Is brand experience a good mediator? An empirical study on ISP sector

Abstract

Notwithstanding the increasing acknowledgment of prominence of Brand Loyalty (BL), in business performance, research efforts directed at investigating the relationship among Brand Service Quality (ServQ), Brand Experience (BE), Brand Trust (BT) and Brand Loyalty (BL) in the context of Kurdistan Region internet service industry, have largely been neglected. Therefore, the principal objective of this study is to fill this void. Service quality in this research is measured in two dimensions: technical and functional, while BE is measured in four dimensions: sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral. In particular, the current study seeks to explore the direct effects of Technical Service Quality (TQ) and Functional Service Quality (FQ) on consumer BE, BT and BL; and the mediating role of BE in brand service quality – brand trust relationship. Moreover, the direct impact of BT on BL along with the mediating role of BT in the BE-BL relationship will also be examined. To empirically test the posited research hypotheses, data is collected from internet consumers in Sulaymaniyah and Erbil provinces of the Kurdistan region in Iraq. In total, 485 internet users were interviewed in the region. The collected data were analyzed using IBM AMOS 23. Findings demonstrate that the Technical Quality of internet services impacts Brand Experience more positively than Functional Quality does. On the contrary, Functional Quality affects the customer Brand Trust directly while Technical Quality does not have any direct impact on the customer Brand Trust. Secondly, It is also observed that Brand Experience significantly mediates the relations between Technical Quality and Brand Trust. The direct impact of the Functional Quality on Brand Trust was stronger than the mediation effect of Brand Experience between Functional Quality and Brand Trust. It was observed that Brand Trust had a significant impact on customer Brand Loyalty. Lastly, Brand Trust significantly mediates the relations between Brand Experience and Brand Loyalty.