Future Intentions in Fitness Center into account aspects that seem unimportant when observing linear models (such as emotions or age). However, both methodologies should be considered complementary and used simultaneously since, by focusing on different aspects, enriched results are obtained. The results obtained will enable managers to make more efficient use of available resources to increase user satisfaction.
Brand perception is a key element in achieving business success: how a brand is perceived by current and potential users determines what they think and their disposition towards the brand. The users' perception also determines whether they will perceive the sports service as offering a greater quality or value than other services, whether they will be more loyal, or whether they will recommend the service. This paper analyses the brand perception of users of a public sports service, creating a model of structural equations that analyses how credibility and trust influence a user's congruence with the brand and the generation of positive attitudes towards the brand and how these variables influence loyalty levels and recommendations. The results indicate that the proposed model can explain the variables of trust, congruence, attitudes, loyalty and word of mouth by more than 60%. The study finds that credibility influences trust but that credibility in itself does not cause a congruence with the brand, whereas trust does. Similarly, trust does not generate attitudes towards the brand but credibility and congruence do. Congruence generates loyalty but attitudes do not, and congruence, attitudes and loyalty influence recommendation to a similar extent, with congruence having the highest influence.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of brand-related variables as congruence and brand trust on the traditional model formed by perceived quality, perceived value (PV) and satisfaction, in order to compare predictive models for the variables of PV, satisfaction and future intentions of 683 users of sports services.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis has been carried out using two different methodologies. First, three models have been proposed to be analyzed by hierarchical regression models, in order to subsequently propose a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to verify the existence or not of necessary and sufficient conditions.
Findings
The results indicate that both the classic service variables and the elements related to the brand significantly predict PV, satisfaction and future intentions, in some cases with greater predictive weight being given to congruence and trust than the classic service variables. In addition, linear models have been shown to improve their predictive capability by including brand-related variables, especially the future intentions model. After the fsQCA, congruence and trust have proved to be sufficient combinations to achieve high levels of PV and future intentions, while this is not the case for satisfaction.
Originality/value
The importance of the aspects related to the brand, either on their own or in combination with the classic service variables, is demonstrated, contributing to the literature on brand image in sports services, which is practically non-existent.
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