Reviewing the Construct of Customer Loyalty: Its Measures, Determinants, and Outcomes

Abstract

The present paper reviews the construct of customer loyalty through literature review.
There is need for revisiting the construct of customer loyalty given to its importance
and the absence of a common definition and approach to study the construct. The
paper looks into the approaches to operationalize the construct and arrive at a
comprehensive operational definition that may encompass the construct in its
entirety. Furthermore, it attempts to study the literature on customer loyalty to dig
out the variables responsible to determine the customer loyalty and summarize the
possible outcomes of the variable of interest. For this purpose, systematic literature
review approach has been used. The article provides an insight into the construct, its
determinants, and outcomes for academicians and practitioners.This study develops,
based on literature review, the operational definition, determinants, and outcomes of
the construct of customer loyalty. Customer loyalist is a three-dimensional construct
consisting of trust, commitment, and customer relationship. It is observed that
determinants and outcomes of customer loyalty are relevant to the nature of the
product that further corresponds to distinct types of loyalty named as hand loyalty,
head loyalty, and heart loyalty and therefore should be approached accordingly.