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Abstract
The main subjects for this research are to find out the relationship between brand equity, perceived risk, customer loyalty and customer involvement, and to test the mediating roles of brand equity and customer loyalty on this relationship. The population for this research was identified as the consumers having the shopping experience for digital cameras in Taiwan, resulting in 190 individual surveys for study. The findings indicated brand equity, perceived risk, and customer loyalty have significant and positive relationship to customer involvement. The findings also support the hypotheses that brand equity and customer loyalty partially mediate the relationship between perceived risk and customer involvement, while customer loyalty has slightly stronger mediating effect on customer involvement than brand equity. Finally, this research generated the suggestions for business strategies and suggested future scholar studies.
Key Words: Customer Involvement, Brand Equity, Perceived Risk, Customer Loyalty, Electrical Consumer Product
Theoretical Foundation
Perceived risk and customer involvement have recognized as significant subject for consumer behavior research, and customer involvement has been regarded as the key indicator for customer retention. Yee and San (2011) claimed the perceived risk is the phenomenon when purchasing commercial goods in early stages by consumer's subjective evaluation. In other words, customer tends to avoid the risk for purchasing the goods which they are not familiar with. Santouridis and Trivellas (2010) suggested customer loyalty referred to the customer's attitude for re-purchasing intentions for buying same products. Knox and Walker (2003) indicated customer involvement will affect the final decision during purchasing procedure and the higher-involved customer will behave higher loyalty. Ailawadi and Keller (2004) defined brand equity is the profitability effect for leveraging asset and liability which related to product name, symbol, and brand. Simoes and Dibb (2001) also stated powerful brand image will raise consumers' faith for unseen value, give customers better product image or appreciate the intangible assets, and decrease consumers' perceived financial, social, or safety risk. And this behavioral intention will help to maintain the business relationship between customers and companies.
Hu (2011) conducted a research and supported the concept that customer involvement, brand equity, and perceived risk, have significant and positive relationship with customer loyalty. Based on the research by Olsen (2007), the customer involvement has acted a complete mediator role between customer...