Article Jindal Journal of Business Research 1–27 © 2021 O.P. Jindal Global University Reprints and permissions: in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india DOI: 10.1177/22786821211000182 journals.sagepub.com/home/brj 1 Lord Ashcroft International Business School, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom. 2 School of Accounting & Business Management, FTMS College, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Corresponding author: Omkar Dastane, School of Accounting & Business Management, FTMS College, Cyberjaya, Selangor 63000, Malaysia. E-mail: omkar.dastane@gmail.com Effectiveness of Loyalty Programs in Customer Retention: A Multiple Mediation Analysis Andy Chin Woon Fook 1 and Omkar Dastane 2 Abstract The impact of loyalty programs on customer retention was investigated in this study. Concomitantly, the mediating effects of brand association and customer satisfaction between loyalty programs and customer retention were also tested in three ways, viz., in parallel, distinct, and sequential through a series of structural models. The study focuses on the Malaysian national car sector, and empirical data was collected from 313 Malaysian national cars users through convenience sampling. This explanatory, quantitative research adopts a questionnaire as a survey instrument, and the collected data was first subjected to normality and reliability assessment followed by confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling using IBM SPSS AMOS 24. Multiple mediation analysis was then conducted, and results were confirmed through bootstrapping. Findings show that there is a significant positive impact of loyalty programs on customer retention. The brand association has a full mediation effect between loyalty programs and customer retention when tested in parallel with customer satisfaction; on the contrary, customer satisfaction demonstrated an insignificant mediation effect. On the other hand, when tested distinctly, brand association showed a partial mediating effect while there was no mediation effect of customer satisfaction. Besides, customer satisfaction and brand association demonstrated sequential partial mediation. Keywords XXX Introduction Increased competition and the availability of ample alternative options for customers to select their supe- rior service or product provider is a great challenge to most of the organizations in retaining existing customers for an extended period (Feliz & Maggi, 2019; Fritsch & Changoluisa, 2017; Winer, 2001). This scenario of increased competition is true for many industries including automobile sector [AQ1]