Smartphone preferences and brand loyalty: A discrete choice model reflecting the reference point and peer effect

Brand loyalty and interest have significant impacts on consumers' smartphone choices. What about brand loyalty and interest of smartphone in South Korea where Samsung originates from? This study investigates brand loyalty and interest and how they are affected by the satisfaction of innovative peers in South Korea. An asymmetric discrete choice model with reference-dependent preferences is applied for the analysis. The estimation results show that in South Korea the brand is the most important attribute of smartphone and Apple is the strongest in brand loyalty. Whether consumers who are currently owners of Apple smartphones continue to maintain the same brand in their next purchasing depends not only on their brand loyalty but also on the satisfaction of their highly innovative peers who currently own the Apple. On the other hand, Samsung's brand loyalty is lower than that of Apple, but the brand interest is the highest. Additionally, in all smartphone brands, satisfaction with smartphone brands owned by innovative peers has a significant impact on consumers' interest.