Apple
The Service Industries Journal Vol. 30, No. 6, June 2010, 911 –928
Development of brand equity: evaluation of four alternative models
Hong-Youl Haaà , Swinder Jandab and Siva Muthalyc
College of Business Administration, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Kangwon-do, South Korea; bDepartment of Marketing, Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA; cDepartment of International Business Studies, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia (Received 20 February 2008; final version received 24 June 2008) This study examines the development of brand equity by evaluating the influences of brand associations, perceived quality, satisfaction, and brand loyalty. Based on insights from prior research, four models are proposed, which focus on alternative relationships among these four factors. Sample data sets from the banking and discount store services are used to evaluate the relationships between and among these four factors. Results of the comparative data analyses reveal that the research model fits the data significantly better than the other three models. In particular, the contention that the effects of perceived quality impact brand equity indirectly through satisfaction is supported. The findings indicate that the primary contribution of the current study lies in the inclusion of satisfaction as an antecedent to brand equity and in the attempts to adequately model its relationships with the more traditional brand equity antecedents of perceived quality, brand loyalty, and brand associations. These results, and their implications, along with avenues for further research are also elaborated in this research. Keywords: brand equity; perceived quality; banking; discount stores; customer satisfaction a Introduction Brand equity is the incremental utility gained by a product or service by virtue of its brand name. Brands high in equity such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Lexus, and Citibank have been known to command high degrees of recognition and resulting
Development of brand equity: evaluation of four alternative models
Hong-Youl Haaà , Swinder Jandab and Siva Muthalyc
College of Business Administration, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Kangwon-do, South Korea; bDepartment of Marketing, Kansas State University, Manhattan, USA; cDepartment of International Business Studies, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia (Received 20 February 2008; final version received 24 June 2008) This study examines the development of brand equity by evaluating the influences of brand associations, perceived quality, satisfaction, and brand loyalty. Based on insights from prior research, four models are proposed, which focus on alternative relationships among these four factors. Sample data sets from the banking and discount store services are used to evaluate the relationships between and among these four factors. Results of the comparative data analyses reveal that the research model fits the data significantly better than the other three models. In particular, the contention that the effects of perceived quality impact brand equity indirectly through satisfaction is supported. The findings indicate that the primary contribution of the current study lies in the inclusion of satisfaction as an antecedent to brand equity and in the attempts to adequately model its relationships with the more traditional brand equity antecedents of perceived quality, brand loyalty, and brand associations. These results, and their implications, along with avenues for further research are also elaborated in this research. Keywords: brand equity; perceived quality; banking; discount stores; customer satisfaction a Introduction Brand equity is the incremental utility gained by a product or service by virtue of its brand name. Brands high in equity such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Lexus, and Citibank have been known to command high degrees of recognition and resulting