Trust–Commitment as a Mediator of the Celebrity Endorser–Brand Equity Relationship in a Service Context

Abstract

The current study extends the endorsement literature by examining it in the trust–commitment framework. Specifically, the trust–commitment framework is examined as a mediator of the effect of endorser credibility on consumer perceived brand equity as well as consumer expectations of relationship continuity. The current study is conducted within a pure service (i.e., telecom service) context; adding incremental value to the findings given the pivotal role of the trust–commitment framework. The conceptual model is estimated using a sample of 525 Indian consumers that evaluate some of the major Indian telecom sector brand-and-endorser combinations. The model fits the data adequately, and the analysis supports a fully mediated role of the trust–commitment framework in explaining the hypothesized outcomes. The study complements theoretical perspectives on endorser effects, and suggests a relationship facilitating role of celebrity endorsements.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 104 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.