Influencing factors of customer loyalty in mobile payment: A consumption value perspective and the role of alternative attractiveness

The rapid development of mobile payment has attracted many competitors and made customer retention a crucial issue for mobile payment service providers. This study examines the influencing factors of mobile payment loyalty from a multi-dimensional value perspective by extending and integrating the Cognitive-Affective-Behaviour (C-A-B) model and the Theory of Consumption Values (TCV). We also incorporate alternative attractiveness as a moderating variable to reveal the potential influence of the competitive market environment. This study collected 427 questionnaires from mobile payment users in China. The empirical study results show that customers’ loyalty is determined by satisfaction, and satisfaction is influenced by functional, emotional, epistemic, and monetary value. The findings also demonstrate that satisfaction has mediated the consumption values and loyalty relationship, and alternative attractiveness has weakened the influence of satisfaction on loyalty. This study shifts the focus in mobile payment research from adoption to the post-adoption stage and establishes a new research model by integrating two fundamental theories in explaining customer behaviour. Our study could guide mobile payment providers to cultivate customer satisfaction and loyalty by determining the values that are worth investing in their marketing strategies and help them notice and neutralise the weakening effect of competitor attractiveness.