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Abstract

Assessing customer's vulnerability to competitive offers and separating loyalty owned by employees versus company-owned loyalty are strategically important for a firm's survival. This paper investigates gender differences in the willingness to forego a more attractive alternative to stay loyal to a particular organisation or employee. Across three experimental studies the results suggest that female and male consumers are willing to forego a more attractive alternative, yet for different objects of loyalty. Whereas females tend to be loyal to individual employees; males concentrate their loyalty at the level of organisations. The paper concludes with several strategic implications for marketing managers with respect to strategic recourse allocation and relationship marketing.

Keywords

Loyalty Employee-owned loyalty Company-owned loyalty Switching Gender differences

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Resisting Temptation: Gender Differences in Customer Loyalty in the Presence of a More Attractive Alternative

Abstract

Keywords

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