An Empirical Investigation of the Mediating Role of Customer Attachment in South African Private Hospitals

Abstract

Background and purpose: Relationship marketing literature acknowledges the important role of attachment in customer-organization relationships, but shows limited theoretical and empirical understanding of the factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of attached customers. To address this gap, this paper draws on the relationship marketing view and synthesizes important relationship constructs with the aim of developing a mediated attachment model for private hospitals in South Africa.

Keywords

• attachment
• fear of relationship loss
• loyalty
• private hospitals
• relationship value