From Green Lovemarks to Brand Loyalty: Examining the Underlining Role of Customer Engagement Behaviour and Altruism

The current study aims to examine the interplay between green lovemarks and brand loyalty via the underlying role of customer engagement behaviour and altruism. Academics have shown a growing interest in the exploration of lovemark brands; however, understanding lovemarks from a green perspective and its key underlying mechanisms remained unexplored. Grounded in social exchange theory, the current study examines the green lovemark brands (i.e. hybrid and electric cars) and brand loyalty relationship through the mediation of customer engagement behaviour. Furthermore, consumer altruism was assumed to moderate the proposed mediating effect. The current study adopted a questionnaire survey method for drawing a sample of 479 hybrid and electric car users in Pakistan. The analysis was performed by using a structural equation modelling approach. The current study adopted the recommended two-stage disjoint analysis to analyse higher-order latent variables (i.e. green lovemarks and brand loyalty). The findings of the current study suggest that brand loyalty positively regresses on green lovemarks and customer engagement behaviour. Furthermore, customer engagement behaviour mediates the link between green lovemarks and brand loyalty. Consumer altruism moderates the indirect effect of customer engagement behaviour where the relationship was stronger amongst consumers with a higher level of altruism. This is the first study to conceptualise green lovemarks and examine the role of customer engagement behaviour in the green lovemark-brand loyalty relationship. The current study also discussed the novel role of altruism in green consumption thus offering numerous theoretical and managerial implications that are outlined in this study.