THE INFLUENCE OF VALUE ON LOYALTY
IN THE SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY
Nic S. TERBLANCHE
(Received: January 26, 2011; revision received: August 13, 2012;
accepted: April 2, 2013)
The advent of service-dominant logic has led to increasing attention being given to value experi-
enced by customers in the marketing literature. Customers’ shopping value is multidimensional and
consists of two dimensions, namely utilitarian value and hedonic value. The main objective of this
study was to determine whether selected constructs impact on value and whether value impacts on
loyalty amongst customers of a firm operating in the South African supermarket industry. The find-
ings indicate that satisfaction has the strongest relationship with utilitarian value, which, in turn, has
a strong relationship with customer loyalty. More loyalty will not result from an increase in the
hedonic value that a supermarket customer experiences, regardless of an enhanced shopping experi-
ence.
Keywords: value, loyalty, retailing, South Africa, marketing
JEL classification index: M31
1. INTRODUCTION
The primary objective of this study was to ascertain whether selected constructs
impact on value and whether value, in turn, impacts on loyalty among the custom-
ers of a firm operating in the South African supermarket industry. The particular
constructs selected for their relationship with value are store image, pleasure, and
arousal and satisfaction. Earlier studies have found all of these constructs to have
a positive relationship with value (Babin – Attaway 2000; Jones et al. 2006;
Malthouse – Mulhern 2007).
0001-6373/$20.00 © 2013 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest
Acta Oeconomica, Vol. 63 (2) pp. 185–200 (2013)
DOI: 10.1556/AOecon.63.2013.2.3
Corresponding address: N. S. Terblanche, Department of Business Management, University of
Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, MATIELAND 7602, South Africa. E-mail: nst@sun.ac.za