Antecedents and consequences of self-congruity

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 444-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajat Roy ◽  
Fazlul K. Rabbanee

Purpose – This study aims to propose and test a parsimonious framework for self-congruity, albeit in the context of luxury branding. This paper is the first to propose an integrated model focusing on the drivers and consequences of self-congruity. The model is further applied to explain how self-congruity may motivate future experiences with the luxury brand, mainly by influencing self-perception. Although a substantive marketing literature on self-congruity currently exists, there is a lack of an integrated framework, a gap that the current work addresses. Design/methodology/approach – A paper and pencil survey was conducted among female subjects only, and structural path relationships were tested using AMOS. Findings – Consumers’ self-congruity with a luxury brand (non-luxury brand) is positively (negatively) influenced by its antecedents: social desirability, need for uniqueness and status consumption. Self-congruity with a luxury (non-luxury) brand is found to enhance (undermine) consumers’ self-perceptions. This, in turn, is found to have a stronger (weaker) positive impact on consumers’ motivation to re-use a shopping bag from luxury brand (non-luxury brand) for hedonic purpose. Mediation analyses show that self-congruity has a positive (negative) indirect effect on hedonic use via self-perception for luxury (non-luxury) brand. Research limitations/implications – Future studies may involve actual shoppers, causal design and additional variables like “utilitarian usage “of shopping bags to extend the proposed framework. Practical implications – A better understanding of the findings has implications for brand positioning, advertising and packaging. Originality/value – Till date, no research has examined a parsimonious model for self-congruity complete with its antecedents and consequences and tested it in the context of a luxury versus non-luxury brand.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anwar Sadat Shimul ◽  
Billy Sung ◽  
Ian Phau

Purpose This study aims to investigate how luxury brand attachment (LBA) and perceived envy may influence schadenfreude. In addition, the moderating influence of consumers’ need for uniqueness (CNFU) and private vs public consumption is examined. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from a consumer panel in Australia. A total of 365 valid and useable responses were analysed through structural equation modelling in AMOS 26. Findings The results show that LBA has a significant impact on perceived envy. Consumers’ perceived envy also results in schadenfreude. However, LBA did not have any significant impact on schadenfreude. The moderating influence of CNFU is partially supported. This research further confirms that consumers’ public consumption has more relevance to visible social comparison and potential feelings of malicious envy towards others. Practical implications The research model may work as a strategic tool to identify, which group of consumers (e.g. high vs low attachment) displays stronger envy and schadenfreude. Brand managers can also explore the personality traits and psychological dynamics that influence the consumers to express emotional bonds and malicious joy within the context of consumer-brand relationships. Originality/value This is one of the first few studies that have examined the relationships amongst consumers’ brand attachment, perceived envy, schadenfreude and need for uniqueness within a luxury branding context.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunju Shin ◽  
Jacqueline Eastman ◽  
Yuan Li

Purpose This study aims to focus on understanding the consumer-luxury brand relationships among Generation Z. Generation Z is an up-and-coming generational cohort that has received limited research attention in the domains of both consumer-brand relationships and luxury branding, despite its growing size and purchasing power. Therefore, this study highlights the distinctive patterns of Generation Z’s relationship with luxury by identifying their choice of a luxury brand, the nature of the brand relationships, what characterizes these relationships and the internal and external influences that shape these relationships. Design/methodology/approach This study used brand collage construction. A total of 56 Generation Z respondents created brand collages that covered 38 different luxury brands. The data from the collages and their accompanying descriptions were evaluated using content analysis. Findings This study identifies Generation Z’s unique yet expansive view of luxury that encompasses not only traditional luxury but also masstige and non-traditional luxury brands. Moreover, the findings generally support that Generation Z’s relationships with luxury brands are characterized by “like” rather than “love”; while Generation Z may feel a high level of loyalty toward luxury brands in terms of attitudes and behaviors, they do not necessarily have strong, passionate feelings for them. Originality/value The findings of this study offer a comprehensive understanding of Generation Z’s brand relationship with luxury. Luxury marketers need to recognize that for Generation Z consumers, luxury is an integral part of their everyday lifestyle more than a display of success, which is clearly different from previous generations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 337-351
Author(s):  
Ki Ho Kim ◽  
Eugene Y. Roh ◽  
Young Joong Kim ◽  
Samuel A. Spralls

PurposeThe primary purpose of this article is to develop and test a model of the antecedents and consequences (Cho et al., 2016) of bullying in Korean hotel kitchens.Design/methodology/approachCross-sectional survey data were collected from 288 kitchen workers at 12 upscale Korean hotels. Proposed path models were tested using Hayes' (2013) PROCESS syntax in SPSS for mediation and moderated mediation analyses.FindingsThe empirical results indicated that an employee's acquiescent silence behavior increases the likelihood of being bullied. As a result, bullied employees are more likely to respond by engaging in a person-related counterproductive work behavior (CWB-P) or in defensive silence out of fear with temporary employees reacting less aggressively compared to regular employees.Research limitations/implicationsCross-sectional design and self-report data risk common method variance and attributions of causality. Future research should use longitudinal designs to avoid common method bias and make causal inferences. Theoretical and practical implications for kitchen productivity are presented. The study should offer valuable insights for prospective employers to develop on-going training and create a positive working environment within the organization.Originality/valueWhile bullying is a widespread and even an epidemic problem for the commercial kitchen environment, research into abusive behavior among chefs has been limited. By utilizing a specific segment of the hospitality industry, this research identified different behavioral aspects of bulling between temporary and regular employees in the commercial kitchen environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Fazli-Salehi ◽  
Ivonne M. Torres ◽  
Rozbeh Madadi ◽  
Miguel Ángel Zúñiga

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of self-related traits on consumer self-brand connection (SBC) and communal-brand connection (CBC) in public vs private consumption. Marketing practitioners will benefit by understanding the consumer traits that can be triggered and focused on in advertising campaigns. Moreover, it is important to know which traits have a significant impact on each product category section (i.e. public vs private use). Design/methodology/approach An experiment used a between-subjects design with two randomized blocks of publicly used brands and privately used brands. Within each block, the relationship between independent variables (narcissism and need for uniqueness [NFU]) and dependent variables (SBC, CBC and purchase intention) were analyzed using SmartPLS. Findings The results showed that narcissism has a significant positive impact on consumers’ SBC for publicly consumed products, no effect was found for CBC. NFU shows a significant positive impact on SBC and CBC for both categories. The results also showed a positive impact for SBC on purchase intention, no effect was found for CBC. Research limitations/implications Future research can examine brand names that people favor the most and test whether individuals’ narcissism and NFU is influential on their SBC and CBC with the brands, regardless of the exposure to the visual cues provided in this paper. Moreover, there are more behavioral outcomes that need examination. For example, it would be fruitful to see whether attitude toward the ad, or brand attitude are affected by consumers’ narcissism and NFU. Practical implications The results contribute to the effectiveness of advertising in different industries. For instance, brand managers and marketing practitioners can benefit by understanding which product types are more attractive to consumers based on their tendency toward uniqueness. Moreover, narcissism is another common trait that can be used to target consumers. Thus, certain product types may be more attractive to consumers based on their narcissism tendencies. Originality/value Despite the popularity of SBC and CBC research, there is limited knowledge about the consumer traits which can stimulate and enhance these concepts. As such, an important question that needs to be addressed is: “What consumer personality traits lead to higher SBC and CBC?” When it comes to self-concept, a limited number of studies exist that explore the actual types of personality or self-concept that generate a desired connection between the “self” and brands.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 836-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Muhammad Fazel-e-Hasan ◽  
Gary Mortimer ◽  
Ian Lings ◽  
Judy Drennan

Purpose Occasionally, retail employees “break the rules” in order to help customers. Currently, there is little research on the mechanisms by which a sales assistants’ positive deviance intentions help them attain specific personal and organisational goals. The purpose of this paper is to examine one mechanism, hope, which develops employees’ deviance intentions to provide benefits to the customer, themselves and the organisation. Design/methodology/approach A survey captured responses from 270 frontline employees from the retail and services sector. AMOS 23 was used to conduct measurement, path and mediation analyses. Findings This study highlights the role of employee hope in developing employees’ positive deviance intentions, and improving perceptions of organisational performance. Results demonstrate that the direct positive impact of hope on positive deviance intention was significant. Furthermore, positive deviance intention was found to positively impact employee goal attainment and perceived organisational performance. The authors’ employee hope model offers a better understanding of positive outcomes of employee deviance, suggesting that retail managers should invest resources to build strong employee–organisation relationships. Originality/value This is the first study to empirically demonstrate that employee hope can explain how customer-oriented positive deviance intentions help employee goal attainment and improve their perceptions of organisational performance.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro ◽  
Hans Ruediger Kaufmann

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the influence of an individual’s attitude towards advertising and country-of-origin (COO) images (brand origin (BO) and country of manufacture (COM)) on brand equity creation; and second, to investigate how brand typicality moderates the effect of BO macro image on perceived quality. Design/methodology/approach The data to test the hypotheses were elicited from a consumer survey in the Greater Lisbon area (305 Portuguese consumers). The product category of smartphones was selected for two main reasons: it has not been extensively analysed in previous studies on the subject of brand equity; it is a device well-known to Portuguese consumers (particularly in the Greater Lisbon area). Three criteria guided the selection of the brands. The first criterion is to select brands which are well-known to consumers. The second is to choose brands with a distinctive BO and a main COM. The third and final criterion is to consider brands in different positions in the brand ranking. In order to estimate structural path coefficients, R2, Q2, and bootstrap techniques, the current study employs the partial least squares approach. Findings The results show that individuals’ attitudes towards advertisements have a positive impact on brand equity creation, whereas those towards the COM do not significantly influence brand equity creation. Attitudes towards BO only have a partial influence. Brand typicality, however, exerts a significant direct effect on brand equity dimensions and, hence, does not have a significant moderating effect. Research limitations/implications The authors suggest analysing the influence of COO on dimensions of brand equity considering consumer segmentation, types of industry and a range of brands, as well as different levels of consumer involvement with the product category. Several brands with the same COO should be analysed in order to understand whether the effects on brand equity depend on the product category. Although the current study is a first attempt to combine the potential effect of individuals’ attitudes towards advertisements and COO on creating brand equity, further research should examine additional potential antecedents of brand equity. Finally, cross-cultural studies are recommended. Practical implications Regarding managerial implications, three main aspects should be taken into consideration. First, creative, original and different advertising strategies are more effective than the COO in creating brand equity and, consequently, in building loyalty among smartphone consumers. Second, consumers do not tend to care about the place, country or region where the smartphone is produced, but the image of the country where the brand originated may be important. Finally, managers should be aware that, at least, in the smartphone sector, the way consumers create favourable associations with the brand and typicality, trust the company and consider it good value for money, are more effective in building brand loyalty than the perceived quality of the product/brand. Social implications Relating to the interrelationship between COO and brand equity, the results of the current study prove that the effects of COO are category specific. Therefore, more studies focussed on other contexts of products and brands are still needed to know in more detail how COO exerts an influence on brand equity dimensions. Even within a product category context, the results can depend on individual brands being analysed. Originality/value To the knowledge of the authors, this study is the first to investigate the dual (simultaneous) effect of individuals’ attitudes towards advertisements and COO images on brand equity dimensions. Adding to the originality of the paper, the category of smartphone with respect to brand equity has not been extensively analysed in previous studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 1414-1439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siv Skard ◽  
Helge Thorbjornsen

Purpose Previous research suggests that firms should articulate incongruent sponsorships to provide a rationale for the relationship between sponsor and sponsorship object. Fit articulation is a strategy that communicates shared associations between sponsor and object. Based on conclusion explicitness theory, this paper aims to conceptualize and tests two fit articulation strategies in sponsorships: open-ended and closed-ended. Design/methodology/approach Research hypotheses were tested in two experiments. Findings Only open-ended fit articulation improved brand attitudes. Mediation analyses show that while open-ended articulation influenced brand attitudes through brand image (Study 1 and Study 2) and altruistic motive attributions (Study 2), there was an indirect effect of closed-ended articulation on brand attitudes through global fit perceptions (Study 2). Practical implications The results from two experiments suggest that incongruent sponsors should use open-ended conclusions about a shared image dimension. Although explicit arguments may increase global perceptions of fit, they may impede a positive impact on the articulated brand image dimension and generation of altruistic motive attribution. Therefore, sponsorship managers should be careful in terms of using explicit arguments for fit when the sponsorship is incongruent because such arguments may hinder articulation from generating goodwill and a positive brand image. Originality/value This is the first paper to develop and test different types of fit articulation strategies in sponsorships.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikhat Afshan ◽  
Jaideep Motwani

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of supplier integration. Based on an extensive literature review, the study has proposed a research model, which includes both the antecedents and consequences of supplier integration. The study has included contextual factors, namely, trust, relationship commitment to supplier and information technology (IT) for supplier as antecedents to supplier integration. The supplier-related performance outcome and financial performance of manufacturing firm has been modeled as outcome variables. Design/methodology/approach The proposed research model was tested on a sample of 166 manufacturing firms from India using structural equation modeling. Findings The results suggested that trust, relationship commitment to supplier and IT for supplier have a positive impact on supplier integration. The results further confirmed the positive impact of supplier integration on supplier-related performance outcome and supplier-related performance outcome on financial performance of the firm. Originality/value The study argues that the contextual factors (trust, relationship commitment to supplier and IT for supplier will facilitate the integration between manufacturing firms and their suppliers). Further, the study argues that the supplier integration would lead to specific performance outcome resulting from a high level of integration between manufacturer and their key suppliers and labeled it as supplier-related performance outcome (SRPO). The study conceptualizes and develops scale to measure SRPO and investigates the impact of SRPO on the financial performance of the manufacturing firm.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 465-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sreejesh S. ◽  
Abhigyan Sarkar ◽  
Subhadip Roy

Purpose The purpose of this study was to conceptualize consumer’s luxury brand aspiration and develop a psychometrically reliable scale to measure the construct. This study aims to extend the existing research in luxury branding domain through validating a scale to measure consumer’s luxury brand aspiration. Design/methodology/approach Initially, the dimensions of consumer’s luxury brand aspiration were identified through prior literature review and qualitative investigations. This was followed by a series of scale development studies suggested by Churchill (1979). Findings The results supported that the second-order measure of consumer’s luxury brand aspiration consist of four related first-order dimensions, namely, identity signaling, social recognition, self-esteem and achievement signaling. Luxury brand aspiration was found to have direct positive influences on brand commitment and brand attachment. Brand commitment and attachment in turn significantly influence intention to pay price premium. Originality/value Value of this research article lies in validating a scale to measure individual’s luxury brand aspiration for the first time in branding literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulaziz Alzeban

Purpose This paper aims to explore the influence of corporate governance (CG) components on the quality of financial reporting (QFR). The components investigated are the Audit Committee (AC), CEO and external auditor quality. The study also examines whether the AC mediates the effects of other components of CG on the QFR. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 386 listed companies in four European countries for the period 2015-2017. The QFR was measured using two proxies, discretionary accruals and accruals quality. Firstly, an OLS regression model was estimated to measure the effects of the three variables investigated on the QFR, and to determine which of these variables had the greatest influence in this relationship. Secondly, several mediation analyses were performed to test whether the AC mediates the effects of the CEO, and external auditor quality on the QFR. Findings The findings reveal that each of these three components has a positive impact on the QFR, but that the AC has the greatest effect in this respect. The findings also indicate that the AC mediates the effect of the CEO on the QFR. Alternative tests and different measures for the variables confirm the robustness of the results obtained. Practical implications Significant implications are provided for regulators and policy-makers. Findings of the present study help regulators and policymakers to pay more attention to the enforcement of AC policies, and the appointment of AC members. Further, the results are helpful to policy-makers concerned with improving CG, and who need evidence of the role of high QFR in this matter. Originality/value The findings provide insights into the effect of CG on QFR, and into the most influential component in this relationship; hence, they make a valuable contribution to the literature. They also contribute to the topic of mediations analysis in CG research, providing additional evidence that the AC mediates the effects of the CEO, and external auditor quality on the QFR.


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