Brand Experience, Trust Components, and Customer Loyalty: Sustainable Malaysian SME Brands Study

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been competing for survival in the business arena among established organizations. Competitive foodservice business today requires a unique and lasting brand experience to capture customer loyalty. Despite that, earning customer trust is vital to ensure ongoing revenue and profit for business sustainability. Due to the significance contribution from SMEs in the service sector to the nation economy, this study will examine the relationship between brand experience, trust dimensions (i.e. intentions and reliability), and customer loyalty on sustainable SME brands in Malaysia. Data were collected from 220 customers through intercept survey method. The result from SmartPLS 2.0 analysis provides significant support for every direct path between brand experience, intentions, reliability, and brand loyalty. Meaningful insights from the result are provided for SME owner-managers at the discussion section.

The influence of brand experiences on consumer-based brand equity

“…In addition, brand experience has a significant direct and positive effect in brand personality, consumer satisfaction, brand loyalty and in consumer-brand relationship (Başer, Cintamür & Arslan, 2015;Keng et al, 2013;Ramaseshan & Stein, 2014;Sözer & Civelek, 2018). Ong, Salleh and Yusoff (2015) confirm a positive and direct relationship between brand experiences and brand loyalty, highlighting the importance of developing experiences considering the difficulty of replicating the intangible and experiential aspects of brand experiences.…”

Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Business Sustainability: The Dual Mediation

“…Azmat and Ha (2013) also state that higher customer loyalty and trust are recognized as important for businesses to gain a unique profit advantage in the market. A similar statement was also expressed by Ong and Zien (2015): customer trust and loyalty are very important to ensure sustainable income and profits for business sustainability.…”

“…Studies have proven that customer trust and loyalty can maintain the sustainability of an institution/company/organization. The results of Ong and Zien's (2015) research on a number of SMEs in Malaysia found that their sustainability was largely determined by the level of trust that their customers held. Similar results were also found in research conducted by Nguyen et al (2013) and Upamannyu et al (2015).…”

“…Aslam et al (2020) stated that loyalty is a key factor in obtaining benefits and organizational growth in the long term. Additionally, Ong and Zien (2015) stated that customer trust and loyalty are very important to ensure sustainable income and profits as well as overall business sustainability in the long term.…”

Mediated Model of Digitalized Corporations in the Context of Price Fairness and Customer Perceived Quality

“…Digitalized corporation's practice of product choice has been influenced by the trust the digitalized corporation has in its services and perceived quality (Riasma et al, 2018). The digitalized corporation can achieve greater revenue by gaining the customer's trust for long-term affiliation with it; thus, there is an active, positive association between trust and customer loyalty (Han & Jeong, 2013;Ong & Yusoff, 2015). Kim et al (2015) investigated that trust powerfully executes the elements of brand involvement of digitalized corporations on that portal, and due to these repeated experiences, digitalized corporations adopt a higher level of loyalty.…”