2007 Yim et al 2008) In other words customersrsquo experi-ence of love derived from their interactions with frontline employeescan result in greater customer loyalty to the firm Hence this studystates as the first hypothesis that

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2 S-C Chen PG QuesterAustralasian Marketing Journal (2015) ndash

H1 Consumersrsquo experience of love derived from their interac-tions with frontline employees in the service encounter is positivelyassociated with their loyalty to the firm

23 Customer experience of trust

Trust can motivate consumers to keep a relationship and has beenidentified as an indicator of a growing relationship Consumersdevelop trust through the continuous interaction of a dyadic rela-tionship (Crutchfield 2007 Johnson and Grayson 2000) as therelationship matures (Macintosh and Lockshin 1997 Rempel et al1985) Trust takes time to develop and once it has one party tendsto remain with the other party (Berry 2002 Doney and Cannon1997 Morgan and Hunt 1994)

Past studies define trust in many different ways For instanceJohnson and Grayson (2000) define trust from cognitive and affec-tive perspectives Cognitive trust stems from the consumerrsquos thinkingand analysis so it is knowledge-driven reflecting the consumerrsquosconfidence or willingness to rely on the competence and reliabil-ity of an object Affective trust on the other hand is based on feelingsof security towards a specific object and the perceived strength ofthe relationship between the consumer and the object Doney andCannon (1997 p 36) define trust as ldquothe perceived credibility andbenevolence of a target of trustrdquo Perceived credibility refers to theexpectation that the exchange partnerrsquos oral or written promisescan be relied upon Benevolence is the extent to which the ex-change partner is simply interested in the other partnerrsquos welfareand motivated to seek mutual benefits This study follows Doneyand Cannonrsquos (1997) definition of trust which is consistent withthe current research adopting the perspective of interpersonal re-lationships in a business context

The service research has highlighted the unique contribution ofinterpersonal trust between consumers and frontline employees tothe ultimate loyalty of consumers towards a firm (eg Crutchfield2007 Doney and Cannon 1997 Guenzi and Georges 2010Sirdeshmukh et al 2002) It also suggests however that trust doesnot always promote a close customerndashemployee relationship thatdirectly leads to loyalty Mixed findings have been reported in thestudies of trust and loyalty Direct (eg Macintosh and Lockshin1997) indirect (eg Doney and Cannon 1997 Sirdeshmukh et al2002) and no relationship (eg Foster and Cadogan 2000) Thisstudy is thus interested in clarifying the predictive role of trust inthe formation of customer loyalty in a specific empirical contextTherefore

H2 Consumersrsquo experience of trust from their interactions withfrontline employees in the service encounter is positively associ-ated with their loyalty to the firm

In addition to examining the predictive role of trust this secondhypothesized relationship should uncover the relative contribu-tion of love and trust to customer loyalty Examining the relativecontribution of love and trust to the formation of customer loyaltycan provide an insight into loyalty from a different perspective thanthose already found in the marketing literature It also responds tothe call for love to be studied beyond the conventional scope of per-sonal relationships in psychology Accordingly this study proposesthose two hypotheses A research model for this study encapsu-lating both hypotheses is shown in Fig 1

3 Research method

31 Context

This study uses the hairdressing industry as the research contextFirms in the hairdressing industry tend to provide a longer cus-

tomer service in the ldquomoments of truthrdquo (Carlzon 1987) and involvea relatively higher interaction between frontline employees and con-sumers creating a higher potential for frontline employees toinfluence consumer attitudes and behaviour Given the research ob-jective these characteristics provide an appropriate setting for thefrontline employee to cultivate love and trust in their relation-ship with consumers making this service context well suited forresearch on the understanding of how consumers experience loveand trust in their interactions with frontline employees Further-more firms in the hairdressing industry provide consumers withservices associated with frequency of purchase allowing a directevaluation of the influence of consumersrsquo experiences of love andtrust on loyalty

32 Research instrument

This study uses self-administered questionnaires as the re-search instrument Measurements for the constructs of customerloyalty customer experience of love and customer experience of trustwere adopted from previous studies modified and reworded to fitthe research context and generate the research instrument

The scales for customer loyalty are adapted from Chaudhuri andHolbrook (2001) The construct is measured by the degree of con-sumersrsquo willingness to maintain their loyalty to a firm in terms ofservice choices preference for service options (affective loyalty) andconstancy of repurchase regardless of changing in price (conativeloyalty) For customer experience of trust the items are adopted fromDoney and Cannon (1997) Trust is measured from the perspec-tives of credibility and benevolence The construct is measured bythe perception of service consumers about frontline employeesrsquo dem-onstrations of thoughtfulness towards them attentiveness to theirneeds and capacity to keep promises To measure customer expe-rience of love Sternbergrsquos (1997) love scales with three componentsof intimacy passion and decisioncommitment are employed Theseinterpersonal love items are used to measure the consumerrsquos lovetowards a frontline employee The use of the three-dimensional con-struct of love can be found mainly in the examination of personalrelationships in psychology

All constructs were measured using multiple questions with five-point Likert scales (1 = ldquostrongly disagreerdquo and 5 = ldquostrongly agreerdquo)The approach of parallel translation was also used to develop theresearch instrument in order to ensure that it is better adapted toa specific culture (Douglas and Nijssen 2003 Werner and Campbell1970) A pre-test of the research instrument was conducted usinggeneral consumers as respondents In addition validity and relia-bility assessments for the evaluation of the research instrument wereundertaken The assessments include inter-item consistency relia-bility convergent validity and discriminant validity All measures

Fig 1 Research model and resultsNote aStandardized Coefficient bCritical Ratio (z value) equal to t-value when df ge 30p lt 0001

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were shown to exhibit acceptable psychometric properties As shownin Table 1 both measures of composite reliability and variance ex-tracted exceeded the acceptable level of 050 (Bagozzi and Yi 1988Hair et al 1998) This provides evidence for the reliability of theconstructs used in the model In addition convergent validity canbe reflected through construct reliability (DeWitt et al 2008) Ev-idence for discriminant validity was provided by the fact that theaverage variance extracted (AVE) for each construct was beyond thethreshold level of 050 (Bagozzi and Yi 1988) Details of the mea-surement items and of the psychometric properties of the measuresare provided in Table 1

33 Data collection

The fieldwork was conducted in the hairdressing industry inChina Selecting one specific service industry in one specific countryallows some control over other industry- or country-specific vari-ables which may impact on the definitions delivery and perceptionof love and trust One representative firm was selected in terms ofits business scale (ie the number of chain stores) and quality serviceperformance in the industry Data were collected using a strati-fied sampling method of consumers in the chain stores of theselected firm The target respondents were consumers who hadvisited a specific chain store of the selected firm over one year andwho had been continually attended to by the same hairstylists forthat period of time Five hundred questionnaires were distributedand 293 fully completed questionnaires were received from theservice outlets yielding a response rate of 586 As expected mostof the consumers were female (659) The age of the respondentsranged mostly between 20 and 30 years (631) and between 31and 40 years (232) Most respondents had visited the same salonfor 26 years on average and had been served by the same hairstyl-ist for between 1 and 2 years (416) or for over 2 years and up to3 years (358)

4 Results

41 Assessment of the measurement model

The model illustrated in Fig 1 was tested using structural equa-tion modelling (SEM) with Amos 170 Convergent validity wasassessed for the measurement model and confirmed by the load-ings and overall fit produced by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)(Anderson and Gerbing 1988) The CFA overall fit is acceptable(CFI = 0923 GFI = 0873 IFI = 0924 TLI = 0913 RMSEA = 0065 Chi-square = 493918 with df = 223) As shown in Table 1 all itemsexhibited high loadings on their pre-specified factors and ex-ceeded the threshold loading of 050 (Steenkamp and van Trijp1991) indicating adequate convergent validity Another examina-tion of the measurement model fit was undertaken by assessing thecomposite reliability and variance extracted which exceeded theacceptable level of 050 (Bagozzi and Yi 1988 Hair et al 1998) Allcriteria suggested by Gerbing and Anderson (1992) were met sup-porting construct reliability

Discriminant validity was also assessed The estimates of averagevariance extracted for all scales reached or exceeded the 050minimum cutoff suggested by Bagozzi and Yi (1988) MoreoverFornell and Larcker (1981) argue that discriminant validity is evidentwhen the AVE of any two constructs is greater than their squaredcorrelation Table 2 provides the supportive evidence

42 Hypotheses testing

Both hypotheses H1 and H2 were supported by the data SEMis used to test the hypothesized model The overall fit statistics dem-onstrate acceptable model fit (CFI = 0918 GFI = 0869 IFI = 0919TLI = 0908 RMSEA = 0066 Chi-square = 511493 with df = 224) Theresults in Fig 1 indicate that both consumersrsquo experiences of loveand trust in their interaction with frontline employees led to their

Table 1Measures composite reliability (CR) means SD loadings and variance extracted

ConstructMeasures Mean SD Loading (std) Variance extracted

Trust (CR = 079) 056My hairstylist is only concerned about himselfherself (R) 363 005 079My hairstylist does not seem to be concerned with my needs (R) 381 005 083My hairstylist is not trustworthy (R) 387 005 061

Love Intimacy (CR = 082) 050I communicate well with my hairstylist 274 005 069I feel that my hairstylist really understands me 277 005 062I receive considerable emotional support from my hairstylist 266 006 073I feel emotionally close to my hairstylist 310 006 068I share deeply personal information about myself with my hairstylist 278 006 067

Love Passion (CR = 090) 061I fantasize about my hairstylist 199 005 077I cannot image a hairdressing service without my hairstylist 180 005 081I especially like physical contact with my hairstylist when I am in the store 202 006 080The relationship with my hairstylist is passionate 241 006 068I adore my hairstylist 210 006 082There is something almost lsquomagicalrsquo about the affection with my hairstylist 198 006 079

Love DecisionCommitment (CR = 089) 057I view the relationship with my hairstylist as a good decision 286 007 069I would not let other hairstylists come to serve me when I am in the store 290 006 071I view my commitment to my hairstylist as a solid one 239 006 078I have confidence in the stability of the relationship with my hairstylist 250 006 072I am committed to maintaining my affection with my hairstylist 275 006 082I could not let anything get in the way of my commitment to my hairstylist 244 006 078

Loyalty (CR = 084) 063I consider this hair salon is my first choice when choosing a hair salon 355 005 080This is the hair salon that I prefer over others 333 005 085I would continue to visit this hair salon even if it increases price 322 005 072

Note R = reverse coded All factor loadings are significant at p lt 001

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loyalty to the firm Indeed the model explains a remarkable 91of the variance in customer loyalty The results indicate that cus-tomer experience of love and customer experience of trust are bothsignificant predictors of customer loyalty Moreover love is a muchstronger driver of loyalty (β = 0642 t = 8009 p lt 0001) than trustis (β = 0231 t = 3891 p lt 0001)

These results further indicate the relative strength of each com-ponents of love that is passion intimacy and commitment Amongstthe three components decisioncommitment (0932) is the stron-gest indicator of customer experience of love Passion (0731) andintimacy (0724) have similar weight as indicators of customer ex-perience of love The results demonstrate the relevance of Sternbergrsquos(1986 1997) love scale to a business setting and its suitability formeasuring customer experience of love in the service context

5 Discussion

51 Theoretical contribution and implications

This study identifies a novel explanation of why customers stayloyal to a firm using a prominent concept based on a universalmotive of human beings love along with one of the most estab-lished business to consumer construct trust Based on a cross-disciplinary review of the relevant literature in the fields of marketingand psychology this study postulates that consumers develop a loyalrelationship with a firm through repeated experience of love andtrust in their interactions with frontline service employees Our em-pirical evidence provides clear support for these theoreticalassumptions

This study verifies the predictive roles of customersrsquo experi-ence of love and trust in developing customer loyalty The high levelof explained variance in loyalty represents a substantial improve-ment over previous loyalty research and advances our understandingof the determinants of loyalty Both love and trust are significantfor customer loyalty Our findings also suggest that customer ex-perience of love should be seen as quite distinct from customerexperience of trust Given the consideration of customer experi-ence of trust as another influencing factor of customer loyalty thisstudy suggests that customer experience of love has a much morepowerful influence in the formation of customer loyalty Consum-ersrsquo loyal attitudes and behaviour are primarily influenced by theirexperience of love

Extending previous research from the field of psychology thisstudy uses the notion of love beyond the conventional context ofpersonal relationships providing empirical evidence of the appli-cability of Sternbergrsquos (1986 1997) conceptualization andmeasurement of love in the business context The three compo-nents of Sternbergrsquos love construct are distinct and each makes asignificant albeit different in terms of magnitude contributiontowards customer experience of love in the service encounter

This study also extends previous studies in the field of market-ing by uncovering the critical role of intimacy passion and decisioncommitment in the construct of customer experience of love Ofthese three components decisioncommitment is significantly stron-

ger than either passion or intimacy in determining customerexperience of love from interacting with frontline employees leadingto customer loyalty to the firm These findings are different frompast studies of business relationships which have widely studiedthe influence of commitment (eg Berry 2002 Morgan and Hunt1994 Tsiros et al 2009) and rarely mention intimacy andor passion(eg Beetles and Harris 2010)

This study also provides additional empirical evidence for thecritical boundary-spanning role of frontline employees and the sig-nificant impact they have on business performance (eg customerloyalty) In contrast with extant studies (eg Bove and Johnson 20002006) this study uncovers the critical role of frontline employeesfor business performance from the perspective of customersrsquo ex-perience of love and trust In addition this study suggests thatcustomerndashfrontline employee relationships exert a direct influ-ence on customer loyalty going beyond past studies suggesting anindirect link to firm loyalty (eg Yim et al 2008) Past research hadalso found that a positive customerndashfrontline employee relation-ship can evolve into a loyal customerndashfirm relationship This studyfurther suggests that a customer experience of love and of trust canplay a separate and critical role in that transformation

52 Managerial contribution and implications

This study emphasizes the importance of cultivating a qualityrelationship with customers with a particular focus on their ex-perience of love and trust The respondents in this study areconsumers in an on-going relationship with specific frontline em-ployees lasting between 1 and 3 years (774) and who had visiteda specific store for over two years Results of the study clearly showthat customers experience trust and love in their interactions withfrontline employees which can lead to their greater loyalty to thefirm Managers operating in a high contact service setting such ashairdressing and other businesses with similar characteristics mayfind the results useful in formulating how to better serve custom-ers in order to foster loyalty by means of introducing love and trustin their services

In order to translate the notion of love and trust into serviceactions to achieve customer loyalty this study suggests that front-line employees should display intimacy passion and decisioncommitment as well as credibility and benevolence In particularthe factor of decisioncommitment deserves more attention as itreceives the highest ratings from consumers in an on-going rela-tionship When managers recruit frontline employees they shouldpay attention to applicantsrsquo personalities Peoplersquos attitudes towardstrust and love which are derived from their individual personal ex-perience of interpersonal interactions influence their capacity toshow trust and love towards others Recruitment of suitable em-ployees for frontline services is therefore crucial

53 Limitations and future directions

The current research model with three variables of customer ex-perience of love customer experience of trust and customer loyaltyto the firm may well be somewhat simplistic Further research mayconsider other factors mediating or moderating the impact of thecustomer experience of love and trust on their loyalty For in-stance given that affection bonds can take about two years to developin an adult relationship (Hazan and Zeifman 1999) the time neededto establish emotional bonds in the service context may be in-cluded in the model

The results reveal a close relation between interpersonal rela-tionship and customer loyalty Further research may use a dyadicmethod to collect data from both consumers and frontline employ-ees to reveal similarities and differences in their views on love andtrust and their respective influence on consumersrsquo loyalty to the

Table 2Discriminant validity analyses

1 2 3 4 5

1 Trust 0561a

2 Love Intimacy 0000 04643 Love Passion 0160 0370 06084 Love Commitment 0070 0402 0468 05735 Loyalty 0007 0242 0095 0349 0627

Note aBased on Fornell and Larcker (1981) AVE in the diagonal and squared cor-relations off-diagonal

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firm A comparative study of these issues from different types ofinformants could also provide further insights into the critical successfactors of a positive customer experience in the service encounter

This study demonstrates that the three components of Sternbergrsquos(1986 1997) love construct are suitable indicators of customersrsquo ex-perience of love from service frontline employees A further studyof a direct relationship of the three components of love and loyaltyrespectively could provide further insights into the lovendashloyalty re-lations in the context of B2C service relationships Furtherexamination of the three dimensions of Sternbergrsquos love scale in dif-ferent business settings could also make a valuable cross-disciplinarycontribution towards the extant literature on love in the researchdomains of marketing psychology and management Finally givenprevious research investigating different types of loyalty differenttypes of trust and different types of love future research may wantto examine the potential difference in the respective influence oflove and trust for customer loyalty

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Badgett M Boyce MS Kleinberger H 2007 Turning Shoppers into Advocates IBMInstitute for Business Value

Bagozzi RP Yi Y 1988 On the evaluation of structural equation models J AcadMark Sci 16 (1) 74ndash94

Beetles AC Harris LC 2010 The role of intimacy in service relationships anexploration J Serv Mark 24 (5) 347ndash358

Berry LL 2002 Relationship marketing of services perspectives from 1983 and 2000J Relat Mark 1 (1) 59ndash77

Berscheid E 2010 Love in the fourth dimension Annu Rev Psychol 61 1ndash25Bove LL Johnson LW 2000 A customer-service worker relationship model Int

J Serv Ind Manage 11 (5) 491ndash511Bove LL Johnson LW 2006 Customer loyalty to one service worker should it be

discouraged Int J Res Mark 23 (1) 79ndash91Bowlby J 1979 The Making and Breaking of Affectional Bonds TavistockRoutledge

LondonCarlzon J 1987 Moments of Truth Harper and Row New YorkChaudhuri A Holbrook MB 2001 The chain of effects from brand trust and brand

affect to brand performance the role of brand loyalty J Mark 65 (2) 81ndash93Crutchfield TN 2007 Individual service providers versus the firm where do

customer loyalties lie Serv Mark Q 29 (2) 19ndash44DeWitt T Nguyen DT Marshall R 2008 Exploring customer loyalty following

service recovery the mediating effects of trust and emotion J Serv Res 10 (3)269ndash281

Dick AS Basu K 1994 Customer loyalty toward an integrated conceptualframework J Acad Mark Sci 22 (2) 99ndash113

Doney PM Cannon JP 1997 An examination of the nature of trust in buyer-sellerrelationships J Mark 61 35ndash51

Douglas SP Nijssen EJ 2003 On the use of ldquoborrowedrdquo scales in cross-nationalresearch a cautionary note Int Mark Rev 20 (6) 621ndash642

Fehr B 1993 How do I love thee let me consult my prototype In Duck S (Ed)Individuals in Relationships Sage Newbury Park CA pp 87ndash120

Fornell C Larcker DF 1981 Evaluating structural equation models withunobservable variables and measurement error J Mark Res 18 39ndash50

Foster BD Cadogan JW 2000 Relationship selling and customer loyalty anempirical investigation Mark Intell Plan 18 (4) 185ndash199

Frow P Payne A 2007 Towards the lsquoperfectrsquo customer experience J Brand Manage15 89ndash101

Gerbing DW Anderson JC 1992 Monte Carlo evaluations of goodness of fit indicesfor structural equation models Sociol Methods Res 21 (2) 132ndash160

Guenzi P Georges L 2010 Interpersonal trust in commercial relationshipsantecedents and consequences of customer trust in the salesperson Eur J Mark44 (12) 114ndash138

Guerrero KK Andersen PA 2000 Emotions in close relationships In HendrickC Hendrick SS (Eds) Close Relationships A Sourcebook Sage Thousand OaksCA pp 171ndash183

Gummesson E 2008 Total Relationship Marketing Marketing ManagementRelationship Strategy CRM and a New Dominant Logic for the Value-CreatingNetwork Economy ElsevierButterworth-Heinemann AmsterdamBostonLondon

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Haumlrtel CE Russell-Bennett R 2010 Heart versus mind the functions of emotionaland cognitive loyalty Australas Mark J 18 (1) 1ndash7

Hendrick C Hendrick SS 1989 Research on love does it measure up J Pers SocPsychol 56 (5) 784ndash794

Johnson DS Grayson K 2000 Sources and dimensions of trust in servicerelationships In Swartz TA Iacobucci D (Eds) Handbook of Services MarketingampManagement Sage London pp 357ndash370

Lemieux R Hale JL 1999 Intimacy passion and commitment in young romanticrelationships successfully measuring the triangular theory of love Psychol Rep85 (2) 497ndash503

Macintosh G Lockshin LS 1997 Retail relationships and store loyalty a multi-levelperspective Int J Res Mark 14 (5) 487ndash497

Melnyk V van Osselaer SMJ Bijmolt THA 2009 Are women more loyal customersthan men Gender differences in loyalty to firms and individual service providersJ Mark 73 (4) 82ndash96

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MSI 2010 2010ndash2012 Research Priorities Marketing Science InstituteMSI 2012 2012ndash2014 Research Priorities Marketing Science InstituteMSI 2014 2014ndash2016 Research Priorities Marketing Science InstituteOliver RL 1999 Whence consumer loyalty J Mark 63 33ndash44Overbeek G Ha T Scholte R de Kemp R Engels RC 2007 Brief report intimacy

passion and commitment in romantic relationships-validation of a lsquotriangularlove scalersquo for adolescents J Adolesc 30 (3) 523ndash528

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Shaver PR Morgan HJ Wu S 1996 Is love a ldquobasicrdquo emotion Pers Relatsh 3 (1)81ndash96

Sirdeshmukh D Singh J Sabol B 2002 Consumer trust value and loyalty inrelational exchanges J Mark 66 (1) 15ndash37

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ARTICLE IN PRESS

Please cite this article in press as Shu-Ching Chen Pascale G Quester The relative contribution of love and trust towards customer loyalty Australasian Marketing Journal (2015)doi 101016jausmj201412003

6 S-C Chen PG QuesterAustralasian Marketing Journal (2015) ndash