Demystifying the link between emotional loneliness and brand loyalty: Mediating roles of nostalgia, materialism, and self‐brand connections
研究通过在线调查456名马来西亚在职成年人，发现情感孤独通过激发怀旧和物质主义，增强消费者与品牌的自我连接和情感依恋，最终提升品牌忠诚。
Abstract This paper explores the mechanism by which consumers use their self‐brand connections and emotional attachment with brands to cope with the emotional loneliness that may be caused by the absence of intimate relationships with close others. The authors also examine the mediating roles played by nostalgia and materialism on the reinforcement of brand loyalty in this process using a multistage model. An online survey with 456 Malaysians working adults supports all the hypotheses. Specifically, emotional loneliness has positive associations with nostalgia and materialism, both of which mediate the positive associations between emotional loneliness and self‐brand connections. Self‐brand connections also mediate the positive associations of nostalgia and materialism with emotional brand attachment, which in turn mediates the positive association between self‐brand connections and brand loyalty. The authors discuss the theoretical contribution and managerial implications of these findings.