The Antecedents of Customer Loyalty: An Empirical Investigation in Life Insurance Context

Abstract

The present paper seeks to offer the most decipherable and widely applicable antecedents of customer loyalty. It explores the extant literature on customer loyalty and brings out seven variableswhich are responsible for formation of customer loyalty. Further, the relative importance of these variables has been ascertained through Multiple Regression Analysis which revealed that service quality and commitment are the strongest predictors of customer loyalty in theIndian life insurance industry. The paper also attempts to assess the loyalty status of life insurance customers in India and draw a comparison between public and private sector life insurancecompanies in order to provide significant insights to the life insurance companies that may assist them in devising better loyalty practices. The findings suggest that Indian customers do care about the public sector status of a financial service provider as it entails a sense of security and stability and thus creates a difference between customer loyalty of public sector life insurerand that of private sector life insurer. The paper holds significant implications for academicians interested in dynamics of customer loyalty as well as the marketers of life insurance services whoare concerned with customer relationships

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