Research On The Effects Of Customer Equity Drivers On Customer Loyalty

With the development of economy and society, market competition becomes increasingly intense. The concept of product-centered has been replaced by the product-centered marketing concept, and the customer turns to be the most valuable assets for firms. As the contradiction between the growing customer needs and the firm's limited resources goes deep, a reasonable distribution of the limited resources to satisfy customer needs, and maintain consistently profits is the focus both in business practice and academic research. For a long time, senior managers are trying to create and foster loyal customers, because customer loyalty not only can bring current cash flow, but also the basis for gaining continuous profits in future. The goal of a firm is to improve the customer equity and customer loyalty. Therefore, based on customer equity drivers and customer loyalty, the research on linking operational marketing inputs to outcomes is of great theory and reality significance.Based on the relevant literature about customer equity and customer loyalty, the study analyzes the relationship between customer equity drivers and customer loyalty. According to the content and composition of customer equity, three drivers——value equity, brand equity and relationship equity are identified. Customer loyalty is a complex concept which influenced by multi-factors, it can be divided into behavior loyalty and attitude loyalty. By analyzing the relationship between customer equity drivers and customer loyalty, the study proposes a conceptual model and some theoretical hypotheses. A structural equation model is built, in which value equity, brand equity and relationship equity are independent variables, behavior loyalty and attitude loyalty are dependent variables. The study collects empirical data from bank card users through the questionnaires, using statistical software of SPSS13.0 and AMOS6.0 to analyze the data. There are some conclusions as following: value equity and brand equity have a positive impact on behavior loyalty, brand equity and relationship equity have a positive impact on attitude loyalty. Meanwhile, attitude loyalty has a positive impact on behavior loyalty. In the end, the study offers some useful managerial implications,and points out the limitations and future research.