Effects of Brand Heritage on Intentions to Buy of Airline Services: The Mediating Roles of Brand Trust and Brand Loyalty

Abstract

Brands are facing significant pressures in globalized markets so as to communicate a consistent corporate identity to their customers. Accordingly, the established past of a brand should be considered a key resource by giving the organization a competitive advantage in the marketplace. This paper examines the relationship between brand heritage and consumers’ purchase intentions of airline services and investigates the mediating roles of trust and loyalty. We conceptualize that brand heritage will have a positive effect on consumers’ purchase intentions of airline services. Moreover, using the Commitment-Trust Theory (Morgan and Hunt, 1994), we hypothesize that brand trust and brand loyalty will mediate the relationship between brand heritage and purchase intentions. Data for the study (n = 567) is collected through personal interviews of airline passengers traveling from 10 different major airports in Turkey. Results reveal that brand heritage has a significant positive direct effect on purchase intensions; however, when the brand trust and brand loyalty constructs are introduced into the model, the direct effect becomes statistically insignificant, demonstrating full mediation roles of brand trust and brand loyalty on purchase intentions. Research and practical implications are discussed.