Consumer-Retailer Emotional Attachment: Some Antecedents and Personality

Moderators
Pavlos A. Vlachos and Adam Vrechopoulos
Graduate School of DEREE-The American College of Greece and Athens University of
Economics and Business
Date Posted: December 20, 2009
Last Revised: December 27, 2009
Working Paper Series
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Abstract
http://ssrn.com/abstract=15259

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Consumer-Retailer Emotional Attachment: Some

Antecedents and Personality Moderators
Pavlos A. Vlachos
Graduate School of DEREE-The American College of Greece

Adam Vrechopoulos
Athens University of Economics and Business

December 19, 2009

Abstract:
Since loyalty in services remains elusive and unpredictable, there is need to study consumer relationships
with firms apart from the established satisfaction-loyalty chain approach. To that end, the present paper
focuses on feelings of attachment and love and investigates through two empirical consumer studies, in
two different grocery retailer brands, (a) emotional attachment effects on re-patronage intentions, (b)
predictors of emotional attachment and, (c) moderating effects of consumer traits’ on the (a) relationship
presented above. The findings imply that perceived transactional value, retail store image and corporate
social responsibility (CSR) associations determineconsumer-retailer emotional attachment levels.
Furthermore, we find that for consumers scoring low on the social value of warm relationships with others,
and for consumers characterized by an avoidant attachment style, the effect of emotional attachment on
re-patronage intentions is less salient. Interestingly, in the case of high avoidant individuals the effect is
negative. Direct managerial implications for effectively manipulating consumer-firm emotional attachment
in the context of grocery retailing as well as future research perspectives are provided at the end.
Keywords: Emotional Attachment, Loyalty, Consumer Behaviour, Retailing
JEL Classifications: M31
Working Paper Series
Date posted: December 20, 2009
Suggested Citation
Vlachos, Pavlos A. and Vrechopoulos, Adam, Consumer-Retailer Emotional Attachment: Some Antecedents and Personality
Moderators (December 19, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1525912
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