Purpose

Satisfaction and loyalty as vital and strategic concepts in marketing literature are highly important to companies and marketers. The review of the existing literature reveals a gap of the role of emotional constructs that can begin in a regular and rational sequence of satisfaction and ultimately lead to the formation of consumer loyalty. Hence, in the current study, we seek to answer the question of whether emotional constructs such as emotional attachment and love play a mediating role in the process of transitioning from satisfaction to loyalty in the correct sequence.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 300 valid questionnaires on Smartphone and apparel brands were collected from respondents and analyzed using the partial least squares method.

Findings

The results showed that brand love is the strongest antecedent of brand loyalty and is the only variable that directly influences brand loyalty in comparison to satisfaction and emotional brand attachment. Moreover, the examination of indirect effects revealed that our assumption based on that the emotional structures such as emotional attachment and brand love play a mediating role in the process of transitioning from satisfaction to loyalty in a correct sequence is supported.

Research limitations/implications

Generalizability needs to be established with a wider range of consumer groups. The survey was conducted in Iran and future research should assess the same product categories in other cultural settings as well as consider other product categories to assess the external validity of these results. The insights on consumers' brand relationships help brand managers devise effective brand management strategies.

Practical implications

The managerial implications can guide managers toward enhancing the consumers' loyalty to the brand through a better understanding of the consumer loyalty process to a brand as well as better relational marketing practices.

Originality/value

The study validates the mediating role of emotional brand attachment and brand love in the relationship between brand satisfaction and brand loyalty; is one of the first to develop a conceptual model that examines the role of emotional structures in the process of transition from satisfaction to loyalty.; is one of few studies to develop the role of emotional structures in the form of a relational chain of brands in the process of transition from satisfaction to loyalty.

中文翻译：

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从满意到忠诚：情感结构在从满意到忠诚的转变过程中的作用

目的

满意度和忠诚度作为营销文献中至关重要的战略概念，对公司和营销人员来说非常重要。对现有文献的回顾揭示了情感结构的作用存在差距，这些情感结构可以从有规律和合理的满足序列开始，并最终导致消费者忠诚度的形成。因此，在当前的研究中，我们试图回答诸如情感依恋和爱之类的情感结构是否在以正确的顺序从满意过渡到忠诚的过程中发挥中介作用的问题。

设计/方法/方法

从受访者中收集了 300 份关于智能手机和服装品牌的有效问卷，并使用偏最小二乘法进行分析。

发现

结果表明，与满意度和情感品牌依恋相比，品牌热爱是品牌忠诚度的最强前因，并且是唯一直接影响品牌忠诚度的变量。此外，对间接影响的检验表明，我们基于情感依恋和品牌爱等情感结构在以正确顺序从满意过渡到忠诚的过程中发挥中介作用的假设得到支持。

研究限制/影响

需要在更广泛的消费群体中建立通用性。该调查是在伊朗进行的，未来的研究应该评估其他文化环境中的相同产品类别，并考虑其他产品类别来评估这些结果的外部有效性。对消费者品牌关系的洞察有助于品牌经理制定有效的品牌管理策略。

实际影响

管理意义可以通过更好地理解消费者对品牌的忠诚度过程以及更好的关系营销实践来指导管理者提高消费者对品牌的忠诚度。

原创性/价值

该研究验证了情感品牌依恋和品牌爱在品牌满意度和品牌忠诚度之间的中介作用；是最早开发概念模型的人之一，该模型检查情感结构在从满意到忠诚的过渡过程中的作用。是为数不多的以品牌关系链形式发展情感结构在从满意到忠诚的过渡过程中的作用的研究之一。