Outlook · Volume 11 · 2013

Exploring customer attachment behaviour to sustain the retail industry in Malaysia

Rozita Naina Mohamed
Universiti Teknologi Mara
Malaysia
Halimahton Borhan
Universiti Teknologi Mara
Malaysia
Purpose

The effectiveness of customer experience management to current market growth and perhaps business sustainability has drawn the attention of practitioners and academicians. This paper aims to address the gap by empirically investigating the effect of service encounter, trustworthy promotion and customer attachment behaviour with the moderating influence of customer emotional experience and commitment.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The study has used a survey approach with a self-administered questionnaire distributed in a retail storeintercept: a drop off and collect technique. A hypothesized model was developed, analyzed and tested rigorously using the structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure.

Findings

The findings reveal that customer emotional experience has positive significant effects on customer attachment behaviour, but not commitment. However, consumers in general will look for the trustworthiness of promotional activities when purchasing both local and international products.

Original/Value of the Paper

The novelty of this study is the contribution of original knowledge through the development of new findings from a new invention, using the practical tool of comprehensive customer emotion experience, with new dimensions, scale and model. These findings have important implications for future research directions and management of the local or international retail industry.

Keywords
Customer experience managementCustomer attachment behaviourCommitmentStructural Equation ModellingRetail industry