The Mediating Role of Consumer Satisfaction in the Relationship between Brand Equity and Brand Loyalty based on PLS-SEM Model

This paper implements a PLS-SEM model to investigate the relationship between brand equity, consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Based on a sample of 1840 Chinese sports brands customers, the findings of the model testing confirm that perceived quality, perceived value of cost and price premium are significant dimensions of brand equity. Among these three, perceived value of cost is the most important. The findings also suggest that behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty are effective on brand loyalty, and attitudinal loyalty has more positive influence on brand loyalty than behavioral loyalty does. The current research indicates that brand equity has a positive relationship with consumer satisfaction, and consumer satisfaction has a positive influence on brand loyalty. Further, this study reveals that brand equity has positive influence on brand loyalty partially mediated by consumer satisfaction.