Antecedents of purchase intention amongst the youth in the banking sector in South Africa

Abstract

The banking industry is adopting a holistic and customer centric approach in order to match the evolving customer banking preferences; this study has set out to examine Customer Equity as an antecedent of Perceived Brand Authenticity and Purchase Intentions amongst the South African youth in the banking sector using Social Exchange Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. An empirical model was conceptualised to examine the relationships between Customer Equity and Perceived Brand Authenticity on purchase intentions. Four research hypotheses were developed and a data set of 253 was collected from a sample of Witwatersrand students to empirically test these hypotheses using Structural Equation Modelling (Amos 22 and SPSS). The findings indicated that from the relationship between Customer Equity and Perceived Brand Authenticity, Value Equity and Brand Equity had a significant and positive effect, however Relationship Equity had no significant influence. The relationship between Perceived Brand Authenticity and Purchase Intentions had significant positive effects. The findings from this study provide useful contributions to practitioners measuring marketing efforts and maximising Customer Equity in the banking industry and builds on existing literature on the Customer Equity framework in the South African context. Recommendations are outlined and future research direction is suggested.