Brand commitment as predecessor to the factors of continuance intention

Abstract

Japanese consumers have always been placed as one of the most highly loyal consumers in the world who are committed to purchasing certain brands for products in many different industries, such as automobiles, luxury goods, and electronics, to name a few. However in recent years, there is evidence to suggest that brand commitment in Japan is decreasing. In this study, we collected data from consumers in 2018 and again in 2023 using the same instrument to ascertain the change in brand commitment as a predecessor of consumer satisfaction, loyalty, and habit and ultimately their impacts on continuance behavior in using mobile wallet applications. We did not find the relationship between satisfaction and continuance intention to be significant in the 2023 model, unlike earlier. The results of this 5-year study comparison revealed that brand commitment was found to be a predecessor construct to both Japanese consumer satisfaction and habit across the years. It was also found that loyalty mediated the relationship between both habit and consumer satisfaction with continuance intention of mobile wallet applications usage. In summary, we found that brand commitment was significant in its relationship to satisfaction, loyalty and habit both in the 2018 and 2023 studies. This indicates a sustained and strong level of brand commitment in the mobile applications context by Japanese consumers. With this research, the knowledge on the well-known constructs of brand commitment, consumer satisfaction, loyalty, habit, and continuance intention have been extended in the area of mobile wallet applications. The findings provide up-to-date insights that have high relevance and important managerial implications in the international marketing research context beyond Japan.