Product Class Effects on Brand Loyalty

[@R11] postulated certain hypotheses concerning product class effects on brand loyalty. This paper contributes to the literature on brand loyalty by testing some of these hypotheses in a causal model. In addition, this paper considers the role of perceived risk in mediating some of the direct relationships suggested by Dick and Basu. Eighty-nine products, randomly chosen from the SIC Manual, are used as the units of analysis after aggregating consumer responses from two independent surveys. It is found that perceived differences between brands and perceived risk fully mediate the effect of the importance dimension of product involvement on brand loyalty but not of the hedonic dimension. The implications of these results are discussed.