From Customer Relationship Management to Brand Advocacy in Local Unique Accommodations: Linking Relationship Quality and Customer-Based Brand Equity

Customer relationship management (CRM) is widely used in hospitality, yet the pathways through which customer-management practices are associated with brand advocacy remain insufficiently understood in local unique accommodations. This study examined the relationships among CRM, relationship quality (RQ), customer-based brand equity (CBBE), and brand advocacy (BA) using questionnaire data from 300 guests of local unique accommodations in Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor. Confirmatory factor analysis and covariance-based structural equation modeling were applied. A revised four-factor measurement model excluding social media engagement provided the best fit among the tested measurement specifications, although the CRM–RQ merged model showed nearly comparable fit and substantial construct overlap remained. In the hypothesized structural model, CRM was positively associated with RQ and CBBE was positively associated with BA, supporting H1 and H4, whereas RQ → CBBE and CRM → CBBE were not statistically significant; therefore, H2 and H3 were not supported in the primary test. A subsequent parsimonious specification that constrained CRM → CBBE to zero did not fit significantly worse than the hypothesized model and yielded stable positive associations along CRM → RQ → CBBE → BA. Bootstrap analysis with 5000 samples further supported significant indirect associations from CRM to CBBE through RQ, from RQ to BA through CBBE, and from CRM to BA sequentially through RQ and CBBE. The findings identify a relational-brand pathway linking customer-perceived CRM practices with advocacy-related responses while cautioning against causal mediation claims because of the cross-sectional design, post-hypothesis respecification, and remaining construct overlap.