Antecedents of Customer Loyalty in The Telecommunications Industry -Evidence from Bangladesh

Abstract

With the rapid growth of the telecommunications industry in Bangladesh, many people have adopted this communication process. While previous studies have extensively examined the adoption of mobile services, few have focused on customer loyalty and satisfaction in Bangladesh. This study primarily investigates the factors that impact customer loyalty in the Bangladeshi context of the telecommunications industry. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) is used as the underlying theory to explain customer loyalty. A quantitative research strategy was employed, and data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire survey, with 360 out of 382 collected questionnaires being usable for analysis, resulting in a 94.24% usable data response rate. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with the assistance of Smart PLS 4.0 was used to analyze the collected data. The study's findings indicate that price and consumers' trust significantly affect customer satisfaction and loyalty in Bangladesh and have the same impact on the indirect effect of price and consumers' trust on customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. The proposed model highlights important and significant factors in customer satisfaction and loyalty, allowing telecommunications industry managers to identify the specific antecedents of loyalty and focus their policies on these, particularly in terms of price and consumers' trust in Bangladesh. Furthermore, this study offers numerous theoretical and practical implications for academics and practitioners. While the validation of this model in the telecommunications sector provides a novel perspective on comprehending customer loyalty from both theoretical and practical standpoints, it is important to acknowledge that there might exist additional factors influencing customer loyalty that warrant inclusion in future research endeavors. This research is one of the few to conceptually underpin the theoretical concept of exploring customer loyalty in a developing country like Bangladesh. Similarly, these findings may be applicable to other similar developing countries.