Investigating the Effects of Firm Affective Commitment to Loyal Customers on the Customers’ Citizenship Behavior Considering the Mediating Role of Customers’ Affective Commitment to the Firm (Case Study of Mellat Bank Branches in Neishabour City)

Abstract

Nowadays, the complex and dynamic field of the banking industry has faced challenges such as expanding competition, raising awareness and expectations of the customers. The low costs of changing the main bank for the customers and joining rival banks can be a result of the lack of loyalty programs in banks in order to bring about values for their customers. In fact, banks can increase their switching cost by creating loyalty in the customers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of organization’s effective commitment to loyal customers on their citizenship behavior regarding the mediating role of effective commitment of loyal customers among Mellat Bank Branches in Neishabour. This study is applied in terms of the purpose and is a descriptive and surveying study in terms of collecting data. Data collection was done using a questionnaire. The statistical population of the research is those customers of Mellat bank branches in Neyshabur who have been cooperating with the bank for at least 3 years. The sample size consists of 240 customers chosen based on simple randomized sampling. Data analysis was done based on structural equation modeling and using Amos software. The results of the research indicated that the organization’s effective commitment to loyal customers has a significant effect on their citizenship behavior considering the mediating role of customer’s effective commitment.

Keywords

• Affective commitment
• Citizenship behavior
• Loyal customers
• Mellat Bank