مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Determining Factors Affecting Customers’ Tendencies for Developing Loyalty: A Study on Smartphone Users

Abstract :

When the market’s growing rate slows down or competition increases in the market, it gets vital for businesses to keep their customers. It should be acknowledged that the first step to have loyal customers is to keep customers. There are many possible ways that businesses can do to turn customers into loyal ones such as increasing value perceived by customers or creating switching barriers in order to prevent customers from choosing rival businesses. In addition to these, demographic features of customers and their preferences in using the products can be alternative ways to turn them into loyal customers. Within this regard, this study aims to explain whether customers show tendency to develop loyalty or not when buying smartphones through analysing factors such as perceived value of customers in smartphone market in Turkey, switching cost, demographic data and characteristics of smartphone usage. A total of 877 data were collected through online questionnaire and analysed. Logistic regression analysis was adopted in order to differentiate two groups those who developed loyalty and those who didn’t. In this way, distinctive properties of loyal customers were identified. Based on the findings of the study, effects of perceived value and switching cost on customer’s loyalty were found statistically significant in terms of smartphone market. Furthermore, effects of gender as a demographic feature and smartphone brands preferred by customers as a phone usage feature on customers’ loyalty were found to contribute greatly to the statistical model.