Mediating Role of Psychological Ownership between Customer Participation and Loyalty in the Third Place

Purpose – The third place plays an important role in complex society. The more customers participate in the third place, the higher they have loyalty. It is necessary to identify the mediator between customer participation and loyalty. Thus, the purpose of the study is to analyze the relationship between customer participation and loyalty and a mediating role of psychological ownership. Research design, data, and methodology – A structural equation model representing the relationships between customer participation, psychological ownership, and customer loyalty was proposed and four hypotheses were tested using data collected from visitors of Starbucks as the third place. Results – Three hypotheses regarding relationships between customer participation, psychological ownership, and customer loyalty were supported at the significance level of 0.001. The hypothesis regarding a mediating role of psychological ownership between customer participation and customer loyalty was supported by Sobel test. Conclusions – Customer participation positively affects psychological ownership and customer loyalty. Psychological ownership positively affects customer loyalty. Psychological ownership plays a mediating role in the relationship between customer ownership and loyalty. This study contributes to finding the missing link between customer participation and customer loyalty. The research model can be applied to various retail services. Some implications for academics and practitioners were suggested. KCI Citation Count: 0