KOREASCHOLAR

Major changes are challenging the tourist industry, such as new entrants, suppliers’ direct sales without intermediaries, and customers’ bargaining power due to Internet services, among others. In this context, the aim of this research is to assess the influence of two emerging constructs, eWOM adoption and customer engagement, jointly with consumer trust and brand equity, on travel agency loyalty. There is a huge amount of research available regarding the variables considered in this study: (i) brand trust and equity, and brand loyalty, have always been considered in the marketing literature; (ii) engagement and eWOM adoption have aroused interest from researchers since online comments gain popularity and usefulness. But their consideration in literature has been based, in most of the analyses, on symmetric relationships and it then fails to recognize the occurrence of causal asymmetry. In the present research a novel methodology is adopted, fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), which uses Boolean algebra to show how causal conditions combine to bring about outcomes. On a sample of 520 travelers and through a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, data shows that brand trust and brand equity are key drivers of loyalty, measured as a repurchase intention. In fact, jointly both variables lead to travel agency loyalty and when no engagement-enthusiasm dimension exists, for individual repurchase intention, brand equity or brand trust are also needed. Moreover, just engagement in terms of interactions also leads to brand loyalty, but engagement-enthusiasm dimension needs support of eWOM adoption to impact travel agency repurchase intentions. This finding highlights the specific importance of each analyzed variable as key drivers of travel agency loyalty. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided based on results.

• Enrique Bigne(University of Valencia, Spain)
• Eva-María Caplliure(University of Valencia, Spain)
• Maria-Jose Miquel(University of Valencia, Spain)
• Carla Ruiz(University of Valencia, Spain)