Reena Mohamad Nasir

A STUDY ON FACTORS INFLUENCING BRAND LOYALTY IN MOBILE

SERVICE PROVIDERS AMONG COLLEGE OF BUSINESS STUDENTS

OF UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

REENA BINTI MOHAMAD NASIR

UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

JUNE 2012

A STUDY ON FACTORS INFLUENCING BRAND LOYALTY IN MOBILE

SERVICE PROVIDERS AMONG COLLEGE OF BUSINESS STUDENTS

OF UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

by

REENA BINTI MOHAMAD NASIR

Thesis Submitted to

Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business,

Universiti Utara Malaysia,

in Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Master of Science

PERMISSION TO USE

In presenting this project paper in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a

postgraduate degree from Universiti Utara Malaysia, I agree that the University Library

make a freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this

project paper in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purpose may be granted

by my supervisor or, in their absence by the Dean of Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate

School of Business. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this project

paper or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be given to me and to Universiti Utara

Malaysia for any scholarly use which may be made of any material from my project

paper.

Request for permission to copy or make other use of materials in this project paper, in

whole or in part should be addressed to:

Dean of Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business

Universiti Utara Malaysia

06010 UUM Sintok

Kedah Darul Aman

ABSTRACT

Mobile phones have become a necessity in human life. This is due to technological

advances that allow people to communicate with each other anywhere and at any

time. This also contributes to the increase in the telecommunication sector of the

country. Leading telecommunication companies are now competing with each other

to become a major provider and attract more customers. This situation also will lead

the customers often switch from one provider to another provider to get the best

service. As competition is increasing among the companies, it is necessary for them

to know about the customers’ perception on price, service quality, promotions, and

trends that play a vital role in choosing the mobile service providers. This study aims

to find out what are critical factors that play an important role to select the

telecommunication service provider. This study was conducted among College of

Business students of Universiti Utara Malaysia. The data is processed by using

quantititave analysis. The method used in analyzed the data are Descriptive Analysis

and Multiple Regression Analysis as there are four variables involved in this study,

which are price, service quality, promotions, and trends. The results provides a

comprehensive analysis of the important factors for the customer to select the mobile

service providers. The analysis confirms that the significant positive relationship of

trends towards brand loyalty. It will be a great challenge for the service providers to

prepare their strategic plan in maintaining customer loyalty, and at the same time

expending their customer base. In conclusion, the mobile service providers should

emphasize the factor such as trends that can maintain customer loyalty as customers

today are more intelligent and smart.

ABSTRAK

Telefon bimbit telah menjadi satu keperluan dalam kehidupan manusia. Ini adalah

disebabkan oleh kemajuan teknologi yang membolehkan kita untuk berkomunikasi

antara satu sama lain di mana-mana sahaja dan pada bila-bila masa. Ini juga

menyumbang kepada peningkatan dalam sektor telekomunikasi negara. Syarikat-

syarikat telekomunikasi kini bersaing antara satu sama lain untuk menjadi pembekal

utama dan menarik lebih ramai pelanggan. Keadaan ini juga mendorong pelanggan

untuk sering bertukar dari satu pembekal kepada pembekal yang lain demi

mendapatkan perkhidmatan yang terbaik. Dengan persaingan yang semakin hebat,

adalah perlu bagi pihak telekomunikasi untuk mengetahui persepsi pelanggan

terhadap harga, kualiti perkhidmatan, promosi, dan trend yang memainkan peranan

penting dalam pemilihan perkhidmatan telekomunikasi. Kajian ini adalah bertujuan

untuk mengetahui faktor kritikal yang memainkan peranan penting dalam pemilihan

pembekal telekomunikasi. Kajian ini telah dijalankan di kalangan pelajar Kolej

Perniagaan di Universiti Utara Malaysia. Data diproses dengan menggunakan kaedah

analisis kuantitatif. Kaedah yang digunakan dalam menganalisis data adalah Analisis

Deskriptif dan Analisis Regresi Berganda kerana terdapat empat pembolehubah yang

terlibat di dalam kajian ini, iaitu harga, kualiti perkhidmatan, promosi, dan trend.

Analisis ini menyediakan keputusan menyeluruh berkenaan faktor penting dalam

pemilihan perkhidmatan telekomunikasi dan juga telah mengesahkan bahawa faktor

trend mempunyai signifikan yang positif terhadap kesetiaan jenama. Ia akan menjadi

satu cabaran besar bagi pembekal perkhidmatan telekomunikasi untuk menyediakan

pelan strategik mereka dalam mengekalkan kesetiaan pelanggan, dan pada masa yang

sama memperluas asas pelanggan mereka. Kesimpulannya, pembekal perkhidmatan

telekomunikasi perlu menitik beratkan faktor seperti trend yang boleh mengekalkan

kesetiaan pelanggan memandangkan pelanggan hari ini lebih bijak dan pintar.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, Alhamdulillah, all praise due to ALLAH SWT, the Lord

of the world that makes it possible for me to complete this project paper. I would like

to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation to the following

individuals whose guidance and contribution in preparing this paper.

Firstly, I would like to express my gratefulness and appreciation to my supervisor,

Prof. Dr. Ruswiati Suryasaputra for her guidance, encouragement and advice

throughout the process of completing this project paper. I am truly indebted for her

contribution in terms of time, patience, attentions and efforts for the completion of

this project paper. Also to Dr. Martino Luis, as the examiner, I would like to thank

for his guidance and kindness. I also want to thank Prof. Dr. Frederick Fernandez,

who also guide and assist me in completing this project paper. I really appreciate

their sacrifices and good deeds. Without them, I would not be able to complete this

project.

I also would like to express my gratefulness to my beloved parents, Mohamad Nasir

bin Abdul Samad and Norsiha binti Tajuddin, and my siblings, Faizal and Fareez for

their constant demonstrations of love and continuous moral supports throughout my

years of study.

I would like to thank all respondents for the cooperation granted during the process

of finishing this project paper. Last, but not least, my thanks to all my friends and all

individuals who are involved direct and indirectly in the process of completing this

study.

THANK YOU

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE

Certification of Project Paper........................................................................ ii

Permission to Use.......................................................................................... iii

Abstract......................................................................................................... iv

Abstrak.......................................................................................................... v

Acknowledgement........................................................................................ vi

Table of Contents.......................................................................................... vii

List of Tables................................................................................................ x

List of Figures............................................................................................... xii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study.................................................................. 1

1.1.1 Concepts of Brand Loyalty...................................................... 1

1.1.2 Customer Loyalty..................................................................... 6

1.1.3 Telecommunication Industry in Malaysia................................. 10

1.1.4 Market Trends in Universiti Utara Malaysia............................. 15

1.2 Problem Statement............................................................................. 16

1.3 Research Questions............................................................................ 17

1.4 Research Objectives........................................................................... 18

1.5 Significance of the Study................................................................... 19

1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study................................................... 20

1.7 Organization of the Thesis................................................................. 20

1.8 Conclusion.......................................................................................... 21

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Antecedents of Brand Loyalty........................................................... 23

2.2 Factors of Brand Loyalty..................................................................... 26

2.3 Other Factors of Brand Loyalty............................................................ 31

2.4 Previous Study on Brand Loyalty ....................................................... 36

2.5 Conclusion.......................................................................................... 40

CHAPTER 3 : METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Framework......................................................................... 41

3.2 Hypotheses Development.................................................................. 43

3.3 Research Design................................................................................. 46

3.4 Operational Definition....................................................................... 47

3.5 Measurement of Variables................................................................. 49

3.6 Pilot Test............................................................................................ 51

3.6.1 Reliability................................................................................. 52

3.6.2 Validity.................................................................................... 53

3.6.3 Multicollinearity....................................................................... 54

3.7 Data Collection.................................................................................. 55

3.7.1 Sampling.................................................................................. 55

3.7.2 Data Collection Procedures....................................................... 56

3.8 Techniques of Data Analysis............................................................. 57

3.9 Conclusion......................................................................................... 58

CHAPTER 4 : RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents................................... 59

4.1.1 Age of Respondents.................................................................. 60

4.1.2 Gender of Respondents............................................................. 60

4.1.3 Respondents’ Level of Education............................................. 61

4.1.4 Respondents’ Current Mobile Service Providers...................... 62

4.1.5 Period of Using Current Mobile Service Providers.................. 62

4.1.6 Type of Services on Mobile Connection.................................. 63

4.2 Hypothesis Testing............................................................................. 64

4.2.1 Test on Hypothesis 1.................................................................. 64






4.3 Conclusion........................................................................................... 76

CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusions........................................................................................... 78

5.2 Recommendations................................................................................. 80

REFERENCES.............................................................................................. 83

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES

TABLES PAGE

Table 2.1 : Previous Study of Brand Loyalty ................................................ 39

Table 3.1 : Operational Definition of Factors Influencing Brand

Loyalty......................................................................................... 47

Table 3.2 : Likert Scale Score........................................................................ 49

Table 3.3 : Scale of Pilot Test.................................................. 52

Table 3.4 : Reliability Test............................................................................. 53

Table 3.5 : Validity Test................................................................................ 54

Table 3.6 : Multicollinearity Test.................................................................. 55

Table 4.1 : Age of Respondents..................................................................... 60

Table 4.2 : Gender of Respondents................................................................ 61

Table 4.3 : Respondents’ Level of Education................................................ 61

Table 4.4 : Respondents’ Current Mobile Service Providers......................... 62

Table 4.5 : Period of Using Current Mobile Service Providers..................... 63

Table 4.6 : Type of Services on Mobile Connection...................................... 63

Table 4.7 : Model Summary of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and

Trends........................................................................................... 65

Table 4.8 : ANOVA of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends

......................................................................................................65

Table 4.9 : Coefficients of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and

Trends...........................................................................................66

Table 4.10: Model Summary of Price............................................................. 67

Table 4.11: ANOVA of Price.......................................................................... 67

Table 4.12: Model Summary of Promotion..................................................... 68

Table 4.13: ANOVA of Promotion................................................................. 68

Table 4.14: Coefficients of Promotion............................................................ 69

Table 4.15: Model Summary of Service Quality............................................. 69

Table 4.16: ANOVA of Service Quality......................................................... 70

Table 4.17: Coefficients of Service Quality.................................................... 70

Table 4.18: Model Summary of Trends.......................................................... 71

Table 4.19: ANOVA of Trends....................................................................... 72

Table 4.20: Coefficients of Trends.................................................................. 72

Table 4.21: Model Summary of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and

Trends (Backward).......................................................................74

Table 4.22: ANOVA of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends

(Backward)...................................................................................74

Table 4.23: Coefficients of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends

(Backward)...................................................................................75

Table 4.24: Results on Hypothesis Testing..................................................... 77

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURES PAGE

Figure 1.1 : Elements of Two Dimensional Definition of Loyalty............. 3

Figure 1.2 : General Segmentation of Customers by Loyalty..................... 9

Figure 1.3 : Share of Mobile Subscribers by Major Telcos

(2011)....................................................................................... 12

Figure 3.1 : Schematic Diagram for Theoretical Framework

Model....................................................................................... 42

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents an introduction to this study to give a picture of the study. The

discussion will be on factors of price, promotion, service quality, and trends that

influence the brand loyalty in mobile service providers. This chapter contains (1)

Background of the Study, (2) Problem Statement, (3) Research Questions, (4)

Research Objectives, (5) Significance of the Study, (6) Scope and Limitation of the

Study, and (7) Organization of the Thesis.

1.1 Background of The Study

Brand loyalty is the company’s major goal sets for a branded product. It is now

become consumer’s priority in making a purchase towards particular brand.

Giddens and Hoffman (2010) stated that brand loyalty does exist because of

consumers start to realize that the brand offers the right product features, images,

conditions, quality, and at the right price. This become the new buying habit among

the consumers recently.

1.1.1 Concepts of Brand Loyalty

Usually, consumers will make a trial purchase seems to perform experiment

in order to review whether the product can give them satisfaction after using

it. Fortunately, if the product is able to achieve their expectations, they will

make repeat purchase continuously, otherwise, they will move to other

brands.

Building and maintaining brand loyalty has been an important marketing

components including the elements of theory and practice in developing

sustainable competitive advantage (Gommans et al., 2001). Therefore, it is

such a big responsibility to all companies in order to increase the brand

loyalty among their customers. Moreover, this days, there are lots of products

that seem similar to mislead the customers in selecting the products. This is

large burden to the companies in order to raise their effort in accordance to

boost the brand loyalty through their brand name.

There are many ways to promote the brand name in order to keep the

customers aware of the products. Pomoni (2009) stated that customers have

their own expectations towards the products, such as past buying experience,

brand significance, word-of-mouth, individual persuasibility and perceptual

distortion, promotional material and communication, competitors’ promises,

and price.

According to Pomoni (2009), Khan (2009), and Gommans et al. (2001), brand

loyalty can be classified into two broad categories. The categories are

behaviorial brand loyalty and attitudinal brand loyalty as shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1Elements of Two Dimensional Definition of Loyalty Source : Khan (2009)

The attitudinal definition of loyalty implies that loyalty is a state of mind

(Peppers, 2009). By this definition, a customer is loyal to the brand or a

company if they have a positive and preferential attitude toward it. They like

the company, its products or its brands, and they therefore prefer to buy from

it, rather than from the company's competitors.

Peppers (2009) stated that the behavioral definition of loyalty, on the other

hand, depends on actual conduct of the customer, regardless of the attitudes

or preferences that base on the conduct. By this definition, a customer is loyal

to the company if they have made a purchase from the company and then

repeat the purchase again continuously.

Behavioral brand loyalty is measured by proportion of purchases includes

cognitive, conative features, affective, and that imply an indirect relationship

between customer satisfaction and brand loyalty (Pomoni, 2009). In other

words, considerations of the customers’ perceptions about a brand can make

or break the branding strategy of a firm in the context of repurchases when

measuring the level of brand loyalty.

BRAND LOYALTY

Attitudinal Loyalty Behaviorial Loyalty

In the behavioral definition, loyalty is not the cause, but the result of brand

preference. A company that want to increase the customer loyalty will focus

on all tactics will. In fact, they will increase the amount of repurchase

behavior tactics that can easily include, without being limited to, improving

brand preference, product quality, or customer satisfaction. Loyalty is

hesitated with repurchase activity, regardless of any internally held attitudes

or preferences.

Both behavioral and attitudinal brand loyalty consider that consumer have

developed a feeling of preferable attitudes towards the organization and

therefore they engage in repeat purchases. However, marketing studies hold

that, often, repeat purchases occur as a result of convenience or lack of

alternatives in the market (Pomoni, 2009).

Every successful business depends on brand loyalty as it is the ultimate goal a

company aims at. Brand loyalty means a consumer’s commitment to a brand.

It implies that the customer not only looks for their own benefit, but is also

willing to think about the brand’s interest. It is mainly stated by repeat

purchase.

Kulkarni and Belgaonkar (2012) stated that the extent of the faithfulness of

consumers to a particular brand, expressed through their repeat purchases,

irrespective of the marketing pressure generated by the competing brands.

Repurchasing of a product is not the ultimate determinant of brand loyalty. It

might take place because of situational constraints, no alternatives, and

inconvenience.

Brand loyalty is also denote as a customer’s conscious or unconscious

decision that is expressed through the customer’s behavior in purchasing

goods or services. A customer develops loyalty towards a brand because they

think that the brand is offering good quality product or service at the right and

reasonable price. As soon as the customers know that the brand offering value

of their purchase, they will be encouraged to buy the products or services.

As said by Mcmains (2009), a number of things that can influence the brand

loyalty starting from designing a new product to writing its catch line, and

understanding customer’s need to employing effective marketing strategy.

Brand loyalty occurs as the customer perceives the brand in a positive

manner. Developing loyalty among new customers and retaining it among

existing customers are equally important.

The importance of brand loyalty is huge since it is brand loyalty that

determines the sale of a product or a service. It is very difficult to survive in

today’s competitive world among the companies. In order to do so, it is very

important to them to attract more customers, make their customers loyal to

their brand, and not to loose their customers. Reducing the customer loss and

achieving new customer’s trust and loyalty can dramatically improve their

business growth in this industry.

The benefits of brand loyalty for a firm are numerous. First of all, loyal

customers are less price sensitive, which means that they are ready to pay a

higher price, if required, in order to acquire the product or service. As a

result, apart from higher profitability for the firm, the cost incurred for

pursuing new customers is reduced.

To develop brand loyalty, an organization should know their niche market

and target market. They also must need to know and realize on how to

support their product and ensure easy access of their product. In addition,

they also have to find the uniqueness of their products in order to provide

customer satisfaction. Not least, they also have to bring constant innovation in

their product and offer schemes on their product so as to ensure that customer

repeatedly purchase the product.

1.1.2 Customer Loyalty

According to Kuusik (2007), there are three types of behavioral loyal

customers according to their behavior. The three types are (1) forced to be

loyal, (2) loyal due to inertia, and (3) functionally loyal.

For the first type of behaviorial loyal customers, the customers are forced to

be loyal when they have to be clients even they do not have any intention

towards it.. Customers are forced to make a purchase on certain products or

services offered by the certain vendors. This situation ususally happen

because of the monthly target of sales the company have to achieved,

especially the marketing company such as multi level marketing (MLM), and

insurance agents. Because of that, they need to find as many customers they

can in order to achieve the sales target.

However, loyal behaviour may also happen due to inertia. This is the situation

where the customer stick to a brand and do not have any intention to move to

another brand due to the less important of usage of the product. So that in the

customers’ perception, they feel that there is no point to spend time and effort

on searching for the alternatives of the current product and just keep continue

using it.

The functionally loyal customers are loyal may due to several reason.

Probably the customers are satisfied with the price offered, quality of the

product, distribution, or rewards earn through the usage of the product, such

as point redeem, coupons, vouchers, or lucky draws that will lead to the

loyalty of the customers towards the brand.

Compared to Jones and Sasser (1995), they proposed three measures of

customer loyalty, where (1) customer’s primary behavior, in which is related

to recency, frequency, and amount of purchase, (2) customer’s secondary

behavior, referring to the material of customers reference, endorsements, and

the means to spread the word, and (3) customer’s intent to repurchase,

whether the customers are ready to repurchase the product in the future.

Beside that, Jones and Sasser (1995) also noted the general segmentation of

customers by loyalty as in Figure 1.2. Customers loyalty are divided into

three types, namely loyal customers, dubious customers, and disloyal

customers.

There are two types of customers under the loyal customers. For committed

or emotionally loyal customers, they act as active customers that usually loyal

to certain products, and declare will stick to the same product continuously

and in the future. They also will recommend the products to others, especially

to family, relatives, and friends. While for behaviorally loyal customers, they

are active customers who will use only certain products and declare to

continue using it in the future. However, they will not agree to recommend

the product to others.

Ambivalent or dubious customers are the active customers that will use only

the certain products, unfortunately, they are not sure to continue using the

products in the future. These type of customers are in the middle between

loyal and disloyal customers, which led to confusion whether to be loyal or

not. Usually they are more moderate in using a product.

Under disloyal type of customers, there are another two sub-categories, which

are disloyal reducers customers and disloyal leavers customers. For disloyal

reducers customers, they refers to the customers who have reduced or will

reduce the percentage of the product in their usage. Meanwhile for disloyal

leavers customers, they declare that they will certainly leave the products.

Figure 1.2General Segmentation of Customers by LoyaltySource : Jones and Sasser (1995)

A strong professional relationship creates an advantage that can keep the

customer from switching to competitor (Zaribbayevich, 2010). On the other

hand, Dani (2012) stated that retaining an existing customer is always more

beneficial and cost effective than acquiring a new customer. Customers may

also be loyal because they are satisfied and thus want to continue the

relationship.

Thus, it is a major problem for the mobile service providers, especially for

them deliver the quality service consistently. Accordingly, it is important for

a company to understand the customer’ perception to their service quality.

Generally, service and product quality is in the mind of the consumer.

Loyal customers are also strong advocates of the firm playing a powerful role

in the decision making process of other people (Pomoni, 2009). It also will

bring certainty to the firm by enlarging its customer base. In addition, loyal

customers expose higher tolerance for mistakes, are willing to provide

CUSTOMERS

Leavers

Loyal DisloyalDubious

Reducers

Behaviorally

Emotionally

feedback for any unfulfilled needs, to try additional products and to offer a

higher spend of their money in order to meet the higher level of satisfaction

of the customer.

1.1.3 Telecommunication Industry in Malaysia

The telecommunication industry in Malaysia plays a critical role in driving

demand for the internet through investments in expanding reach of 3G

coverage and healthy competition that centres on customers, resulting in

smart bundling of smartphones and plans.

Data services are still considered as a new business in the telecommunication

industry. One of the challenges is to be able to provide internet for all. Thus,

in order to do that, the mobile service providers can not just build a wide

network, but at the same time they need to be able to provide the capacity for

the traffic to flow smoothly. The smartphones will play a key role in the

growth of data revenue.

The smartphone and PDA (personal digital assistant) sales are driven by

fashion trends. The consumers in Malaysia prefer to buy technologically

advanced gadgets. Especially the younger audience would see an added

demand for mobile devices and applications which combine entertainment

and ICT capabilities. For others the mobility and the connectivity at all times

are the important criteria. This is extremely relevant today as more

Malaysians are adopting usage of smartphones stimulated by the popularity of

social media applications, affordable smartphones, and smart bundling.

Telecommunication systems have become electronic infrastructure to transmit

information, voice, messaging, data, graphics, video, music, and the latest 3G

network (Haque et al., 2007). It is a fast-growing technology worldwide

communications. It provides an opportunity for users to choose among mobile

service providers. Now, because of the competition, the mobile service

provider offering innovative services and competitive prices as well.

Kaapanda (2012) said that the emergence of computer-based communication

technologies and communication networks have become an important factor

in this global interaction. Phone, for example, provides basic connection to

social interaction between individuals and relationships both within and

among countries.

Telecom Engine have reported that the participation of the private sector in

the transformation and development of the country's communication

infrastructure has ensured the creation of necessary information

infrastructures. Today, Malaysia has one of the more advanced

telecommunication networks compared to the rest of the developing world.

Modern technologies such as optic fibres, wireless transmission, satellites,

and digitalisation are being utilized with the offering of next generation

networks, unified communication, 3G content, and sensor technology

(www.telecomengine.com).

Convergence in technology provides a diverse range of products and services

offered. Transaction and services such as unified communications, data centre

services, authentication services, e-commerce, payment, services and billing

are conducted daily (Lim, 2011).

In the background of the Malaysian telecommunications, competition can be

seen as a major factor among providers of mobile services. Today, there are

three main companies in the telecommunication sector namely Celcom,

Maxis, and Digi. The three companies known as the mobile service providers

market segments include traditional Malaysian telecommunication

telecommunications, technology and mobile wireless, broadband and

technology markets.

Figure 1.3 shows a competetion among the mobile service providers in

Malaysia. Maxis has lead the telecommunication sector with total of 42

percent of subscribers. Followed by Celcom with 34 percent, and Digi with

24 percent.

Figure 1.3Share of Mobile Subscribers By Major Telcos (2011)Source : Companies, DBS Vickers Research

Celcom Axiata Berhad, is the oldest mobile telecommunications company in

Malaysia. Celcom is one of a member of the Axiata group of companies.

Celcom claims to have the widest and most extensive coverage nationwide,

compared to other mobile services in Malaysia. Celcom also claims its dual-

band GSM (900/1800 MHz) coverage has reached over 99 percent of

Malaysia's populated area in 2006, and 100 percent through satellite coverage

(www.celcom.com.my).

Maxis Communications Berhad is a Malaysian mobile network operator

headquartered at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was started in the year 1993.

Maxis provides a variety of mobile communication products and services.

Maxis most popular service is its prepaid brand Hotlink, which currently

serves over eight million customers in Malaysia. Maxis was the first mobile

communications company in Malaysia to be authorized to sell the Apple

iPhone, and then was later the offered was also given to its competitor Digi.

Although the pricing of the phone is slightly cheaper than Digi, but the plans

for data and services are slightly higher than Digi (www.maxis.com.my).

Digi Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd., is one of the main mobile service

providers in Malaysia. It is owned in majority by Telenor ASA of Norway

with 49 percent. Digi is listed on the Bursa Malaysia under the Infrastructure

category act. Digi is also the second operator in Malaysia to offer iPhone on

the 1st of April, 2010. Digi is the first mobile service provider in Malaysia to

introduce Mobile Number Selection service which was implemented in 2008

(www.digi.com.my).

The mobile phone has become the favourite way for Malaysians to

communicate. The telecommunications industry is mainly driven by the

cellular segment. In general, a wider subscriber base, increases in

international calls and increased popularity in the usage of mobile data and

multimedia services supported the growth in this segment.

In general, the growth of the mobile services segment is supported by

increasing subscribers, an increase in international calls and increased

popularity of mobile data such as short message service (sms) and GPRS

(general packet radio service) services.

In particular, the mobile market today, this market has become very

competitive and mobile service providers move aggressively to attract

customers by offering several attractive promotions and services (Rahman et

al., 2010). Therefore, in this situation, it is important to know the perception

of consumers on the mobile service provider.

With increasing of competition among companies, it is necessary for the

providers to know the consumer perception of price, promotion, product,

service, quality, and other factors that play an important role in choosing

their service providers (Ismail, 2009).

1.1.4 Market Trends in Universiti Utara Malaysia

In the situation of Universiti Utara Malaysia, all the students now have their

own mobile phones. Even more students that have more than one mobile

phone. This shows that now they have the ability to have a mobile phone.

As well as the students of College of Business, in Universiti Utara Malaysia,

they have started using smartphones and tablet personal computers (PCs)

such as iPhone, iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab in the classroom as an aid to

learning in order to get the important information or to copy the notes given

in the class. This shows that they are now turning to more sophisticated

technology in line with current technological change in Malaysia now.

Therefore, they would require data services from mobile service providers so

that they can surf the internet anytime and anywhere either by using their

smartphones or tablet PCs. Especially for the international students who need

the services from mobile service providers to enable them to communicate

with their family members in their country.

1.2 Problem Statement

The use of mobile phones has become a primary need in human life. Moreover, at

present, the widespread use of smart phones in this country is due to consumers that

are cleverer and more intelligent and the need of gadget that can simplify their daily

businesses.

As well as students, the use of mobile phones is now a necessity and is no longer for

luxury. This situation has caused them to choose the best mobile service provider

that can benefit and be affordable to them as students.

Based on preliminary survey conducted by random brief interview on certain

students earlier, there are some students who are not stick and loyal to one provider

of mobile services due to various factors.

Among the factors are price, promotions, service quality, and trends. As students,

they will often be influenced by these factors because they are known as those who

like to make hasty decisions, easily influenced by their peers, and others.

Therefore, this study will examin the factors that contribute to brand loyalty in

mobile service providers among students of College of Business, Universiti Utara

Malaysia.

1.3 Research Questions

In this study, several research questions are as follows:

1) Are the price, promotion, service quality, and trends influence significantly

towards brand loyalty simultaneously among the students of College of

Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia?

2) Is there any influence between price towards brand loyalty in mobile service

providers among the students of College of Business, Universiti Utara

Malaysia?

3) Is there any influence between promotion towards brand loyalty in mobile

service providers among the students of College of Business, Universiti Utara

Malaysia?

4) Is there any influence between service quality towards brand loyalty in

mobile service providers among the students of College of Business,

Universiti Utara Malaysia?

5) Is there any influence between trends towards brand loyalty in mobile service


Malaysia?

6) Which one of the price, promotion, service quality, or trends has the most

significant influence towards brand loyalty among the students of College of

Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia?

1.4 Research Objectives

There are several research objectives that need to be achieved in this study as

follows:

1) To determine whether price, promotion, service quality, and trends influence

significantly towards brand loyalty simultaneously among the students of

College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia.

2) To determine the influence of price towards brand loyalty in mobile service


Malaysia.

3) To determine the influence of promotion towards brand loyalty in mobile


Malaysia.

4) To determine the influence of service quality towards brand loyalty in mobile


Malaysia.

5) To determine the influence of trends towards brand loyalty in mobile service


Malaysia.

6) To determine which one of the price, promotion, service quality, or trends has

the most significant influence towards brand loyalty among the students of


1.5 Significance of the Study

This study contributes to both students as users and the mobile service providers.

Academically, it will widen the dimensions of service quality in mobile service

providers. For the purpose of this study, students are the majority in choosing mobile

service providers. Poor performance can reduce the company’s name. Besides that, it

will give poor image and low reputation of the organization itself in the future.

This study focus on the factors that contributes to the brand loyalty in mobile service

provider among the students of Universiti Utara Malaysia. In general, the findings of

this study will help the company of mobile service provider get a better

understanding towards student perception and impression of the services provided by

them.

1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study

The scope help to execute the study better and easier. Meanwhile, the limitations also

determine the weaknesses and constraints of the study that are beyond the control.

This study aims to identify the factors (price, promotion, service quality, and trend)

that influence the brand loyalty in mobile service providers. This was limited to the


The data needed for the study were obtained through the questionnaires within two

weeks. The respondents of the study were among the students of College of Business

that stay at the Students’ Residential Hall, Universiti Utara Malaysia. The findings of

the study are expected to serve as the basis for the development of the

telecommunications and academic use.

1.7 Organization of the Thesis

Organization of the thesis rovides an overview of the whole chapters in the study.

The study is titled as "A Study on Factors Affecting Brand Loyalty in Mobile Service

Provider in The College of Business Students of Universiti Utara Malaysia" and

organized into five chapters, in order to achieve the objectives of this study.

Chapter 1 : Introduction provides an overview of this study. It is more closely to

the issues arising in this research topic. It will emphasize more on the Background of

the Study, Problem Statement, Research Questions, Research Objectives,

Significance of the Study, and Organization of the Thesis.

Chapter 2 : Literature Review critically reviews the literature and theories related

to the topic of this study. It is meant to act as a base for the experimental and

analytical section of this study. This also is used as a base to guide the development

of the research framework.

Chapter 3 : Methodology describes the methods and techniques used in this study.

It will cover more on Research Framework, Hypotheses Development, Research

Design, Operational Definition, Measurement of Variables, Data Collection on

Sampling and Data Collection Procedures, and Techniques of Data Analysis.

Chapter 4 : Results and Discussion will analyze the data and findings of this

research based on the appropriate method used in this study. It presents complete

results and analyses of the study in order to asses whether the study achieved its

objectives.

Chapter 5 : Conclusion and Recommendation are made based on the findings of

this research. The significance findings are necessary for the continuity of the

recommendation to be proposed in this study for the future research.

1.8 Conclusion

This study aims to find the factors that became the priority of the consumer to be

loyal to a brand, especially in the mobile service providers. In this chapter, the

importance of successful of the study were identified and clear to be developed later.

The overview of brand loyalty, mobile service providers, problem statement,

research questions, research objectives, significance of the study, scope and

limitation of the study, and organization of the thesis already laid to be tested and

observed later.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews previous studies that related to this study. The previous studies

are based on price, promotion, service quality, and trends that influence the brand

loyalty in mobile service providers.

2.1 Antecedents of Brand Loyalty

Over the past decades, brand loyalty has been recognized as a focal point of

marketing literatures and for practitioners (Nawaz & Usman, 2010). In the

telecommunication industry, it is important to ensure the good relationship between

customers and mobile service providers.

Usually, customers have their own habit in product purchasing, such as just buy the

cheap product in order to safe. In order to create brand loyalty in customers,

companies must help the customers to acquire for new way of purchasing, and

reinforce those way as a new habit by reminding customers on the value of their

purchase, and at the meantime, encourage them to continue purchasing those

products in the future.

Look at the current situation, in the highly competitive market, the companies are

competing each other in order to maintain their loyal customers and improving the

customers loyalty. Brand Loyalty is the customers’ conscious and unconscious

decision and action (McMains, 2009). They will point out the loyalty through

intention or behavior, by make a repurchase of a brand continually. It happen

because the consumer are satisfied with the brand that offers the right product

features, image, and level of quality at the right price.

Ditcheva (2011) mentioned that loyal customers contributes to the economies of the

marketing because the cost to seek for new customers could be higher than remaining

the existing of loyal customers. Once the customers recommend the product to

friends, most probably their friends would be influenced. Brand loyalty is important

regarding gaining support from retailers. As from the customers’ point of view,

loyalty are really important because it will save the time in order to think of the

products that should be purchase.

Conceptual definitions are necessary to assess the construct validity' of the adopted

measurement methods. Without them, the correctness of specific brand loyalty

measures cannot be evaluated, and meaningful and meaningless results cannot be

distinguished.

In order for companies to handle the disloyal customers, they need to have the right

method to predict the brand loyalty. However, it has seemed impossible to achieve

the objective and general measurement of brand loyalty. The diverse definition and

operationalization of brand loyalty has been in part due to the various aspects of

brand loyalty. The customers will be brand loyal when they have both attitude and

behavior as favorable. However, it does not clarify the intensity of brand loyalty,

because it includes the possibility that a consumer’s attitude is unfavorable, while the

customers repeat the purchases (Ho, 2010)

Brand loyalty is a customers’ behaviorial attitudes towards the brands. Simply, brand

loyalty is defined as the consumer’s persistent preference for and purchase for a

specific brand. The three main reasons to brand loyalty are facilitating selection,

reducing risks, and saving time and effort in order to increase the customers’ level of

satisfaction. The relative attitude is a combination of purchase involvement and

differences in brand perceived (Jensen and Hansen, 2006).

According to Ewing (2000), brand loyalty could be examined through predict its

impact on future behavioral and analyzing its intentions for actual past behavior. He

also claimed that intentions and expectations of purchase remained to be a valid

research metric. It was found out that as the brand and consumer interface offers the

greater ability of predictive than the retail and consumer interface. The customers are

willing to recommend the product after repurchase it in many times compared to past

behavior.

However, Rundle-Thiele and Bennett (2001) proposed that a classification of brand

loyalty based on classifying the types of market. This is because a measure of single

brand loyalty are not reasonable as the market indicates the measure used to predict

the loyalty should be different. By being this brand loyalty, both customers and

providers will be able to enjoy the benefits, where, the providers will continue earn

the profits, while the customers will continue enjoy the services provided. The

companies are now focusing on customer loyalty because to keep the existing

customers is much cheaper than obtaining the new customers. For purpose to study

and manage brand loyalty, it should start with the clear definition of the constructed

involved, and the development of valid measures.

2.2 Factors of Brand Loyalty

There are many factors which affect the brand loyalty, such as consumer attitude,

pressure from family, influence by the peers, and personal relations of a buyer with

the sales person (Nemati et al., 2010).

There are a number of previous researchers who also feels that among the factors that

influence brand loyalty on the mobile service providers are price, promotion, service

quality, and trends.

Price. Price competition in the mobile telecommunications industry is becoming

more intense. Price plays a crucial role in the telecommunications market, especially

for mobile telecommunications service providers (Kollmann, 2000). It also includes

usage charges and rental charges. Therefore, there will be more customers that

provide commits with the mobile service provider companies that offer lower

charges. Rahman et al. (2011) stated that fairness is the important thing to make

customer satisfy. According to Kollmann (2000), the income of the total minutes of

calls made will be able to determine the success of the commercial basis for network

providers. He also added that the success of the telecommunication sector in the

market is dependent on the use of policies and prices continuing to consider several

levels. However, customers will easily to become disloyal if the price is unfair that

can lead them to switch to other providers. Haque et al. (2007) said that, generally, a

price dominated mass market leads to customers having more choice and the

opportunity to compare the pricing structures of different providers. Hence, the

marketer cannot charge prices higher than the customer is willing and able to pay

(Kaapanda, 2012). Individuals, who are price conscious, are generally not willing to

pay prices for a product if they realized that the price is not reasonable (Ismail,

2009). However, Kollmann (2000) stated that the variable charges are the most

important thing for the decision of the customers. In telecommunication sector,

customers will concern on from whom the product will be purchase other than the

purchase price and usage charges as the important criteria for acceptance. The

companies should keep continue offers the value as the importance of price factors to

the customers that had switch to other competitors as a loyalty determinant in order

to avoid from risk losing the customers (Lee and Murphy, 2005). Customers will pay

for a certain amount of money in order get the products or services. Price perception

may different to other people, as price has a significant influence towards the

consumers buying behavior (Raza and Rehman, 2012). However, according to Zhang

and Feng (2009), price is the monetary cost for a customer to purchase products. It is

the critical determinant that will reflect the customers buying decision. Customers

usually make a decision on product purchasing by rely on price perceived. Moreover,

the price perceptions towards the same products among the customers may be

different. This will make the customers likely to be attracted by perceived

competitive prices, rather than perceived high quality services during the decision

making process.

Promotion. According to Alvarez and Casielles (2005), promotion is a set of stimuli

that are offered sporadically, and it reinforces publicity actions to promote the

purchasing of a certain product. Haque et al. (2007) claimed that the promotional

offer consists of several different objects to create a better sale impact, such as

coupons, samples, premiums, contests, point-of-purchase displays and frequent-

buyer programs. They also said that each of the promotion techniques are intended

to have a direct impact on buying behavior and perception about the company or

service providers. Hence, the goals of promotion are to create awareness, get people

to try products, provide information, keep loyal customers, increase use of a product,

and identify potential customers (Kaapanda, 2012). Moreover, according to Ayob

(2010), through advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and publicity, product

were introduced to customer and persuade new and old customer to purchase.

Service Quality. Nowadays, consumers and firms are demanding more services as

well as services of increasing quality and sophistication (Kaapanda, 2012).

According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2003), service quality is a focused evaluation that

reflects the customer's perception of specific dimensions of service: reliability,

responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibles. Satisfaction, on other hand, is more

inclusive, where it is influenced by perceptions of service quality, product quality,

and price as well as situational factors and personal factors. It is important to attract

more customers. Addition to that, the quality of services provided must also be good,

and provide benefits to customer satisfaction. While according to Gronroos (2000),

the quality of a service is subjectively perceived by customers during the interactions

with a firm. Customer perceptions of the quality of a service are traditionally

measured immediately after the person has consumed the service (Rahman et al.,

2011). Parasuraman et al. (1988) had defined the service quality as the consumers’

judgment about a firm’s overall excellence or superiority. There are several ways for

measurements of service quality proposed by previous researchers and literature. The

famous measurement model of service quality is SERVQUAL developed by

Parasuraman et al. (1988) who measured the differences between customer

expectations and perceptions cross five determinants as follows:

Tangibles : Appearance of physical facilities, equipment,

employees, and communication materials from a

service company.

Reliability : A service company’s ability to perform the

promised service dependably and accurately.

Assurance : Employee’s knowledge and behavior about courtesy

and ability to convey trust and confidence.

Responsiveness : A service company is willing to help customers and

provide punctual services.

Empathy : A service company provides care and

individualized attention to its customers, as well as

having convenient operating hours.

Another study by Gronroos (2000) summarized seven criteria of good perceived

service quality as follows :

1. professionalism and skills;

2. employees’ attitudes and behavior;

3. accessibility and flexibility;

4. reliability and trustworthiness;

5. service recovery;

6. serviscape; and

7. reputation and credibility.

Therefore, service quality is an important element to assess a performance of

products. Offering a high quality service is the best way to create customers trust and

satisfaction, as well as obtaining competitive advantages and building a long-term

relationship with customers. According to Lee and Murphy (2005), service quality

has lower priority in loyalty, but are very critical in switching. That is the reason why

perceived element in service quality may trigger loyalty switching transition, but

satisfaction with service quality may not yield loyalty.

Trends. In the present scenario, customers prefer to choose a product or service

based on the promotion or encouragement given by the surrounding community such

as family and friends. This is because they will feel more confident when they see

the satisfaction received by the family and their friends when using the product or

service. According to Hawkins et al. (1998), the reference group consists not only of

the groups that an individual has a frequent contact with such as family members,

work associates, friends, and classmates, but also include the groups that an

individual does not have a membership in or a direct contact, such as certain

expected groups or people in a certain social level. However, based on the trend

nowadays, the internet and telecommunication technologies are frequently regarded

as two major drivers for creating new value and introducing new services to

customers (Chen & Ching, 2007). While according to Close (2001), people are

thought to be a brand loyal due to a number of reasons. They are involved in

purchase decisions, they are targeted frequently by marketing communications

efforts, and they use brands to become influencers and trendsetters. The factors that

influence to purchasing decisions may be due to their increasing knowledge of the

marketplace and product alternatives.

2.3 Other Factors of Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is a vast field.. Apart from the factors above, there are many other

factors that affect brand loyalty. This is due to the many previous studies have been

conducted.

Brand image. Ismail (2009) had defined the brand as “a name, term, sign, symbol,

or design, or combination of these that identifies the maker or seller of a product or

services”. Kuusik (2007) stated that brand image is among the most complex factors

that influence the brand loyalty. Brand loyalty may be affected by the brand image

in two ways. Wheteher the customers express their identity according to the

preferences of brand in consciously or subconsciously. Otherwise, the customers will

classify themselves into different social group, which may contributes to the

evaluation of values in the various groups. However, according to Kim et al. (2001),

they found that the attractiveness of brand personality effect the brand loyalty

indirectly after review the link between the brand personality and loyalty. Other than

that, consumers are prefer to become a partner with someone who have same

preference in image and values and even consumer-brand relationships can be seen

as subjects of perceived compatibility (Fournier, 1998). Similar to Oliver (1999) that

said brand need to be a part of customers self identity and social identity in order to

make the customers be fully loyal. A company should view its brand to be not just a

product or service, but as an brand image that represent a company's philosophies.

According to Kuusik (2007), the importance of brand to a customer can be increase

by high risks involved in the transaction, or costs caused by cancellation of contracts

as the relationship of brand loyalty and customers are really important, otherwise the

company need to find alternatives or to solve the dissatisfaction of brand among

customers. Oliver (1999) proposed that customer loyalty is a role of perceived

product superiority, social bonding, personal fortitude, , and their synergistic effects.

A brands image usually will effect the customers’ expectations and satisfaction

towards products. Brand image relates to the perception or mental picture a customer

holds of a brand and is expressed through the response of the customers.Therefore,

the brand image is very important as it will positively reflect the marketing activities

either reasoned or emotional. Raza and Rehman (2012) stated that building a strong

brand name is not only important in the physical product, but is also a vital issue in

service sector. What customer perceives the brand image during such experience is

critical issue for a service firm to realize. Furthermore, customers is likely to form

brand image in mind from inexperience ways, such as word of mouth from other

consumers, a company’s reputation in public, marketing communication, and so on.

A positive brand image will help the company to convey its brand value to the

customers easier. Beside that, it also will generates favorable word of mouth among

the customers. However, the negative brand image will reflect on the opposite part,

where a neutral or unfamiliar brand image may not bring to any badness, but it will

not increase the effectiveness of communication, such as word of mouth (Zhang and

Feng, 2009).

Switching Cost. According to Aydin and Ozer (2005), switching cost will gives the

advantages to the companies, such as:

(i) The cost reduce customers’ sensitivity to price and satisfaction level.

(ii) Customer perceive functionally homogeneous brands.

In other words, even though the customers had their opportunities to make a decision

in select products and services, they still have to be loyal with continue purchasing

the same products. According to Lee and Murphy (2005), customers will either do

not have intention to switch because they feel burden with the current switching

costs, or will be more attracted to the no or lower switching cost competitors. The

competitors can take the advantages through this position, convince the customers

with the incentives purpose of attempting to pull them away from their preferred

offering. These verbal and physical methods are the obstacles in order to overcome

the brand or service loyalists. As can be seen at this time, the simplest form to solve a

variety of cognitive loyalty, the most difficult is the state action. Thus, the sequence

of cognitive-to-action to bring the analysis close allegiance with the emergence of

full loyalty but still failed to meet the definition of ultimate loyalty for each phase are

subject to attack (Oliver, 1999).

Service Availability. Kaapanda (2012) said that the customers buy goods and

services at the place which is conveniently located, yet prominent to provide

comparatively higher satisfaction levels as compared to the time and effort spent by

the consumer. However, for services, such as telecommunication sectors, it is more

preferrable to talk about accessibility as a marketing mix element, rather than a place.

This is because service is produced and consumed simultaneously.

Satisfaction. Kuusik (2007) stated that the influence of satisfaction towards brand

loyalty may happen due to when the level of satisfaction of the customers are low,

they will move to other competitors. Satisfaction is an outcome after make a

purchase and resulting from the comparison of the customers between the rewards

and cost of the purchase. It will effect the customers perception towards the product,

such as likes or dislikes the service after experiencing it. Generally, it is forced that

satisfaction includes both cognitive and emotional components. Reputation usually

intervene the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty and the relationship

between satisfaction and recommendation. Consumers who have the high frequency

of purchase will be considered satisfied with the products (Nawaz and Usman, 2010).

Costomer satisfaction, is a business term in evaluating the level of satisfaction of the

customers towards the products or services supplied by the company to them. As the

market have become more competitive these days, thus, in order to achieve

customers satisfaction, the major aspect that need to be gained is the imporatant of

key elements in functioning the business. The level of customer satisfaction will be

different to different persons, similarly it will be different in case of products or

service difference (Nemati et al., 2010). Markerters are totally involve in the

satisfaction of the customer. To bring the satisfaction towards the customers in the

best is such as an competitive advantahe to the company (Raza and Rehman, 2012).

The perception of the customers towards the products has been widely used in

measuring the satisfaction of the customers. Therefore, Liu (2008) proposed the five

emotions satisfictory perceived by the customers as follows:

(1) Satisfaction: the products can be accepted or tolerated;

(2) Content: the products bring people with a positive and happy experience;

(3) Relieved: the products remove people’s negative state;

(4) Novelty: the products bring people with freshness and exciting;

(5) Surprise: the products make customer unexpectedly pleased.

Trust. Kuusik (2007) said that the feelings of trustworthiness factors definitely

influenced the brand loyalty. In business, trust is known as one of the most important

elements in stable and collaborative relationship (Akbar and Parvez, 2009). Hence,

customers should perceive quality as their preferences in order tp trust the brand

(Nawaz and Usman, 2010). Moreover, Roostika and Astuti (2011) also stated that the

trusting intentions will make the truster feels secure and is willing to depend on the

trustee. Consequently, in order to trust a service, customers should positively in

perceive the quality. This show that perceived service quality will bring the positive

effect on trust. In practical business activities, in order to establish a long term

successful relationship between all the parties involved, the critical issue will be the

development of trust.

Commitment. Nawaz and Usman (2010) stated that most companies hold a view

that a good management in handling the customers’ complaints and grumbling will

bring a source of barand commitment and brand loyalty. The customer retention rate

may be increase do to the effective way in handling the customers’ complaints. It

also will improves the service quality as well.

Word-of-mouth. Rundle-Thiele and Bennett (2001) claimed that the vital sign of

loyalty is the customer’s willingness to spread the recommend of the company to

others. It is because, when people doing the recommendation, they will put their

reputation on the line, which probably will make the other customers see it as a good

predictor of loyalty. Those people will act as a free advertisement spreader,

declaring information on the satisfying experience with the brand, and offering

proven benefits, which may bring to the automatic recruiting of new consumers that

will do the same thing spread the advertisement and attract more customers. The

group of those customers will probably getting larger, and will influence other

customers to become loyal and committed to the product.

Customer Satisfaction. According to Akbar and Parvez (2009), customer

satisfaction is most popular and established element in several sectors, such as

marketing, economic psychology, consumer research, economics, and welfare

economics (Akbar and Parvez, 2009) . The high believe in the nature of business

services typically will resulted on customers to rely on prior expectations. Thus, this

will make the business service satisfaction is likely to be evaluative in nature.

Moreover, satisfaction is likely to be an priority in dives the loyalty in te setting of

business, as it will implies on the evaluation of the performance of the products with

the previous product purchasing (Russell-Bennett et al., 2007).

2.4 Previous Study on Brand Loyalty

Table 2.1 shows the previous studies that were conducted by several researchers on

brand loyalty in mobile service providers. After the review of each of the previous

study below, it is clear that most of the researchers have found that among the main

factors that influence brand loyalty in mobile service providers are service quality,

price, and promotion.

From the Table 2.1, Kaapanda (2012) has conducted a study entitled “An Evaluation

of Factors Determining The Selection of Mobile Telecommunication Service

Providers in The Northern Region of Namibia”. Eventhough the dependent variable

is not stated and quite general, but the purpose of the study is almost the same, which

is to determine the factors that influence the selection of providers that was

conducted in Namibia. In the study, the author has chosen the social factors, service

quality, price, promotion, and availability of services as the variables. However, after

analysis that was conducted through the Descriptive Statistic, only the service quality

has a significant result on determining the selection of mobile telecommunication

service providers in the Northern Region of Namibia. Therefore, service quality was

adopted as one of the variable in this study.

In the following research, Dani (2012) had chosen “Understanding Brand Loyalty

and Reasons for Change of Service Providers by Consumers of Mobile Services in

Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh” as title of her research. She has been using Chi-

Squared Test of Independence as tools of analysis by including availability, price,

advertisement, and packaging as the variables. The result found that price was

significant factor to the change of service providers by consumers of mobile services

in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. Therefore, price was chosen as one of the

variable in this study.

However, Rahman et al. (2011) had conducted a research on “Choice Criteria for

Mobile Telecom Operator : Empirical Investigation Among Malaysian Customers”.

The variables used in the study were price, service quality, and brand image. They

also decided to run the analysis through Structural Equation Models. The findings

show that only price has significant in the choice criteria for mobile telecom

operator.

Ayob (2010) had chosen “Investigating Brand Loyalty Factors Among Young

Mobile Phone Users” as his reserch topic. The research conducted has involved

switching cost, corporate image, service quality, trust, and promotion as the

variables. After analyzed by the Pearson Correlations Test, the findings approved

that the signicant variable was promotion. The variable of promotion was adopted

due to the finding of the study.

While for Nawaz and Usman (2010), they did a research on “What Makes Customers

Brand Loyal : A Study on Telecommunication Sector of Pakistan”. The variables

involved are service quality, satisfaction, trust, and commitment. They found that the

significant variable is service quality after conducted the Cronbach’s Alfa Test or

known as Reliability Test.

Beside that, the research titled “Exploring Influencing Factors for the Selection of

Mobile Phone Service Providers : A Structural Equational Modelling (SEM)

Approach on Malaysian Consumers” was conducted by Rahman et al. (2010). The

variables for the study were price, service quality, service availability, and

promotion. After run the analysis via Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory

Factor Analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling, the research found that the

significant variable is price.

However, according to the research done by Zaribbayevich, (2010) titled “County of

Origin and Brand Loyalty on Cosmetic Products Among Universiti Utara Malaysia

Students”, the result found that the significant variable were brand name, style, and

price. This was confirmed after conducting analysis on all variables (brand name,

product quality, price, style, and service quality) through Factor Analysis, Reliability

Analysis, Correlation Analysis, and Regression Analysis. Thus, , the variables of

price and style (trend) were adopted to this study.

Table 2.1 Previous Study of Brand Loyalty

AUTHOR(S) / YEARS / TITLE

VARIABLES RESULT(S)TOOLS OF ANALYSIS

VARIABLESTAKEN

Kaapanda (2012)

An Evaluation of Factors Determining The Selection

of Mobile Telecommunication Service Providers in The Northern

Region of Namibia.

Social Factors

Service Quality

Price

Promotion

Availability of Services

There is significant influence between

Service Qualityand the selection

of providers.

Descriptive Statistic

Service Quality

Dani (2012)

Understanding Brand Loyalty and Reasons for

Change of Service Providers by consumers of Mobile Services in Madhya

Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

Availability

Price

Advertisement

Packaging


Price and Brand Loyalty

Chi-Squared Test of

IndependencePrice

Rahman et al. (2011)

Choice Criteria for Mobile Telecom Operator :

Empirical Investigation Among Malaysian

Customers.

Price

Service Quality

Brand Image


Price and the selection of providers.

Structural Equation Models

Price

Ayob (2010)

Investigating Brand Loyalty Factors Among Young Mobile Phone Users.

Switching Cost

Corporate Image

Service Quality

Trust

Promotion


Promotion and Brand Loyalty

Pearson Correlations

Test

Promotion

Table 2.1 Previous Study of Brand Loyalty (Continued)

AUTHOR(S) / YEARS / TITLE

VARIABLES RESULTTOOLS OF ANALYSIS

VARIABLES TAKEN

Nawaz & Usman (2010)

What Makes Customers Brand Loyal : A Study on Telecommunication Sector

of Pakistan.

Service Quality

Satisfaction

Trust

Commitment

There is significant influence between Service

Quality and Brand Loyalty

Cronbach’s Alfa

(Reliability Test)

Service Quality

Rahman et al. (2010)

Exploring Influencing Factors for the Selection of

Mobile Phone Service Providers : A Structural Equational Modelling (SEM) Approach on

Malaysian Consumers.

Price

Service Quality

Service Availability

Promotion


Price and the selection of providers

ExploratoryFactor

Analysis

Confirmatory Factor

Analysis

Structural Equation Modeling

Price

Zaribbayevich (2010)

County of Origin and Brand Loyalty on Cosmetic

Products Among Universiti Utara Malaysia Students

Brand Name

Product Quality

Price

Style

Service Quality


Brand Name, Style, and Pricetowards Brand

Loyalty

Factor Analysis

Reliability Analysis

Correlation Analysis

Regression Analysis

Price

Style (Trend)

Source : Research Result

2.5 Conclusion

This chapter presented the previous literatures that implicate the important keywords

in this study such as Brand Loyalty, Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trend.

Thus, guided by the previous researches, it will make this study become grounded

and stronger.

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

Methodology is the most important and critical part in the study. Therefore, the

methodology used in the study must be define and fully describe in order to test the

hypothesis and address the problems of the study as stated in the beginning of the

study. This chapter describes in detail the method used in this study. It consists of (1)

Research Framework, (2) Hypotheses Development, (3) Research Design, (4)

Operational Definition, (5) Measurement of Variables, (6) Data Collection on

Sampling and Data Collection Procedures, and (7) Techniques of Data Analysis.

3.1 Research Framework

Refer to the educational researcher Smyth (2004), he defined the research framework

as a framework that constructed from a combination of a wide range of ideas and

theories that help researchers to identify problems, develop the questions and search

for relevant literature.

Research framework involves the relationship between dependent variable (DV) and

independent variables (IV). In other words, dependent variable (DV) will rely on

independent variable (IV) and the dependent variable (DV) also do not change

independent variable (IV).

Back to this study, there were five variables to be examined based on the research

topic, "A Study on Factors Affecting Brand Loyalty in Mobile Service Provider in

The College of Business Students of Universiti Utara Malaysia".

Four of the variables were independent variables (IV) while the other variable was

dependent variable (DV). The dependent variable (DV) was brand loyalty that relied

on independent variables (IV) which consists of four factors that influence the brand

loyalty (DV) namely price, service quality, promotion, and trends as shown in Figure

3.1.

The figure shows the variables that need to be examined according to the objectives,

research questions, and hypothesis. In this study, all the variables will be analyzed by

examined the influence between all the independent variables (price, promotion,

service quality, and trend) towards dependent variable (brand loyalty) simultaneously

(as showed by the black arrow). Next, all independent variables (price, promotion,

service quality, and trend) will be analyzed separately (as showed by the blue arrow)

in order to test the influence between each of them towards dependent variable

(brand loyalty).

Figure 3.1 Schematic Diagram for Theoretical Framework Model

Price

Promotion

Service Quality

BrandLoyalty

Trends

3.2 Hypothesis Development

Hypothesis refers to a formal statement of an unproven proposition that is

empirically testable (Zikmund et al. , 2010). Hypothesis will be tested through

empirical test. It should be written in manner so that either it can be supported if the

hypothesis are accepted or it will shown to be wrong if the hypothesis are rejected.

There are several hypotheses that have been developed in this study to determine the

relationship between independent variables and dependent variable.

For the first hypothesis, all the factors, price, promotion, service quality, and trend

will be examined simultaneously. This is to determine whether all of these factors are

mutually influential when together or more influential when standing alone.

Therefore, the hypothesis is:

H1 : Price, promotion, service quality, and trends influence significantly

towards brand loyalty simultaneously among students of College of

Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Ismail (2009) had stated that price has been discover as an important factor that will

bring impact to the existence of new products and services, but pricing of a new

product or service is more difficult. However, the unfair and unreasonable changes in

price will cause the customers realize the unfairness and unsatisfactory (Wichai &

Siriluck, 2010). Moreover, Zaribbayevich (2010) also stressed that the customers’

intention of purchase will be difficult to be affected by price the brand loyalty are

built into the brand. Hence, the next hypothesis is:

H2 : Price has a significant influence towards brand loyalty in mobile service


Malaysia.

According to Ayob (2010), promotion is a tools of marketing mix, apart from price,

place, and people. The function of the promotion is to communicate the company’s

product to the consumers in order to make the consumers aware and attracted to their

products. They aim to give the idea and perception into the mind of customers so that

the customers can differentiate their products from other competitors’ brand. This

will lead to the customers’ continuous purchase and repurchase as well as become

loyal to the brand. Therefore, next hypothesis is:

H3 : Promotion has a significant influence towards brand loyalty in mobile

service providers among the students of College of Business, Universiti

Utara Malaysia.

Service quality has been known as a the main strategic issue in service sectors for the

operating in organizations (Roostika & Astuti, 2011). While Chen and Ching (2007)

had stated that the quality is seems to be the customers’ expectation in order to

receive the perceived value. Furthermore, according to Achour et al. (n.d.), the

finding from the previous studies on service quality had suggested that term of

service quality service providers are quite diverse, even as if do not fit to any single

existing quality model. Therefore, the hypothesis is:

H4 : Service quality has a significant influence towards brand loyalty in mobile

service provider among the students of College of Business, Universiti

Utara Malaysia.

Factor of trend is not borrowed from any of the previous studies as not yet reviewed

by any of previous researchers. It is designed by me in order to study a new factor in

which there is a possibility that it has significant influence on brand loyalty. It could

be contributing a new source of factors that influence to the selection of brand

loyalty in mobile service providers. The trend was also chosen because of people

now are more influenced by factors surrounding, such as family and peers. Besides,

it is also because of looking at the current trend where we are all surrounded by

sophisticated technology that will facilitate our daily lives. Therefore, the proposed

hypothesis is as follow:

H5 : Trends has a significant influence towards brand loyalty in mobile service


Malaysia.

Next is to choose the most influential factor among the price, promotion, service

quality, and trend towards the brand loyalty in mobile service providers. This is to

determine and ensure that the factor has an impact on brand loyalty compare to other

factors proposed in this study. Therefore, the hypothesis is:

H6 : Which one of the price, promotion, service quality, or trends has the most

significant influence towards brand loyalty among students of College of


3.3 Research Design

According to Zikmund et al. (2010), research design is a master plan that specifies

the methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed information. It

will provide the skeleton or plan of action for the used of research.

This study entitled "A Study on Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty in Mobile Service

Providers Among College of Business Students, Universiti Utara Malaysia” is a

research that attempts to review the influence of price, promotions, service quality,

and trends towards brand loyalty in mobile service providers. The framework for this

study is used as a guide for collecting and analyzing data. The data were collected

through questionnaires and analyzed through quantitative measures where the

numeric values collected from the responses in questionnaires can then be used in

statistical computations (SPSS) and hypothesis testing (Zikmund et al., 2010). It is

design to be descriptive and multiple regression so to give insights as to which

factors of price, promotion, service quality, and trends have influence the brand

loyalty in mobile service providers among the students.

3.4 Operational Definition

Operational definitions is a concept that will be processed through operationalization.

This process requires the identification of an appropriate scale according to the

difference in the concept. Scales provide a variety of values that suits to different

values in the concept being measured. Scales also will provide the particular value on

a scale that will be correspondence commensurate with the value of some of the true

concept (Zikmund et al., 2010). Table 3.1 shows all variables involved in this

research, which are brand loyalty, price, promotion, service quality, and trends.

Table 3.1 Operational Definition of Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty

Variables Conceptual Definition Operational Definition

Brand

Loyalty

The tendency of customers to

keep buying the same brand

of a particular product

instead of trying other

brands.

(Macmillan Dictionary

Thesaurus)

Brand Loyalty is the consumer's

conscious or unconscious decision,

expressed through intention or

behavior, to repurchase a brand

continually. (Dani, 2012)

Price

The sum or amount of

money or its equivalent for

which anything is bought,

sold, or offered for sale.

(Dictionary.com)

Price is the medium for exchange

of value between a buyer and

seller.

(Rao, 2011)

Table 3.1 Operational Definition of Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty (continued)

Variables Conceptual Definition Operational Definition

Service

Quality

An assessment of how well a

delivered service conforms to

the client’s expectations.

Service business operators

often assess the service quality

provided to their customers in

order to improve their service,

to quickly identify problems,

and to be better assess client

satisfaction.

(BusinessDictionary.com)

Service quality is a focused

evaluation that reflects the

customer's perception of specific

dimensions of service:

reliability, responsiveness,

assurance, empathy, tangibles.

(Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003)

Promotion

The publicization of a product,

organization, or venture to

increase sales or public

awareness. It includes all

forms of communication other

than advertising that call

attention to products and

services by adding extra values

toward the purchase.

(Google Search)

Promotion is a set of stimuli that

are offered sporadically, and it

reinforces publicity actions to

promote the purchasing of a

certain product.

(Alvarez and Casielles, 2005)

Trend

Trends are the aggregate effect

of many uncoordinated

individual and group actions. It

is a persistent change in social

relations and social structure

over time.

(www.webref.org)

Based on the trend nowadays,

the internet and

telecommunication technologies

are frequently regarded as two

major drivers for creating new

value and introducing new

services to customers (Chen &

Ching, 2007).


3.5 Measurement of Variables

Measurement of Variables are the explanation of the method used to measure or test

the variables in a study. Hence, in this study, all the variables are measured through

set of questionnaires. Zimkund et al. (2010) had mentioned that a questionnaire must

be relevant to the extent of all information collected that can addresses the research

question. The questionnaires also must be accurate, where all the information must

be reliable and valid. The questionnaire (see Appendix A) is designed to ensure the

respondents can esily understand the questions and the languange used by using the

straight forward sentences.

The questions used a five-point Likert Scale Method where the respondents have to

answer the questions according to their assent towards the questions. According to

Zikmund et al. (2010), Likert scale is a measure of attitudes that have been designed

to allow the respondents to give rate based on their assent on how strongly they agree

or disagree with carefully constructed statements, that provides the ranging from the

very positive to very negative attitudes toward some object. The score range for

Likert- Scale Method are as in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2Likert Scale Score

Scale ScoreStrongly Agree 5

Agree 4Partly Agree / Disagree 3

Disagree 2Strongly Disagree 1

Source : Zikmund et al. (2010)

All data were keyed-in and analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Science

(SPSS) version 16.0. The questionnaires were adopted and edited from the

instruments that have been developed by Zhang and Feng (2009) because most of the

questions are reliable and capable to achieve the objectives of this study.

Questionnaires are divided into three sections, where Section 1 captured

demographic information, Section 2 captured information on current mobile service

provider used by the students, while Section 3 captured information regarding

students’ assent towards their current mobile service provider based on the variables

(price, service quality, promotions, and trends) used in this study.

Section 1 : Demographic Information

This section consists of three questions which aims to obtain the respondents’

demographic information. Questions asked are related to age, gender, and current

educational level in Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Section 2 : Current Mobile Service Provider Used

This section consists of three questions to obtain the information on current mobile

service provider used by the students. Questions asked related to current mobile

service provider, how long it being used, and which mobile connection services used

by the students.

Section 3 : Students’ Perception on Factors of Brand Loyalty in Mobile Service

Provider

This section consists of 20 statements to assess students’ perception towards all the

variables involved (brand loyalty, price, service quality, promotions, and trends) on

their mobile service providers.

3.6 Pilot Test

Pilot test is a stude on a small-scale research project, where the data are collected

from the respondents similarly with those to be used later in the full study (Zikmund

et al., 2010).

Han and Kim (2010) indicated that validation of the theory’s belief constructs were

needed prior to construction of the final questionnaire. It helps researchers to

construct a questionnaire that is adequate for a specific behavior and population of

interest. Accordingly, a pilot test was conducted in this study.

In the pilot test, 20 initial questionnaires had been sent to participants through

convenience sampling method. This sampling technique selects participants with

convenient accessibility and proximity to the researcher because it is fast,

inexpensive, easy and the participants are readily available. Thus, a pilot test will be

used to confirm the actual respondents’ understanding the questions structured in the

questionnaire.

3.6.1 Reliability

Reliability is the consistency of a set of measurements or of a measuring

instrument, often used to describe a test (Zikmund et al., 2010). This means

that a reliable measure is measuring something consistently, but may not

measure the item itself. Reliability applied to people can tell the probability

that a person (or group) will successfully perform the specified task, under

the specified conditions, for the specified period of time (Blank, 2004).

However, reliability does not imply validity.

Cronbach's Alpha (coefficient alpha, α) is a coefficient of reliability. Kaplan

and Saccuzzo (2008) suggested that α value estimates in the range of 0.70 and

0.80 are good enough for most purposes in basic research. The same point

also proposed by Hair et al. (1998), where the stage of score for the pilot tests

are as shown in Table 3.3.

Table 3.3Scale of Pilot Tests

Score Indicator

< 0.60 Poor

0.60 – 0.70 Moderate

0.70 – 0.80 Good

> 0.80 Very Good

Source : Hair et al. (1998)

As tested in the study, the summary of the reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) are

as in Table 3.4. It shows that the score for the variable of brand loyalty is

0.792 which indicates as good. Score for price is 0.724, also indicated as

good. Indicator for promotion is very good because of the score is 0.962. It is

same with service quality and trend with the score of 0.863 and 0.861

respectively, which indicates as very good. It can be said that all the variables

are reliable for this study.

Table 3.4Reliability Test

Variables Items Cronbach’s Alpha

Brand Loyalty 4 0.792

Price 4 0.724

Promotion 4 0.962

Service Quality 4 0.863

Trend 4 0.861


3.6.2 Validity

Validity is defined as the extent to which any measuring instrument measures

what it is intended to measure (Carmines and Zeller, 1979). Validity also

used to improve existing scales, and to evaluate the reliability of scales

already in use. Multivariate procedures like factor analysis can be useful in

establishing construct validity (Zikmund et. al., 2010). Test of validity can be

identified with the degree of correlation between the test and a measure. In

terms of accuracy and precision, reliability is similar to precision, while

validity is similar to accuracy.

According to Table 3.5, overall, all items in each variable is valid. This is

indicated by the overall score for all 20 items are between 0.600 to 0.948,

which indicates that they are valid since the whole score are 0.600 and above

as referred to the scale on Table 3.3.

Table 3.5 Validity Test

Brand

LoyaltyPrice Promotion

Service

QualityTrend

0.693 0.654 0.891 0.600 0.746

0.794 0.721 0.916 0.749 0.779

0.847 0.677 0.948 0.692 0.663

0.845 0.737 0.887 0.807 0.680


3.6.3 Multicollinearity

According to Zikmund et al. (2010), multicollinearity is the extent to which

independent variables in a multiple regression analysis are correlated with

each other. High multicollinearity can make interpreting parameter estimates

difficult or impossible. In this study, as in Table 3.6, it shows that score for

the correlation between each of the variables are between 0.284 to 0.577. It

indicates that they do not have a strong correlation between each of the

variables. This is because all the score are below than 0.60 which indicates

the good multicollinearity between the variables as they do not have strong

relation among them.

Table 3.6Multicollinearity Test

PriceService

QualityPromotion Trend

Price 1.000 0.463 0.529 0.284

Service

Quality0.463 1.000 0.483 0.471

Promotion 0.529 0.483 1.000 0.577

Trend 0.284 0.471 0.577 1.000


3.7 Data Collection

Next will be the discussion on sampling and data collection procedures used in this

study in order to collect the data from the respondents on the factors (price,

promotion, service quality, and trends) that influencing brand loyalty in mobile

service providers.

3.7.1 Sampling

This study using Simple Random Sampling, where it is a sampling procedure

that assures each element in the population of an equal chance of being

included in the sample (Zikmund et al., 2010). This technique is simple

compare to other techniques because it requires only one stage of sample

selection. The survey is conducted in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). The

target respondents for this study is students of College of Business (COB)

that stay at the Students’ Residential Hall only.

The sample size is 100. However, after distibuting 120 sets of questionnaires

to the respondents, only 92 sets are returned. Roscoe (1975) had proposed the

rules of thumbs for determining the sample size, where sample sizes larger

than 30 and less than 500 are appropriate for most research. As well as by

Carmen and Betsy (2007), they said that, although there are more complex

formula, the general rule of thumb is no less than 50 participants for a

correlation or regression with the number increasing with larger numbers of

independent variables (IVs).

3.7.2 Data Collection Procedures

The only approach in collecting data for this study is through questionnaires,

since this study is based on quantitative methods of analysis. The quantitative

methods of data collection, depending on random sampling and structured

data collection instrument according to the objective that need to be achieve

in this study. Quantitative research is concerned with testing hypotheses that

derived from the study. Data collections were done within two weeks. During

the survey. 120 self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the

respondents. However, only 92 set of responsed questionnaires were returned.

3.8 Techniques of Data Analysis

The study was began with the Pilot Test in order to test the reliability, validity, and

multicollinearity of the items variables before proceed to the real study. Data in this

study were analyzed by using Descriptive Analysis and Multiple Regression

Analysis.

Descriptive analysis refers to the elementary transformation of raw data in a way that

describes the basic characteristics such as central tendency, distribution, and

variability (Zikmund et al., 2010). This analysis are used in analyzing the

demographic background of the respondents.

Then, for hypothesis testing, first, coefficient of determination (R-Squared) will be

tested from the summary table. The R-Squared indicates the degree of the fitness of

the regression line. It also shows how good the sample regression line fit the data. A

high value of R-squared, which is nearer to 1.0 or more than 50 percent, indicates

that line fit very well. In fact, the value of R-Squared implies the extent to which the

variation in explanatory variables can be explained the variation in the dependent

variable.

By refer to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) table, compare p-value or significance

(as labelled in ANOVA table) with the 95 percent of confidence level (0.05) in order

to test the hypothesis. If the p-value is greater than 0.05, it indicates that the result is

insignificant. However, if the p-value is lower than 0.05, the result is significant.

Finally, the regression equation will be constructed only for the significant results by

refer to the coefficients table. This indicates that the independent variables are able to

predict the dependent variable, where an increase in independent variable, the

dependent variable also will be increase. Example of the regression equation is:

Y = βo + β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X3 + …..+ βnXn + ε

Where,

Y = Dependent Variable

X1, X2,...Xn = Independent Variable

β0 = Intercept term or constant value

β = Coefficient for the independent variables

ε = Error Terms

3.9 Conclusion

This chapter explains the methods on the research design applied in this study. It

explicate on the pilot test, questionnaire and analysis planned to achieve the aims and

objectives of this study.

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will elaborates the various statistic test and interpretation on the result

of the analysis. This study determines the factors that influencing brand loyalty in

mobile service provider among the students of College of Business, Universiti Utara

Malaysia. Total set of questionnaires that were distributed to the respondents were

120 sets. However, only 92 responsed questionnaires returned and can be used in this

study. The results obtained from 92 respondents, were thoroughly analysed and the

output of the result are clearly explained in this section.

4.1 Demographic Characteristic of the Respondents

Mulder (2006) stated that the demographic refers to the study on the populations of

human in accordance to the statistical analysis, such as quantities, characteristics,

where they live, age, income, spending, and so on. Therefore, in this part,

information on respondents’ background will be analyzed through descriptive

analysis. Zikmund et al. (2010) had defined descriptive analysis as the simple

transformation of raw data in a way that depict the basic characteristics such as

central tendency, distribution, and variability. The results for each characteristics

will be summarized in frequency table respectively.

4.1.1 Age of Respondents

Table 4.1 shows the result on the age of the respondents. It shows that 66.3

percent of the respondents (61 respondents) are between 20 to 25 years old.

Meanwhile, 16.3 percent of the respondents (15 respondents) are between 26

to 30 years old. Then, 15.2 percent of the respondents (14 respondents) are

less than 20 years old, while 2.2 percent of the respondents (2 respondents)

are above 30 years old. This shows that, those in the age group of 20 to 25

years old played a large role in determining the factors that influence brand

loyalty in mobile service providers, as they are the majority group in this

study.

Table 4.1Age of Respondents

Ages Frequency Percent (%)

Less than 20 years old 14 15.2

20 – 25 years old 61 66.3

26 – 30 years old 15 16.3

Above 30 years old 2 2.2

Total 92 100.0


4.1.2 Gender of Respondents

Table 4.2 shows result on gender of the respondents. It shows that 85.9

percent of the respondents (79 respondents) are female while 14.1 percent of

the respondents (13 respondents) are male. This shows that the women are

more concerned about the use of their mobile service providers, compared to

men who may not be so concerned about their providers.

Table 4.2Gender of Respondents

Gender Frequency Percent (%)

Male 13 14.1

Female 79 85.9

Total 92 100.0


4.1.3 Respondents’ Level of Education

Table 4.3 shows the result on respondents’ level of education. It shows that

63.0 percent of the respondents (58 respondents) are first degree students,

while 37.0 percent of the respondents (34 respondents) are master degree

students.

Table 4.3Respondents’ Level of Education

Level of Education Frequency Percent (%)

Master Degree 34 37.0

First Degree 58 63.0

Total 92 100.0


4.1.4 Respondents’ Current Mobile Service Provider

Table 4.4 shows the main mobile service providers in Malaysia. Thirty five

respondents (38.04 percent) are Celcom users. Thirty one respondents (33.7

percent) are Maxis users, while 26 respondents (28.3 percent) are Digi

customers. This shows that most of the respondents prefer to use the services

provided by Celcom and Maxis compare to Digi.

Table 4.4Respondents’ Current Mobile Service Provider

Service Providers Frequency Percent (%)

Celcom 35 38.0

Maxis 31 33.7

Digi 26 28.3

Total 92 100.0


4.1.5 Period of Using Current Mobile Service Provider

Table 4.5 shows on how long the respondents have been using the mobile

service providers. There are 34 respondents (37.0 percent) have been using

the service providers for less than a year. Followed by 21 respondents (22.8

percent) that have been using the service providers for two years. There are

also 22 respondents (23.9 percent) have been using the providers for three

years, while for four years, there are about 15 respondents (16.3 percent) that

have been using it.

Table 4.5Period of Using Current Mobile Service Provider

Period Frequency Percent (%)

Less than 1 year 34 37.0

2 years 21 22.8

3 years 22 23.9

4 years and above 15 16.3

Total 92 100.0


4.1.6 Type of Services on Mobile Connection

Table 4.6 shows the result on the type of mobile connection that are used by

the respondents. It shows that 89.1 percent of the respondent (82 respondents)

are using prepaid services, while 10.9 percent of the respondents (10

respondents) are using postpaid services.

Table 4.6Type of Services on Mobile Connection

Type of Connection Frequency Percent (%)

Postpaid 10 10.9

Prepaid 82 89.1

Total 92 100.0


4.2 Hypothesis Testing

All the data below were obtained through the process in Statistical Package for

Social Science (SPSS) version 16.0 software in order to test the hypothesis in this

study. The primary data were collected through questionnaires that distributed to the

respondents. The data collected had been key in into this software and analyzed by

using multiple regression analysis methods. It includes all the variables that were

used in this study, which are price, promotions, service quality, trends, and brand

loyalty for dependent variable. The test of these hypotheses leads to the

accomplishment of study objectives.

4.2.1 Test on Hypothesis 1 (H1)

The proposed hypothesis is :

Price, promotion, service quality, and trends influence significantly

towards brand loyalty simultaneously among students of College of


From the regression on Table 4.7, the value for coefficient of determination

(R square) for price, promotion, service quality, and trend simultaneously is

0.573. This indicates that 57.3 percent of the price, promotion, service

quality, and trends (independent variables) influential simultaneously against

brand loyalty (dependent variable). The remaining of 42.7 percent are

influenced by other variables or factors.

Table 4.7Model Summary of Price, Promotion, Service quality, and Trends

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

1 0.757 0.573 0.553 2.486Source : Research Result

Table 4.8 shows that p-value ( probability value) is significant at 0.000. At

the 95 percent of confidence level, p-value is lower than 0.05 (p < 0.05).

Therefore, there is a statistically significant influence between price,

promotion, service quality, and trends towards brand loyalty simultaneously.

Table 4.8ANOVA of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression 720.919 4 180.230 29.169 0.000a

Residual 537.548 87 6.179

Total 1258.467 91Source : Research Result

Thus, as referred to Table 4.9, the regression equation for price (x1),

promotion (x2), service quality (x3), and trends (x4) is :

y = 0.987 + 0.012 x1 – 0.76 x2 + 0.70 x3 + 0.862 x4

(refer to 3.8, page 58 )

It shows that the equation can be used to predict brand loyalty (y), where an

increase in price (x1), service quality (x3), and trends (x4), and a decrease in

promotion (x2), it will lead to increasing in brand loyalty (y).

Table 4.9Coefficients of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients

T Sig.B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 0.987 2.109 0.468 0.641

PriceTotal 0.012 0.122 0.007 0.099 0.921

ServQualityTotal 0.070 0.106 0.062 0.665 0.508

PromotionTotal -0.076 0.138 -0.075 -0.549 0.584

TrendTotal 0.862 0.129 0.798 6.681 0.000Source : Research Result

4.2.2 Test on Hypothesis 2 (H2) :


Price has a significant influence towards brand loyalty in mobile

service providers among the students of College of Business,

Universiti Utara Malaysia.

From the regression on Table 4.10, the coefficient of determination (R

square) for price is 0.003. This indicates that 0.3 percent of the price

(independent variable) influential against brand loyalty (dependent variable).

The remaining of 99.7 percent are influenced by other variables or factors.

Table 4.10Model Summary of Price


1 0.052 0.003 -0.008 3.734Source : Research Result

Table 4.11 shows that p-value is significant at 0.623. At the 95 percent of

confidence level, p-value is higher than 0.05 (p > 0.05). Therefore, there is a

statistically insignificant influence between price towards brand loyalty.

Table 4.11ANOVA of Price

ModelSum of Squares

DfMean

SquareF Sig.

1 Regression 3.390 1 3.390 0.243 0.623a

Residual 1255.078 90 13.945




Promotion has a significant influence towards brand loyalty in mobile




square) for promotion is 0.345. This indicates that 34.5 percent of the

promotion (independent variable) influential against brand loyalty (dependent

variable). The remaining of 65.5 percent are influenced by other variables or

factors.

Table 4.12Model Summary of Promotion




confidence level, p-value is lower than 0.05 (p < 0.05). Therefore, there is a

statistically significant influence between promotion towards brand loyalty.

Table 4.13ANOVA of Promotion

ModelSum of Squares

DfMean

SquareF Sig.

1 Regression 433.944 1 433.944 47.367 0.000a

Residual 824.523 90 9.161


Thus, as referred to Table 4.14, the regression equation for promotion (x2) is:

y = 6.477 + 0.593 x2


increase in promotion (x2), it will lead to increasing in brand loyalty (y).

Table 4.14Coefficients of Promotion

Model


Standardized Coefficients T Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 6.477 1.218 5.315 0.000

PromotionTotal 0.593 0.086 0.587 6.882 0000Source : Research Result



Service quality has a significant influence towards brand loyalty in

mobile service providers among the students of College of Business,



square) for service quality is 0.059. This indicates that 5.9 percent of the

service quality (independent variable) influential against brand loyalty

(dependent variable). The remaining of 94.1 percent are influenced by other

variables or factors.

Table 4.15Model Summary of Service Quality





statistically significant influence between service quality towards brand

loyalty.

Table 4.16ANOVA of Service Quality

ModelSum of Squares

DfMean

SquareF Sig.

1 Regression 74.362 1 74.362 5.652 0.020

Residual 1184.105 90 13.157


Thus, as referred to Table 4.17, the regression equation for service quality

(x3) is :

y = 10.401 + 0.277 x3


increase in service quality (x3), it will lead to increasing in brand loyalty (y).

Table 4.17Coefficients of Service Quality

Model


Standardized Coefficients t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 10.401 1.796 5.790 0.000

ServQualityTotal 0.277 0.117 0.243 2.377 0.020Source : Research Result



Trends has a significant influence towards brand loyalty in mobile




square) for trends is 0.570. This indicates that 57.0 percent of the trends

(independent variable) influential against brand loyalty (dependent variable).

The remaining of 43.0 percent are influenced by other variables or factors.

Table 4.18Model Summary of Trends





statistically significant influence between trends towards brand loyalty.

Table 4.19ANOVA of Trends

ModelSum of Squares

DfMean

SquareF Sig.

1 Regression 717.262 1 717.262 119.277 0.000

Residual 541.206 90 6.013


Thus, as referred to Table 4.20, the regression equation for trends (x4) is:

y = 1.893 + 0.815 x4


increase in trends (x4), it will lead to increasing in brand loyalty (y).

Table 4.20Coefficients of Trends

Model


Standardized Coefficients T Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 1.893 1.189 1.592 0.115



The proposed hypothesis was :

Which one of the price, promotion, service quality, or trends has the

most significant influence towards brand loyalty among students of


When analyzed through the backward method, only the most significant

variable will be remain in the result. It analyzed by removing the insignificant

variables one by one in stages. It can be seen that at the end of this analysis,

only the variable of trends have remained in Table 4.21, Table 4.22, and

Table 4.23. It means that trends has the most significant influence towards

brand loyalty among students of College of Business, Universiti Utara

Malaysia.


square) for trends (backward) is 0.570. This indicates that 57.0 percent of the

trends (independent variable) influential against brand loyalty (dependent

variable). The remaining of 43.0 percent are influenced by other variables or

factors.

Table 4.21Model Summary of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends(Backward)


1 .757a .573 .553 2.486

2 .757b .573 .558 2.472

3 .756c .571 .562 2.462

4 .755d .570 .565 2.452

a. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotal, PriceTotal, ServQualityTotal, PromotionTotal

b. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotal, ServQualityTotal, PromotionTotal

c. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotal, ServQualityTotal

d. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotalSource : Research Result

Table 4.22 for backward shows that p-value is significant at 0.000. At the 95

percent of confidence level, p-value is lower than 0.05 (p < 0.05). Therefore,

there is a statistically significant influence between trends towards brand

loyalty.

Table 4.22ANOVA of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends (Backward)

ModelSum of Squares

DfMean

SquareF Sig.

1 Regression 720.919 4 180.230 29.169 0.000a

Residual 537.548 87 6.179

Total 1258.467 91

2 Regression 720.859 3 240.286 39.332 0.000b

Residual 537.609 88 6.109

Total 1258.467 91

3 Regression 718.947 2 359.473 59.299 0.000c

Residual 539.521 89 6.062

Total 1258.467 91

Table 4.22ANOVA of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends (Backward) (continued)

ModelSum of Squares

DfMean

SquareF Sig.

4 Regression 717.262 1 717.262 119.277 0.000d

Residual 541.206 90 6.013

Total 1258.467 91




d. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotalSource : Research Result

Thus, as referred to Table 4.23 for backward, the regression equation for

trends (x4) will be :

y = 1.893 + 0.815 x4


increase in trends (x4), it will lead to increasing in brand loyalty (y).

Table 4.23Coefficients of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends (Backward)

Model



B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 0.987 2.109 0.468 0.641

PriceTotal 0.012 0.122 0.007 0.099 0.921


PromotionTotal -0.076 0.138 -0.075 -0.549 0.584

TrendTotal 0.862 0.129 0.798 6.681 0.000

2 (Constant) 1.123 1.593 0.705 0.483


PromotionTotal -0.077 0.137 -0.076 -0.559 0.577

TrendTotal 0.861 0.128 0.797 6.732 0.000

Table 4.23Coefficients of Price, Promotion, Service Quality, and Trends (Backward) (continued)

Model



B Std. Error Beta

3 (Constant) 1.415 1.499 0.944 0.348


TrendTotal 0.804 0.078 0.744 10.312 0.000

4 (Constant) 1.893 1.189 1.592 0.115


4.3 Conclusion

After the analyzed of the data of 92 samples, it can be conclude that most of the

respondents were between 20 to 25 years. Majority of them also were female, and

study in the first degree level. Most of them were celcom users, had been using the

services for less than a year, and were prepaid users.

For the results on hypothesis testing, as shown in Table 4.24, it shows that hypothesis

1 is accepted, which indicates that the price, promotion, service quality, and trend

influence the brand loyalty simultaneously. However, hypothesis 2 is rejected where

the price do not influence the brand loyalty. While hypothesis 3 is accepted, which

indicates that promotion influence the brand loyalty. Hypothesis 4 also accepted,

where it indicates that service quality does influence the brand loyalty. Brand loyalty

also can be influenced by trend when hypothesis 5 is accepted. For hypothesis 6, the

most significance variable is trend, where among all the variables, trend has the most

influence towards the brand loyalty.

Table 4.24 Results on Hypothesis Testing

Hypothesis Accept / Reject Remarks

Hypothesis 1 Accept Simultaneously

Hypothesis 2 Reject Price

Hypothesis 3 Accept Promotion

Hypothesis 4 Accept Service Quality

Hypothesis 5 Accept Trend

Hypothesis 6 Accept Trend (most influence)


CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter presents conclusion and recommendation based on the objectives and

the findings of the study.

5.1 Conclusions

Malaysian telecommunication services are one of Malaysia fast growing sector. It

also have become the most highly developed sector. Accusations of poor network

quality services have been a major reason why customers are switching to another

providers. The changing landscape of the Malaysian mobile market has witnessed the

restructuring of the main players in that market.

As competition is increasing among the companies, especially in the mobile market

today, it lead the market to become extremely competitive. The mobile service

provider also now are moving aggressively to attract customer by offering attractive

promotions and services.

From the review of findings, demographic characteristics of the respondents are

limited to age, gender, and level of educations of the respondents. The women and

those aged between 20 and 25 years are more influential to this study. Whereas, the

majority of the respondents were students in the level of first degree, where they

usually spend less as they were not working. Therefore, they will look for providers

who can offer the lowest rates so they can save.

Majority of the respondents were Celcom users. This is possible because of Celcom

offer the plans or packages that are better than other providers such as “Upax” plan

that is offered exclusively to university students. Beside that, majority of respondents

also had been using the services from their providers for less than a year. This is may

due to the providers that compete among themselves to be the cheapest plan

providers. This also will lead the respondents often switch to other providers to enjoy

the lowest rates. In connection with that, the lower price of prepaid starter pack

nowadays also cause the respondent able often to switch to other providers or use

more than one sim card.

From the findings on variables involved in this study, only the variable of price that

is insignificant towards the brand loyalty. It is due to consumers today that are more

concerned about the quality of service, promotions, and trends over the price. If the

quality of service has been satisfactory, they will not hesitate to spend more.

In addition, the trend is the most influential factor on brand loyalty in mobile service

providers. This is parallel with the current changes in technology and modern

lifestyles, which is now equipped with sophisticated technology and people now are

more capable to afford expensive items. Besides, it was also result of the efforts of

all providers who offer a diversity plan that will provide benefits to all their

customers.

In conclusion, brand loyalty is very closely related and influenced by customer

satisfaction and commitment. Customer loyalty is believed to help the provider to

enhance the reputation and profitability of their companies.

5.2 Recommendations

There are several recommendations drawn from the finding of this study. This

recommendations may be a bit much to help the providers to further expand their

reputation while maintaining the loyalty of their customers.

The providers can attract more customers by offering a lower price for contract of

smartphone or tablet PC (personal computer). This is due to the students today that

tend to prefer the use of tablet PC or smart phone, which is more flexible to carry to

anywhere. With the lower price for the contract of data plan services together with

the gadget, students will be able to have the gadget to facilitate their learning

process. Dani (2012) showed that operators that offer value for money service

automatically become the first choice for the customers. Accordingly, it surely can

increase the number of customers and customers’ loyalty to the providers.

In addition, the providers should also work to improve the quality of their services.

Dani (2012) also said that good network coverage is of umpteen importance for any

telecom operator to be successful and the quality of coverage leads to satisfaction or

dissatisfaction of the customers.

The mobile service providers need to expand the signal coverage, particularly in rural

areas in order to attract more customers. Beside that, they also need to enhance their

3G signal to enable consumers to enjoy their services without interruption, such as

browsing the internet, make video calls, doing the mobile banking transactions,

online shopping, and so on. Beside that, people now are like to spend more time

visiting the social networking such facebook, twitter, and so on. That is why they

really need the services of data plan. Beside that, the providers also must ensure that

no more short message service (sms) scam received by customers that usually will

deduct their credit.

For the promotion, the providers can diversify their style of promotion by having

road tour to promote their products to the universities in Malaysia. By this way,

students will find it easier to interact with the providers and in the mean time enjoy

the services offered.

The providers also need to find new ways to improve their service quality by

listening more to their customer and simultaneously gather more information for

them to improve their services. They also have to take immediate action to any

complaint by the customers in order to avoid the customers switch to another

providers.

Another important thing is, it is suggested that studies in other places by using a

similar approach with a larger sample such as the whole students of high institutions

in Malaysia as the respondents and the users of mobile service providers should be

conducted. This will certainly increase the chances to produce the more precise and

accurate results that represent the opinion of students in Malaysia towards the brand

loyalty in mobile service providers as they are among the major users of mobile

service providers in Malaysia.

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APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAIRE

TITLE : BRAND LOYALTY IN MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER

SECTION 1

Please answer the following questions concerning your DEMOGRAPHIC. Please circle for each question.

1. AgeA. Less than 20 years oldB. 20 – 25 years oldC. 26 – 30 years oldD. Above 30 years old

2. GenderA. MaleB. Female

3. Indicate your educational level at Universiti Utara MalaysiaA. MasterB. Degree

SECTION 2

Please answer the following questions concerning your CURRENT MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDER. Please circle for each question.

4. What mobile service provider you are using now?A. CelcomB. MaxisC. Digi

5. How long have you use this mobile service provider?A. Less than 1 yearB. 2 yearsC. 3 yearsD. 4 years and above

6. Which type of mobile connection do you use?A. PostpaidB. PrepaidC.

SECTION 3

The following statements relate your feeling towards mobile service provider you are using now. Please show the extend to which you think the mobile service provider should possess the feature described by each statement below. Each of the statement was accompanied by 5 point of scale, from “Strongly Disagree” (1) to “ Strongly Agree” (5). Please circle the appropriate answer.There are no right or wrong answers.

1. Price

PE1 The rates offered by this operator are reasonable. 1 2 3 4 5

PE2This operator is offering flexible pricing for various services that meet my needs.

1 2 3 4 5

PE3 There are no hidden fees charged by the operator. 1 2 3 4 5

PE4I will continue to stay with this operator unless the price is significantly higher for the same services.

1 2 3 4 5

2. Service Quality

SQ1This operator is consistent in providing good services.

1 2 3 4 5

SQ2This operator updates their customers with the latest information of new services or packages.

1 2 3 4 5

SQ3The counter frontline of this operator are very friendly and willing to help.

1 2 3 4 5

SQ4The operator will take immediate action to solve the customers’ complain.

1 2 3 4 5

Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree

Partly Agree /

DisagreeDisagree Agree

1 2 3 4 5

3. Promotions

PN1The advertisement of the operator in media (TV,newspaper,etc.) are very attractive and influenced.

1 2 3 4 5

PN2The celebrity ambassador influenced you in choosing the operator.

1 2 3 4 5

PN3The promotion offered by the operator are valuable.

1 2 3 4 5

PN4They use effective promotional strategies to attract customers

1 2 3 4 5

4. Trends

TR1The selection of operator is much more influenced by family.

1 2 3 4 5

TR2The selection of services operator also influenced by friends that using the same operator.

1 2 3 4 5

TR3I am selecting this operator because the trend of using smart phone that need to use data connection.

1 2 3 4 5

TR4I am selecting this operator because the trend of family packages that are more valuable.

1 2 3 4 5

5. Brand Loyalty

BL1I intend to continue using the current operator for a long time.

1 2 3 4 5

BL2Even if others operators’ price is lower, I will keep on using this operator.

1 2 3 4 5

BL3I will encourage friends and relatives to use the services from this operator.

1 2 3 4 5

BL4This operator clearly is able to provide the best service.

1 2 3 4 5

APPENDIX B

PILOT TEST (RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, AND MULTICOLLINEARITY)

Brand Loyalty

Case Processing Summary

N %

Cases Valid 20 100.0

Excluded 0 .0

Total 20 100.0

Reliability :

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

.792 4

Validity :

Item-Total Statistics

Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Brand Loyalty 1 .693




Price


N %


Excluded 0 .0

Total 20 100.0

Reliability :



.724 4

Validity :



Price 1 .654

Price 2 .721

Price 3 .677

Price 4 .737

Promotion


N %


Excluded 0 .0

Total 20 100.0

Relliability :



.962 4

Validity :



Promotion 1 .891

Promotion 2 .916

Promotion 3 .948

Promotion 4 .887

Service Quality


N %


Excluded 0 .0

Total 20 100.0

Reliability :



.863 4

Validity :


Corrected Item-Total Correlatio

Service Quality 1 .600




Trend


N %


Excluded 0 .0

Total 20 100.0

Reliability :



.861 4

Validity:



Trend 1 .746

Trend 2 .779

Trend 3 .663

Trend 4 .680

Multicollinearity :

Correlations

PriceTotalServQuality

TotalPromotion

Total TrendTotal

PriceTotal Pearson Correlation 1 .463* .529* .284

Sig. (2-tailed) .040 .016 .226

N 20 20 20 20

ServQualityTotal

Pearson Correlation .463* 1 .483** .471*

Sig. (2-tailed) .040 .000 .036

N 20 20 20 20

PromotionTotal

Pearson Correlation .529* .483** 1 .577**

Sig. (2-tailed) .016 .000 .008

N 20 20 20 20

TrendTotal Pearson Correlation .284 .471* .577** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .226 .036 .008

N 20 20 20 20

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

APPENDIX C

HYPOTHESIS 1

Variables Entered/Removedb

Model Variables Entered Variables Removed Method

1 TrendTotal, PriceTotal,

ServQualityTotal, PromotionTotala

. Enter

Model Summary


1 .757a .573 .553 2.486


ANOVAb

Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression 720.919 4 180.230 29.169 .000a

Residual 537.548 87 6.179

Total 1258.467 91


Coefficientsa

Model


Standardized Coefficients

t Sig.B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) .987 2.109 .468 .641

PriceTotal .012 .122 .007 .099 .921

ServQualityTotal

.070 .106 .062 .665 .508

PromotionTotal -.076 .138 -.075 -.549 .584

TrendTotal .862 .129 .798 6.681 .000

HYPOTHESIS 2



1 PriceTotala . Enter

Model Summary


1 .052a .003 -.008 3.734

a. Predictors: (Constant), PriceTotal

ANOVAc

ModelSum of Squares

df Mean Square F Sig.

1 Regression 3.390 1 3.390 .243 .623a

Residual 1255.078 90 13.945

Total 1258.467 91

a. Predictors: (Constant), PriceTotal

Coefficientsa

Model



B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 15.698 2.309 6.799 .000

PriceTotal -.083 .169 -.052 -.493 .623

HYPOTHESIS 3



1 PromotionTotala . Enter

Model Summary


1 .587a .345 .338 3.027

a. Predictors: (Constant), PromotionTotal

ANOVAb

ModelSum of Squares


1 Regression 433.944 1 433.944 47.367 .000a

Residual 824.523 90 9.161

Total 1258.467 91

a. Predictors: (Constant), PromotionTotal

Coefficientsa

Model



B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 6.477 1.218 5.315 .000

PromotionTotal .593 .086 .587 6.882 .000

HYPOTHESIS 4



1 ServQualityTotala . Enter

Model Summary


1 .243a .059 .049 3.627

a. Predictors: (Constant), ServQualityTotal

ANOVAb

ModelSum of Squares


1 Regression 74.362 1 74.362 5.652 .020a

Residual 1184.105 90 13.157

Total 1258.467 91

a. Predictors: (Constant), ServQualityTotal

Coefficientsa

Model



B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 10.401 1.796 5.790 .000

ServQualityTotal .277 .117 .243 2.377 .020

HYPOTHESIS 5



1 TrendTotala . Enter

Model Summary


1 .755a .570 .565 2.452

a. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotal

ANOVAb

ModelSum of Squares


1 Regression 717.262 1 717.262 119.277 .000a

Residual 541.206 90 6.013

Total 1258.467 91

a. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotal

Coefficientsa

Model



B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) 1.893 1.189 1.592 .115

TrendTotal .815 .075 .755 10.921 .000

HYPOTHESIS 6


ModelVariables Entered

Variables Removed Method

1 TrendTotal, PriceTotal, ServQualityTotal, PromotionTotala

. Enter

2. PriceTotal

Backward (criterion: Probability of F-to-remove >= .100).

3. PromotionTotal


4. ServQualityTotal


Model Summary


1 .757a .573 .553 2.486

2 .757b .573 .558 2.472

3 .756c .571 .562 2.462

4 .755d .570 .565 2.452




d. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotal

ANOVAe

ModelSum of Squares


1 Regression 720.919 4 180.230 29.169 .000a

Residual 537.548 87 6.179

Total 1258.467 91

2 Regression 720.859 3 240.286 39.332 .000b

Residual 537.609 88 6.109

Total 1258.467 91

3 Regression 718.947 2 359.473 59.299 .000c

Residual 539.521 89 6.062

Total 1258.467 91

4 Regression 717.262 1 717.262 119.277 .000d

Residual 541.206 90 6.013

Total 1258.467 91




d. Predictors: (Constant), TrendTotal

Coefficientsa

Model



B Std. Error Beta

1 (Constant) .987 2.109 .468 .641

PriceTotal .012 .122 .007 .099 .921

ServQualityTotal .070 .106 .062 .665 .508

PromotionTotal -.076 .138 -.075 -.549 .584

TrendTotal .862 .129 .798 6.681 .000

2 (Constant) 1.123 1.593 .705 .483


PromotionTotal -.077 .137 -.076 -.559 .577

TrendTotal .861 .128 .797 6.732 .000

3 (Constant) 1.415 1.499 .944 .348


TrendTotal .804 .078 .744 10.312 .000

4 (Constant) 1.893 1.189 1.592 .115

TrendTotal .815 .075 .755 10.921 .000

Reena Mohamad Nasir

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