Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms can influence customer loyalty through customercommitment by leveraging two constructs of service quality: service assurance and service reliability.Design/methodology/approach–The analyses are based on 138 responses retrieved from experiencedusers of mobile phone services in one of the big cities in the South-eastern part of Nigeria through a surveyquestionnaire. The validity and reliability of the measurement model as well as the proposed hypotheses wereexamined through the partial least squares structural equation modelling procedure.Findings–Service reliability is a direct predictor of customer loyalty while service assurance is not. Affectivecommitment has a direct positive effect on customer loyalty and partially mediates the relationship betweenservice reliability and customer loyalty. In contrast, the mediating effects of affective and continuancecommitment on the relationship between service assurance and customer loyalty were positive but insignificant.Finally, affective commitment mediates the effect of continuance commitment on customer loyalty.Research limitations/implications–The mediating role of the individual components of commitment inthe links between the individual dimensions of service quality and customer loyalty is largely untested in theliterature. This line of inquiry can form the basis for future research proposals. Additionally, the outcomesthat emerged from this research must be interpreted with caution due to the size of the sample on whichanalyses were based. Future research should employ larger samples.Practical implications–Services organisations especially telecommunication firms may benefit fromcustomer loyalty by pursuing a combined strategy of increasing service assurance, service reliability,affective commitment and continuance commitment both independently and in tandem.Originality/value–As far as could be established, this paper is the first to explore the mediating effects ofaffective and continuance commitment on the links between service quality dimensions and customer loyalty.
