The evolution of psychological involvement and customer loyalty: a longitudinal analysis of fitness facility members

Psychological involvement is a leading concept within sport management used to understand consumers’ behavior and their connection with a sport entity. Despite the concept’s importance, there is limited evidence on the longitudinal dynamics of its three facets (pleasure, centrality, and sign). To examine the relationships between the facets of psychological involvement and customer loyalty (attitudinal loyalty and visit frequency) over time, we conducted a three-wave longitudinal investigation using data from new fitness center customers (n = 150). Results indicate that while the impact of pleasure on attitudinal loyalty decreased from time 1 to time 2, the relationship between centrality and attitudinal loyalty increased during the same time period. Our findings further demonstrate that baseline pleasure (t1) has a sequential relationship with visit frequency (t3), first through baseline attitudinal loyalty (t1), and then through future attitudinal loyalty (t2). Our results imply that pleasure and centrality are salient to loyalty development.