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1. Introduction
Studies focusing on service quality, value and satisfaction are predominant in the literature; in particular, the effects of these three determinants on post-purchase behavior have been of considerable interest to business managers, as well as academics (Cronin et al. , 2000; Petrick, 2004; Tam, 2004). While the importance of these three factors is undisputed, their collective impact on customers' loyalty behaviors remains controversial (Brady et al. , 2005; Cronin et al. , 2000).
Some researchers have shown that service quality does influence loyalty behavior (Asubonteng et al. , 1996; Boulding et al. , 1993; Bloemer et al. , 1999; Zeithaml et al. , 1996). However, Cronin et al. (1997, p. 376) state that no relationship exists between service quality and post-purchase behavior; instead, they suggest that service quality often correlates with purchase behavior. Moreover, according to some researchers, service quality only indirectly affects loyalty (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Sweeney et al. , 1999; Wakefield and Barnes, 1996), while customer satisfaction and perceived service value are more direct antecedents of customer loyalty (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993; Athanassopoulos, 2000; Bolton, 1998; Bolton and Lemon, 1999; Chen, 2008; Cronin et al. , 1997; Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Hallowell, 1996; Sweeney et al. , 1999; Wakefield and Barnes, 1996). Thus, in most previous studies, perceived value, customer satisfaction and service quality in the context of loyalty have largely been the subject of speculation, and, as a result, little attention has been given to testing the direct effects of these three determinants on loyalty behavior.
To further complicate the matter, loyalty is a multidimensional concept, which, according to Sheth and Park (1974), is "determined by several distinct psychological processes and entails multivariate measurements". According to Fullerton (2003), customer commitment is based on switching costs, i.e. the negative costs that a consumer incurs as a result of changing suppliers, brands or products, and dependence, both of which have mixed effects on the behavioral aspects of customer loyalty. Increasingly, managers are seriously taking into account the "psychological dimensions of the customers' commitment" as being good indicators by which to estimate future customer behavior (Zhang and Bloemer, 2008) and important factors in building long-term relationships (Adjei and Clark, 2010). However, because current literature still lacks sufficient research on the formation of...