The Customers’ Brand Identification with Luxury Hotels: A Social Identity Perspective

Abstract

This study relies on the social identity perspective to explore the relationships between the consumer-brand identification (CBI) construct and the customers’ satisfaction, commitment, trust and loyalty toward hospitality brands. The methodology included a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) that assessed the reliability and validity of previous tried and tested measures in marketing sciences. This study has supported the scales' content validity. A two-step structural equation modelling approach was used to analyze the relationships among the latent and observed constructs. The findings have reported a satisfactory fit for this study's research model. The empirical results shed light on the direct and indirect effects on brand loyalty. This contribution implies that brand trust had the highest effect on brand loyalty, and this was followed my other determinants, including; consumer-brand identification, consumer satisfaction and commitment. In conclusion, this paper identifies its research limitations and puts forward possible research avenues.

Keywords: brand, branding, consumer brand identification, social identity, brand loyalty, consumer satisfaction, trust, commitment

JEL Classification: M00, M1, M3, M30, M31