The impact of digital service experience on customer loyalty in traditional agricultural enterprises: evidence from SEM and fsQCA

Although prior studies link digital service experience to customer loyalty, limited attention has been paid to how this relationship operates in traditional agricultural enterprises undergoing digital transformation. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework, this study examines how digital service experience translates into customer loyalty through customer engagement and customer satisfaction, and whether brand image strengthens this process. Based on 504 responses from consumers in China’s dairy industry, PLS-SEM was used to test net effects, mediation, moderation, and moderated mediation, while fsQCA identified configurations leading to high and non-high customer loyalty. The SEM results show that digital service experience positively affects customer loyalty through engagement and satisfaction, including a sequential mediation path. Brand image strengthens the direct effect on loyalty, the effect on engagement, and the sequential mediation process, but not satisfaction-related paths. The fsQCA results reveal multiple equifinal loyalty configurations. This study extends the SOR framework to agricultural digital service contexts, clarifies the mediating mechanisms of customer loyalty formation, and reveals multiple pathways through which loyalty is achieved.