The Effects of Task Service Fit on Brand Loyalty: A Study of Branded Apps

Introduction

Consumer behavior researchers have long sought to understand the factors which influence brand loyalty, since brand loyalty has been tied to a variety of organizational success factors including post purchase satisfaction (Nam et al., 2011) and repurchase intention (Chinomona & Maziriri, 2017). Traditional consumer behavior researchers have noted that in the absence of complete information about the ability of a product or service to meet a need or desire, brands serve as a heuristic by which consumers could estimate the quality and effectiveness of a product or service to meet that need, and thus make the consumer feel more comfortable making a purchase decision (Maheswaran et al., 1992). In the digital age, information shortages and information inaccessibility regarding product and service characteristics have been replaced by information excess and cognitively overloaded consumers (Furner & Zinko, 2017). In addition to the dearth of information available online, modern consumers must contend with false or misleading information regarding products or services, which may stem from “fake” online reviews (Luca & Zervas, 2016; Zinko et al., 2020). As such, the reliance on brand perceptions to reduce uncertainty regarding purchase decisions did not dissipate as information became for plentiful and accessible, rather, it increased.

Since brand perceptions influence purchase decisions, even when information is abundant and accessible, brand holders in the digital age have sought to strengthen brand perceptions using the technology of their time, from the their own websites (Van Noort et al., 2012) to spam e-mails (Moustakas et al., 2006), review platforms (Kostyra et al., 2016) and social media (Choi, 2019). Now, as more consumers are using their mobile devices for news consumption, social media participation and shopping, brand holders recognize the potential to influence brand perceptions using branded mobile applications. While the potential to influence brand perceptions via mobile applications has been demonstrated (e.g. Kim et al., 2013), mobile computing differs from traditional and even web computing in a variety of ways. Specifically, mobile users experience more navigation challenges, must contend with a small focus area and are often multitasking or distracted (Furner, Racherla, et al., 2018). As such, some of the cognitive models that researchers have developed to explain consumer behavior in a traditional or even e-commerce context may not apply in a mobile context. This study is motivated by the potential for mobile apps to influence brand perceptions, and seeks to understand the extent to which mobile app characteristics and traditional brand characteristics influence brand attitudes.

Specifically, we investigate antecedents of brand loyalty in a branded mobile app context. Our research objective is to determine how brand holders can increase brand loyalty in the mobile computing environment. Our research questions are as follows:

• RQ1: Do the relationships between consumer perceptions and brand loyalty hold in a mobile environment?

• RQ2: Do the relationships between consumer perceptions and co-creation hold in mobile environment?

To answer these questions, we build a model of brand loyalty and co-creation in which perceptions of task-service fit and experience with a mobile app influence co-creation as well as brand loyalty. This paper proceeds as follows: First, our model is developed and relevant literature is reviewed. Next, we describe the research method and report the results. These results are then discussed in terms of practical and research implications. Summarizing remarks conclude the paper.

Literature Review

In order to develop a model of brand loyalty in a mobile application context, relevant literature related to branded apps, service dominant logic and our outcomes variables: brand loyalty and brand co-creation are reviewed.