By Sejin Ha

ii The primary objective of this dissertation was to develop a model of customer loyalty program success that builds a strong and positive customer-retailer relationship. Building upon social identity theory and Bhattacharya and Sen’s (2003) consumer-company identification model, this study proposed a model that two socio-psychological factors in relation to a customer loyalty program (loyalty program distinctiveness and identity relevance) would influence consumer membership identity and their responses to the loyalty program. A web-based experiment examined the proposed model across two parts in an apparel retailing context. Part 1 demonstrated the significance of distinctiveness and identity relevance regarding a customer loyalty program in enhancing consumer perception of identity salience as a member of the customer loyalty program. However, the proposed moderating role of perceived trustworthiness of customer loyalty programs on the two contextual factors of the customer loyalty program (loyalty program distinctiveness an