Brand Experience, Trust Components, and Customer Loyalty: Sustainable Malaysian SME Brands Study

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been competing for survival in the business arena among established organizations. Competitive foodservice business today requires a unique and lasting brand experience to capture customer loyalty. Despite that, earning customer trust is vital to ensure ongoing revenue and profit for business sustainability. Due to the significance contribution from SMEs in the service sector to the nation economy, this study will examine the relationship between brand experience, trust dimensions (i.e. intentions and reliability), and customer loyalty on sustainable SME brands in Malaysia. Data were collected from 220 customers through intercept survey method. The result from SmartPLS 2.0 analysis provides significant support for every direct path between brand experience, intentions, reliability, and brand loyalty. Meaningful insights from the result are provided for SME owner-managers at the discussion section.