Emotional Bonds with Technology: The Impact of Customer Readiness on Upgrade Intention, Brand Loyalty, and Affective Commitment through Mediation Impact of Customer Value

Drawing upon the Theory of Consumption Value, this empirical study developed a readiness-value model and examined the direct effect of customer readiness on customer value types and the mediation impact of perceived emotional and functional value toward products being used in the relationship between customer readiness and customers’ upgrade intention, customers’ loyalty intention toward the brands they are currently using and customers’ affective commitment toward their current service providers. Surveys obtained from 174 adult respondents were analyzed, and they show that customer readiness directly and significantly impacts all types of value: emotional, functional, social, monetary and epistemic. Perceived emotional value toward products in use acts as a complementary mediator and perceived functional value toward the products in use acts as a competitive mediator for the impact of customer readiness and customers’ upgrade intention. Additionally, perceived emotional value acts as a competitive mediator for the effect of customer readiness on customers’ affective commitment toward their service providers. Perceived functional value toward products being used fully mediates the effect of customer readiness on customers’ loyalty intention toward the brands they are using.