Invested loyalty:the impact of ubiquitous technology on the current loyalty paradigm and the potential revolution / Sookwan Hong and Yong J. Wang

Regarding communication and information technology advance as an impetus that may manipulate even human cognitive process, this study addresses the possibly diminishing hegemony of expectation confirmation process. With sophisticated interactive communication devices, providing virtual experiences, consumers no longer need to undergo the actual contacts with products and services to settle down in relationships because the experiences through ubiquitous technology are near reality. Once customers become able to invest their knowledge and values in the relationships with firms by means of ubiquitous technology that substantiates sensability, outsourceability, and coproduction facilitation, they will start building relational values, such as satisfaction, trust, and commitment. These relational values are expected to lead consumers to a new form of loyalty called invested loyalty. Consequently, plenty of managerial implications and research opportunities are identified. Firms utilizing ubiquitous technology need to ascertain the ease-of-use of the communication method and should be able to accommodate different types and levels of proposals from customers.