Customer loyalty in the fast food restaurants of Bangladesh Mohammed Belal Uddin Department of Accounting & Information Systems, Comilla University, Cumilla, Bangladesh Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the satisfaction of customer and customer loyalty in the fast food restaurant industry. A theoretical model, including hypotheses, has been proposed in this study. Design/methodology/approach – Data were assembled using convenient sampling method. The hypothesized model was verified with the data from 204 respondents. Principal component analysis and structural equation modeling approach were applied to analyze data. Findings – The results (significant at p o0.01 and p o0.05) exhibited that food quality, price and service quality were positively linked to customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction was positively associated with customer loyalty. The empirical results found a contrary association between the location and environment of restaurant and customer satisfaction. Practical implications – The managers and owners of fast food restaurants may use the results of this study to confirm customer satisfaction and loyalty of the customer. With loyal customer groups, their businesses can be sustained and gradually grown up. Originality/value – This study will provide guidelines for the management of fast food restaurants to formulate their business strategies in the competitive market. It will give a signal to the managers to stay focused on customer relationship management as the ultimate goal of the business. Keywords Bangladesh, Customer loyalty, Customer satisfaction, Fast food restaurant Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Customer perceived value regarding any product and service is very crucial for brand loyalty. In a service factory like a fast food restaurant, to make customer loyal is an ultimate goal by providing value-based service and food (Baker and Wakefield, 2012; Izquierdo-Yusta et al., 2019). The quality of food and service, attractive price and pleasant atmosphere increase the level of satisfaction of customers ( Jani and Han, 2015). Customer satisfaction achievement is the precondition for loyal customers. Managers and owners of restaurants believe that loyal customers are much valuable than causal customers even they are also customers (Espinosa et al., 2018). An increased level of satisfaction leads to customer retention, and consequently, restaurants can enjoy higher profits, positive word of mouth, repetitive transactions with regular customers, lower marketing and promotional activities. Bangladesh holds 40th largest consumer market in the world. Per capita income of Bangladeshi people is more than USD1900 (equivalent to BDT1,61,500, BDT means Bangladeshi currency unit) per year. The fast food business was started in Bangladesh in the early 1990s, and in the beginning of 2000, Bangladesh had experience with international fast food brands such as Pizza Hut and KFC (Islam and Ullah, 2010). Although there are no specific statistics for the fast food restaurant business in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics provides estimated figures of national income, and it presented that hotel and restaurant industry might have 7.28 percent growth in the financial year 2018‒2019. The growth rate was 7.13 percent in the fiscal year 2017‒2018. The volume of business of this sector is expected to reach at BDT73.16bn in the 2018‒2019 fiscal year, which was BDT68.20bn in the last fiscal year. The fast food restaurant business is a lucrative business in Bangladesh. It is a complex nature of the business because it provides product and service at the same time to the customers. British Food Journal Vol. 121 No. 11, 2019 pp. 2791-2808 © Emerald Publishing Limited 0007-070X DOI 10.1108/BFJ-02-2019-0140 Received 25 February 2019 Revised 22 July 2019 Accepted 22 July 2019 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/0007-070X.htm 2791 Customer loyalty in the fast food restaurants