From Green Love marks to Brand Loyalty: Examining the Underlining Role of Customer Engagement Behaviour and Altruism

The current study aims to examine the interplay between green love marks and brand loyalty via the underlying role of customer engagement behaviour and altruism. Academics have shown a growing interest in the exploration of love mark brands;
however, understanding love marks from a green perspective and its key underlying mechanisms remained unexplored. Grounded in social exchange theory, the current study examines the green love mark brands (i.e. hybrid and electric cars) and brand loyalty relationship through the mediation of customer engagement behaviour. Furthermore, consumer altruism was assumed to moderate the proposed mediating effect. The current study adopted a questionnaire survey method for drawing a sample of 479 hybrid and electric car users in Pakistan. The analysis was performed by using a structural equation modelling approach. The current study adopted the recommended two-stage disjoint analysis to analyse higher-order latent variables (i.e. green love marks and brand loyalty). The findings of the current study suggest that brand loyalty positively regresses on green love marks and customer engagement behaviour. Furthermore, customer engagement behaviour mediates the link between green love marks and brand loyalty. Consumer altruism moderates the indirect effect of customer engagement behaviour where the relationship was stronger
amongst consumers with a higher level of altruism. This is the first study to conceptualise green love marks and examine the role of customer engagement behaviour in the green love mark-brand loyalty relationship. The current study also discussed the
novel role of altruism in green consumption thus offering numerous theoretical and managerial implications that are outlined in this study.