THE PHENOMENON OF LOYALTY: GENERAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/psy-visnyk/2025.1.21Keywords:
Group identification, emotional attachment, customer relationship management, NPSAbstract
The examination of loyalty is of considerable significance from psychological and economic viewpoints. Loyalty is a deep and diverse term. The topics to be examined encompass both emotional dimensions, such as connection, and intellectual dimensions, including economic judgments grounded upon meticulous calculations. Loyalty is essential for sustaining stability within social groups, such as organizations and business entities. Loyalty, in a psychological context, is founded on a sense of attachment and ethical obligation that an individual experiences toward a person, group, or institution. In 2007, scholars J. Haidt and C. Joseph proposed that loyalty promotes social cohesion among communities and functions as a fundamental moral principle. Loyalty compels individuals to behave in the group's interests, even at the expense of their personal benefits. Emotional attachment is the root cause of the tendency to prioritize the group's needs over individual interests, which explains why loyalty frequently endures in difficult circumstances. The core demographic responsible for the majority of revenue generation is loyal customers, which is why loyalty is essential in the economy and company. Retaining existing consumers is significantly less expensive than acquiring new ones. In a competitive market, cultivating loyal relationships is a crucial factor in formulating business strategies. Loyalty is essential in influencing consumer behavior and building enduring relationships between a firm and its clientele. By comprehending the psychological underpinnings of loyalty and integrating this insight into business strategy, one may establish robust commercial ventures and cultivate resilient, profitable brands.
References
Ames, R. T., & Rosemont Jr, H. (1999). The analects of Confucius: A philosophical translation. Ballantine Books.
Barry, B. (1974). Exit, voice, and loyalty. British Journal of Political Science, 4(1), 79-107.
Bernerth, J. B., Armenakis, A. A., Feild, H. S., Giles, W. F., & Walker, H. J. (2007). Is personality associated with perceptions of LMX? An empirical study. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 28(7), 613-631. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730710823879
Coughlan, R. (2005). Employee loyalty as adherence to shared moral values. Journal of Managerial Issues, 17(1), 43-57.
Dick, A. S., & Basu, K. (1994). Customer loyalty: Toward an integrated conceptual framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 22(2), 99-113. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070394222001
Dooley, R. S., & Fryxell, G. E. (1999). Attaining decision quality and commitment from dissent: The moderating effects of loyalty and competence in strategic decision-making teams. Academy of Management Journal, 42(4), 389-402.
Duffy, D. L. (2003). Internal and external factors which affect customer loyalty. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 20(5), 480-485. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760310489715
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press.
Fournier, S. (1998). Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(4), 343-373. https://doi.org/10.1086/209515
Graham, J. W. (1991). An essay on organizational citizenship behavior. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 4(4), 249-270.
Graham, J., & Haidt, J. (2010). Beyond beliefs: Religions bind individuals into moral communities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 140-150.
Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029-1046.
Graham, J., Nosek, B. A., Haidt, J., Iyer, R., Koleva, S., & Ditto, P. H. (2011). Mapping the moral domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(2), 366-385.
Griffith, M. (Ed.). (1999). Sophocles: Antigone. Cambridge University Press.
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108(4), 814-834.
Haidt, J., & Graham, J. (2007). When morality opposes justice: Conservatives have moral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research, 20(1), 98-116.
Haidt, J., & Joseph, C. (2004). Intuitive ethics: How innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues. Daedalus, 133(4), 55-66.
Haidt, J., & Kesebir, S. (2010). Morality. In S. Fiske & D. Gilbert (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (5th ed.).
Harmon-Jones, E., & Mills, J. (1999). Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. American Psychological Association.
Hildreth, J. A. D., Gino, F., & Bazerman, M. (2016). Blind loyalty? When group loyalty makes us see evil or engage in it. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 132, 16-36.
Hirschman, A. O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states (Vol. 25). Harvard University Press.
Hogg, M. A. (2000). Subjective uncertainty reduction through self-categorization: A motivational theory of social identity processes. European Review of Social Psychology, 11(1), 223-255.
Hogg, M. A., & Hains, S. C. (1996). Intergroup relations and group solidarity: Effects of group identification and social beliefs on depersonalized attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(2), 295-309.
Hogg, M. A., & Terry, D. I. (2000). Social identity and self-categorization processes in organizational contexts. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 121-140.
Hogg, M. A., Sherman, D. K., Dierselhuis, J., Maitner, A. T., & Moffitt, G. (2007). Uncertainty, entitativity, and group identification. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(1), 135-142.
Kiiko, Y. (2024). Evolution of attachment theory: From infant psychology to organizational and economic psychology. Global Approaches, Habitus, 63. https://doi.org/10.32782/2663-5208.2024.63.9
Kiiko, Y. (2024). The relevance of researching the psychological foundations of forming bank customer attachment in the context of digital transformation and growing competition. Bulletin of Postgraduate Education: Collection of Scientific Papers. Series Social and Behavioral Sciences; Management and Administration, 29(58), 80-93. https://doi.org/10.58442/3041-1858- 2024-29(58)-80-93
Ladd, J. (1967). Loyalty. In Edwards, P. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of philosophy.
Ladd, R. T., Gordon, M. E., Beauvais, L. L., & Morgan, R. L. (1982). Union commitment: Replication and extension. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67(5), 640-645.
Leck, J. D., & Saunders, D. M. (1992). Hirschman's loyalty: Attitude or behavior? Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 5(3), 219-230.
Liden, R. C., & Graen, G. (1980). Generalizability of the vertical dyad linkage model of leadership. Academy of Management Journal, 23(3), 451-465.
Liden, R. C., & Maslyn, J. M. (1998). Multidimensionality of leader-member exchange: An empirical assessment through scale development. Journal of Management, 24(1), 43-72.
Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1991). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 1(1), 61-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-Z
Ranlet, P. (1991). Loyalty in the Revolutionary War: General Robert Howe of North Carolina. Historian, 53(4), 721-742.
Reichheld, F. F. (1996). The loyalty effect: The hidden force behind growth, profits, and lasting value. Harvard Business School Press.
Reichheld, F. F. (2003). The one number you need to grow. Harvard Business Review.
Royce, J. (1908). The philosophy of loyalty. MacMillan.
Rusbult, C. E., Farrell, D., Rogers, G., & Mainous, A. G. (1988). Impact of exchange variables on exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect: An integrative model of responses to declining job satisfaction. Academy of Management Journal, 31(3), 599-627.
Stieb, J. A. (2006). Clearing up the egoist difficulty with loyalty. Journal of Business Ethics, 63(1), 75-87.
Thomas, W.E. et al. (2017). Social identification in sports teams: The role of personal, social and collective identity models. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(4), 508-523.
Van Vugt, M. (2012). The male warrior hypothesis: The evolutionary psychology of intergroup conflict, tribal aggression, and warfare. The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War, 291-300.
Van Vugt, M., & Hart, C. M. (2004). Social Identity as Social Glue: The Origins of Group Loyalty. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(4), 585–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.4.585
Withey, M. J., & Cooper, W. H. (1989). Predicting exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect. Administrative Science Quarterly, 34(4), 521-539.
Zdaniuk, B., & Levine, J. M. (2001). Group loyalty: Impact of members' identification and contributions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37(6), 502-509.
