Not the relationship type? Loyalty propensity as a reason to maintain marketing relationships

The relationship marketing literature largely overlooks the most common type of loyal consumer, one who feels no personal attachment to a firm (Guo et al., Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,45(3), 357–376, 2017). To explain why so many consumers engage in this pragmatic form of loyalty, we bridge the loyalty and relationship marketing literature to reconsider the conceptualization and measurement of loyalty propensity. In particular, the present research provides evidence of loyalty propensity as a multi-dimensional relational schema that draws from consumers’ self-identity as a moral actor and less altruistic traits (e.g., deal proneness). As per these theoretical foundations, we develop a two-dimensional scale for loyalty propensity and assess it across four studies. The results indicate that loyalty propensity predicts loyalty outcomes (e.g., loyalty and economic exchange), whereas relational constructs (i.e., preference for closeness) predict relational outcomes (e.g., attachment and social exchange). A field study shows that loyalty propensity strongly predicts consumer responsiveness to a firm’s loyalty investments (e.g., sales agents’ customer orientation). Overall, the present research provides a way to expand the view of consumers as either relational or transactional.