Chain restaurant brand and patrons` post-purchase behaviors in the steakhouse context

In spite of the emerging tough competitions and the recognized importance of loyalty in restaurant industry, little research has examined the role of attitude, brand awareness, brand experiences, and attachment in explicating customer post purchase behavior. In this regard, this research attempted to make an empirical effort to examine the role of attitude toward the brand, awareness of the brand, and brand experiences in building customer loyalty by taking into account the moderating effect of attachment to the brand for a chain steakhouse brand. Employing a filed survey method, we utilized the quantitative analytic approach for the research purpose. A proposed conceptual framework comprising study variables was successfully developed and tested. As results, this research showed that attitude toward the brand and awareness of the brand are the important drivers of formation of customer loyalty among the constructs we tested. In addition, attachment to brand played a crucial moderating role in the relationship between the attitude and the customer loyalty. Overall, our findings significantly enhanced our understanding of these variables and their roles in customer loyalty formation for the steakhouse brand in theoretical implications. In pragmatic standpoints, practitioners as well as operators will be able to have clearer comprehensions to enhance level of customer loyalty in the chain steakhouse industry in which the competition is growing.