¶ … Loyalty Lai, F et al. (2009) How quality, value, image, and satisfaction create loyalty at a Chinese telecom Impact of Culture on Marketing Strategy, 62, 980 -- 986

Lai et al. (2009) propose and test a model that examines possible associaitons between service quality, value, image, satisfaction, and loyalty in China. The investigation and analysis of survey data from 118 customers of a Chinese mobile communications company reveals that quality of service directly influences both the perceived value and the image perceptions of the company, that this perceived value and customer image of the company after influence customer satisfaction, that the image of the manager influences the value of the company, and that both customer's satisfaction and perceived value (as well as real value) of company are the basic factors of loyalty.

The research is reliable in that a significant number of customers were surveyed. Limitations, however, consist in the fact that some of the customers may have been subjectively related to company, such as stakeholders in company, related to manager, received incentives for answering positively, and so forth. More so, researchers only surveyed one company; another -- or other -- companies may have showed different results. Customers too surveyed over time may have differed in their response. Recent conditions of the company may have prompted them to respond in the given manner. In other words, longitudinal and cross-sectional research may be additionally helpful for further research of...

Some of the outcome of the research too may be attributed to cultural factors such as China's classic characteristics of inclusion that may prompt manifestation of loyalty on the part of Chinese. (Another culture may evidence different determinants of loyalty).
This article is helpful to our research in that 'loyalty' is an abstract concept. The article shows that consumer loyalty can be premised on company value and characteristics of leader. These characteristics may easily be expended to achieve loyalty in general.

2. Brakus et al. (2009) Brand Experience: What Is It? How Is It Measured? Does It Affect Loyalty? Journal of Marketing. 73, 52 -- 68

Brand experience effects customer loyalty and therefore it is an important concept. Brand experience is defined as sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses that are evoked by certain aspects of the brand's packaging such as environment, communication, and overall stimuli. Brand packaging however can be nebulous and so the authors distinguish between several experiences and construct a brand experience scale that spans four dimensions: sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral. The authors test this scale in six studies to show that the scale is reliable, valid, and distinct from other brand measures that include brand evaluations, brand involvement, brand attachment, Customer delight, and brand personality.

The brand scale was thoroughly tested in different contexts. It is short and easy to administer consisting of…