Enhancing customer relationships with retail service brands: The role of customer engagement

Purpose – The concept of customer engagement (CE) has emerged as an important indicator of customer-brand relationship strength. However, limited research exists to provide insight into how CE enhances the effectiveness of building such a relationship in retail services. The purpose of this paper is to extend the current understanding of CE through examination of its role in the development of customer-brand relationship quality. Design/methodology/approach – To test the hypotheses contained in the proposed conceptual model, the authors used a quantitative method that included a survey questionnaire to measure customers’ perceptions with respect to the constructs of interest. Specifically, two studies were conducted in Australia. Study 1 was intended to empirically test the theoretical relationships among the constructs, while Study 2 aimed to replicate the proposed model with a different sample to enhance external validity. Findings – In two separate studies, the results of a structural model show that t...

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