Purpose – Corporate image, perceived service quality, trust and customer switching costs are the major antecedents of customer loyalty, and loyal customers may buy more, accept higher prices and have a positive word-of-mouth effect. Also we know that the cost of selling to new customers is much higher than the cost of selling to existing customers. Although this fact is apparent to everyone, many companies are still losing customers at a formidable rate. In this context the main aim of this paper is to examine the relationships between these factors and customer loyalty, and the relationships among these factors in the Turkish GSM sector. Design/methodology/approach – Data was obtained from 1,662 mobile phone users in Turkey via questionnaire. The data was analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to test all the relationships between variables in the model. Findings – The findings supported the proposed hypotheses, which are consistent with the theoretical framework. Analysis results showed that perceived service quality is a necessary but not sufficient condition for customer loyalty. Research limitations/implications – In order to generalize the findings from the paper, the model should be studied in different sectors. The contribution of this paper is to model all the relationships between customer loyalty and its antecedents, and to test these relationships simultaneously. Practical implications – In order to better understand customer loyalty, as well as perceived service quality, corporate image, perceived switching costs and trust should be taken into consideration. Lately, technological change has shifted competition in the GSM sector from price and core service to value-added services. Therefore, operators should differentiate their services and guarantee their services' quality because of this shift in competition. Originality/value – In this paper, the effects of all the factors on customer loyalty are analyzed simultaneously via SEM.

Purpose: In the GSM mobile telephony sector, the main condition for protecting the subscriber base is to win customer loyalty, a key necessity for the maintenance of a brand's life in the long term. To achieve this aim, customer satisfaction and trust must be measured and “switching costs” identified. The latter render subscribers' preference for rival operators more expensive. In this connection, this paper's aim is to measure the effects of customer satisfaction and trust on customer loyalty, and the direct and indirect effect of “switching cost” on customer loyalty.Design/methodology/approach: The data set covered 1,662 mobile phone users in Turkey. The data were analyzed by moderated regression analysis to test the hypotheses.Findings: The findings of this study show that the switching cost factor directly affects loyalty, and has a moderator effect on both customer satisfaction and trust. Therefore, it plays a crucial role in winning customer loyalty. In short, it is a quasi moderator. However, switching costs was measured as a unidimensional factor, but switching costs in fact contains psychological, financial and procedural sub‐dimensions. Therefore, future research might measure the sub‐dimensions of switching costs and examine their moderating effects.Originality/value: With respect to the findings, trust has more importance than customer satisfaction in engendering loyalty, since trust contains belief in the brand, which provides positive outcomes not only in the present but also in the future. But customer satisfaction does not contain this dimension. So, the effect of trust on loyalty becomes greater than the effect of customer satisfaction. Therefore, any GSM operator who wishes to preserve its existing subscriber base should concentrate on winning its subscribers’ trust.

Purpose: This study examines the effects of variables such as financial literacy and locus of control on the financial behavior of individual investors. Additionally, this article aims to reveal the moderator effect of financial literacy on locus of control and financial behavior.Design/methodology/approach: Responses were collected from a questionnaire given to a convenience sample of 1,347 individual investors. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which reveals the factor structure of the scale, was used at the beginning of the study, and then confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to confirm this new factor structure. Hypothetical relationships were examined using structural equation modeling.Findings: The study provides statistical support for the validity and reliability of the scales. The statistical results of the analysis reveal that financial literacy and locus of control have a positive effect on financial behavior. Moreover, the authors prove that financial literacy changes the relationship between internal locus of control and financial behavior. In conclusion, financial literacy plays a significant role as a moderator variable that interacts with locus of control.Originality/value: The findings of the research are important in demonstrating empirical evidence for the theoretical correlations. In support of the current literature, this study has confirmed the positive effects of internal locus of control and financial literacy on the financial behavior of individual investors. In addition, it has been determined that the relationship between an individual's financial behavior and internal locus of control varies according to their level of financial literacy.

Purpose: To build a National Consumer Satisfaction Index for Turkey, drawing on models already in existence in Sweden, the USA, Norway and the European Union. In so doing, to remedy observed practical shortcomings of those indices.Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modelling was applied to the general model, in the specific context of the mobile telephone market in Turkey, based on data collected by questionnaire from more than 1,500 subscribers.Findings: The purpose‐designed new customer satisfaction index exhibits good fit and strong explanatory power. It is the most comprehensive so far developed, by virtue of adding two new factors to the model.Research limitations/implications: The new Turkish index was tested for validity and reliability only in the context of mobile telephony; it should ideally now be further tested in different sectors, periodically, to validate comparisons with other national variants. More latent variables and economic data should be incorporated to analyse the links among the index itself, loyalty and economic consequences. It is suggested that the partial least squares method could have been more appropriate than the maximum likelihood iteration procedure actually employed.Practical implications: Apart from its obvious role in assessing customer satisfaction in a domestic market, a customer satisfaction index can be extended to the level of comparing whole economies. This is of considerable significance for Turkey's ambitions to join the European Union.Originality/value: This article enhances and extends an established but relatively little known quantitative method for evaluating customer satisfaction, and thereby offers an important diagnostic tool to marketing planners