The role of employee empathy in forming brand love: customer delight and gratitude as mediators and power distance belief as a moderator

Purpose This study explores the influence of employee empathy on brand love, which subsequently affects customer advocacy, willingness to pay more (WTPM) and tolerance of failure. Additionally, it investigates the mediating role of customer delight and gratitude in connecting employee empathy with brand love and the moderating effect of power distance belief (PDB) between employee empathy and customer delight and gratitude. Design/methodology/approach A total of 751 usable data were gathered through scenario-based online surveys within a hotel context. The proposed conceptual model used Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) for testing. Findings The results affirm the impact of employee empathy on brand love through the pathways of customer delight and gratitude, ultimately influencing positive customer behaviors, such as advocacy, WTPM and tolerance of failure. Moreover, the findings suggest that PDB diminishes the effect of employee empathy on customer gratitude, although it does not affect customer delight. Originality/value The study introduces novel insights into the significance of employee empathy as an antecedent of brand love. It contributes to the literature by concurrently conceptualizing customer delight and gratitude as mediators between employee empathy and brand love, consequently leading to favorable consumer behaviors. Furthermore, it advances our theoretical comprehension of an individual customer’s PDB and its psychological impact.