Brand orientation, brand-building behavior and brand identity in SMEs: an empirical evaluation
Marketing Intelligence & Planning
ISSN: 0263-4503
Article publication date: 4 March 2020
Issue publication date: 1 October 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to facilitate the understanding of brand building among owners/managers of SMEs by highlighting the relationships among the multidimensionality of brand orientation, brand-building behavior and brand identity.
Design/methodology/approach
In addressing the research issue, the study uses responses from 158 domesticated SMEs in North Macedonia, afterwards relying on structural equation modeling to test the research propositions.
Findings
This study validates brand orientation as a multidimensional term that is underlined by brand artefacts, norms and values. This study also validates the assumptions that brand orientation, brand-building behavior and brand identity are significantly related.
Research limitations/implications
While it is possible that our evidence base is limited to the context studied, the research findings nevertheless contribute primarily to the emergent scholarship on SMEs' brand building.
Practical implications
This study has practical consequences for SMEs' brand building. More specifically, it enriches the understanding of the interrelationships between brand orientation, brand-building behavior and brand identity.
Originality/value
This study provides an advanced perspective of brand orientation as a complex phenomenon and further provides understanding of its relations to brand-building behavior and brand identity of the domesticated SMEs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study is based on data collected from a larger survey of firms in North Macedonia, which also partially contributed to the first author's doctoral thesis dataset/work. At the same time, the authors are deeply grateful to a consulting company in North Macedonia, which helped with the data collection.
Citation
Osakwe, C.N., Palamidovska-Sterjadovska, N., Mihajlov, M. and Ciunova-Shuleska, A. (2020), "Brand orientation, brand-building behavior and brand identity in SMEs: an empirical evaluation", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 38 No. 7, pp. 813-828. https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-07-2019-0370
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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