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This study aims to confirm the causal relationship between emotional brand attachment, brand love, and brand commitment, and then explain how these variables affect active engagement. In addition, it is to confirm the effect of brand prestige, brand consciousness, and brand trust on emotional brand attachment and to identify the moderating role of self-congruity in the causal relationship between these variables.

In this study, a survey was conducted targeting 320 consumers who have recently purchased luxury products or brands. In addition, structural equation model analysis (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses raised in this study.

The results found that brand prestige and brand consciousness affect on emotional brand attachment. Emotional brand attachment had a significant effect on brand love and brand commitment. And brand love affect brand commitment and active engagement. Emotional brand attachment affects active engagement. Brand love was mediated in the relationship between emotional brand attachment and active engagement. Self-congruity was moderated in the relationship between brand prestige and emotional brand attachment. However, self-congruity was not moderated in the relation to brand consciousness, brand trust and emotional brand attachment.

This study has significance in that it identified the antecedent factors that cause consumers' emotional brand attachment and confirmed that they have differential effects depending on the degree of consumer self-congruity. In addition, this study is meaningful in that it confirmed the concept of the causal difference between attachment and brand love as consumers' emotional responses to luxury brands. However, the scope of this study was limited to offline stores excluding online purchases as a place of purchase for luxury brands. In a situation where the purchase of luxury brands is gradually increasing in various online environments, limiting the scope of the study to offline stores may have problems in generalizing the study. Therefore, in future research, we would like to propose a study on the relationship and influence between these variables by integrating all purchasing environments, such as offline and online.

The management implications of the results of this study are as follows. First, brand marketers and managers must suggest strategies to increase emotional attachment to customers who are satisfied with the brand and have a favorable brand attitude. After segmenting target customers and identifying their tendencies, behavioral characteristics, and preferred brands, emotional attachment can be strengthened by providing information about the brand to each segment and strengthening the brand image. Strategies like these can help target customers strengthen their emotional connection to a luxury brand, build positive attitudes toward the brand, and prevent them from switching to competing brands. Second, a strategy is needed to ensure that target customers have a strong emotional response to the company's luxury brand and become immersed in the brand. Target customers who have an affinity for the brand can strengthen their level of brand attachment and become immersed in the brand by allowing them to directly participate in brand activities through various advertising campaigns, events, and content. Third, you can strengthen your brand by developing a brand that fits the self-concept of your target customers. Brand marketers or managers can strengthen brand attachment by presenting a brand that fits the characteristics of each target customer and recognizing that the brand's status is relatively high compared to competing brands.

This study identified how consumers' brand engagement in a luxury brand environment is influenced by its components. In other words, the preceding factors for consumers' brand emotion were identified, and the influence of emotional brand attachment and brand love, which represent the consumer's emotional state that affects consumers' brand engagement, was investigated. The theoretical implications of the results of this study are as follows. First, Shahid et al. (2022) found that emotional attachment was expressed more strongly when emotional bonds were formed through relationship formation. Hwang and Kandampully (2012) found that emotional attachment and brand love are conceptually similar but differ in intensity. And Gómez-Suárez (2019) said that brand attachment is a prerequisite for brand love. As mentioned earlier, previous research has shown that emotional attachment and brand love differ depending on the consumer's emotional state. The results of this study showed that emotional brand attachment did not affect active participation, while brand love did. This means that active engagement is directly influenced by brand love rather than emotional attachment. Through these research results, it can be confirmed that even if consumers have similar brand emotional states, the impact on consumer behavior is different depending on the intensity of the emotional state. Therefore, in the consumer-brand relationship, the intensity of emotions arising from the interaction between the consumer and the brand is different, and only when brand emotions are at a high level, consumers engage in behavioral participation toward the brand. Second, Morris and Keltner (2000) found that consumers activate the integration of emotions in the decision-making process. Hwang and Kandampully (2012) found that love induces consumers to maintain a relationship with a brand, and that brand commitment increases when consumers feel intimacy and a strong emotional bond between themselves and the brand. Through these prior studies, it was confirmed that emotions play an important role in the consumer's decision-making process, and in particular, it was confirmed that maintaining close relationships with others induces emotional commitment to the object. In this study, brand loyalty was also found to have a positive effect on brand immersion and active participation. Therefore, consumers need to foster strong bonds with luxury brands to create brand love and strengthen their relationship with the brand, leading to brand commitment and active participation. Third, Ji et al. (2018) found that brand reputation has a positive effect on consumer attitudes and behaviors, including brand attachment, purchase intention, and brand loyalty. Casidy et al. (2015) found that consumers with high brand awareness are likely to have high brand preference and have favorable and positive brand attitudes due to their high brand knowledge. Previous research has shown that consumers' brand reputation and brand consciousness influence brand attachment.

This study dealt with a more comprehensive variable in the relationship between luxury brand factors as an antecedent variable of emotional brand attachment in luxury brand situations, and provided important evidence for the mediating effect of brand love, which was a limited emotional variable. In addition, additional implications for the moderating role of brand self-congruity on emotional brand attachment were suggested.

Might the impact of the financial stress on exchange markets be asymmetric and exposed to regime changes? Departing from the existing literature, highlighting that the domestic and foreign financial stress in terms of money market have substantial effects on exchange market, this paper aims to investigate the impacts of the bond yield spreads of three emerging countries (Mexico, Russia, and South Korea) on their exchange market pressure indices using monthly observations for the period 2010:01–2019:12. Additionally, the paper analyses the impact of bond yield spread of the US on the exchange market pressure indices of the three mentioned emerging countries. The authors hypothesized whether the negative and positive changes in the bond yield spreads have varying effects on exchange market pressure indices.

To address the research question, we measure the bond yield spread of the selected countries by using the interest rate spread between 10-year and 3-month treasury bills. At the same time, the exchange market pressure index is proxied by the index introduced by Desai et al. (2017). We base the empirical analysis on nonlinear vector autoregression (VAR) models and an asymmetric quantile-based approach.

The results of the impulse response functions indicate that increases/decreases in the bond yield spreads of Mexico, Russia and South Korea raise/lower their exchange market pressure, and the effects of shocks in the bond yield spreads of the US also lead to depreciation/appreciation pressures in the local currencies of the emerging countries. The quantile connectedness analysis, which allows for the role of regimes, reveals that the weights of the domestic and foreign bond yield spread in explaining variations of exchange market pressure indices are higher when exchange market pressure indices are not in a normal regime, indicating the role of extreme development conditions in the exchange market. The quantile regression model underlines that an increase in the domestic bond yield spread leads to a rise in its exchange market pressure index during all exchange market pressure periods in Mexico, and the relevant effects are valid during periods of high exchange market pressure in Russia. Our results also show that Russia differs from Mexico and South Korea in terms of the factors influencing the demand for domestic currency, and we have demonstrated the role of domestic macroeconomic and financial conditions in surpassing the effects of US financial stress. More specifically, the impacts of the domestic and foreign financial stress vary across regimes and are asymmetric.

This study enriches the literature on factors affecting the exchange market pressure of emerging countries. The results have significant economic implications for policymakers, indicating that the exchange market pressure index may trigger a financial crisis and economic recession.

Present study aimed to integrate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) in conjunction with multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) to enhance infrastructure investment planning.

This analysis combines GIS databases with BIM simulations for a novel highway project. Around 150 potential alternatives were simulated, narrowed to 25 more effective routes and 3 options underwent in-depth analysis using PROMETHEE method for decision-making, based on environmental, cost and safety criteria, allowing for comprehensive cross-perspective comparisons.

A comprehensive framework proposed was validated through a case study. Demonstrating its adaptability with customizable parameters. It aids decision-making, cost estimation, environmental impact analysis and outcome prediction. Considering these critical factors, this study holds the potential to advance new techniques for assessment and planning railways, power lines, gas and water.

The study acknowledges limitations in GIS data quality, particularly in underdeveloped areas or regions with limited technology access. It also overlooks other pertinent variables, like social, economic, political and cultural issues. Thus, conclusions from these simulations may not entirely represent reality or diverse potential scenarios.

The proposed method automates decision-making, reducing subjectivity, aids in selecting effective alternatives and considers environmental criteria to mitigate negative impacts. Additionally, it minimizes costs and risks while demonstrating adaptability for assessing diverse infrastructures.

By integrating GIS and BIM data to support a MCDM workflow, this study proposes to fill the existing research gap in decision-making prioritization and mitigate subjective biases.

The study examines the impact of fiscal policy shocks on economic growth and income inequality in Ghana. This has become necessary because of the interdependence between growth and income inequality and the role fiscal policy plays in this relationship in the development process of a country. Thus, a study that investigates how government expenditure shock and tax revenue shock influence the relationship between economic growth and income inequality could assist policymakers to adopt the best policy mix to ensure income equity and sustained economic growth in Ghana.

It employs sacrifice ratio from structural VAR model using quarterly time series data from 1996 to 2019 on Ghana.

Our results show that government expenditure shock impacts economic growth, exchange rate and education positively and significantly in the long run. Also, tax revenue shock has a positive impact on income inequality, economic growth and education. The findings further show that there exists a trade-off between economic growth and income inequality in the long run.

The relationships between fiscal policy shocks, economic growth and income inequality have been extensively discussed among scholars. Understanding how these three macroeconomic variables are determined and their interrelationships are crucial for policymakers. This is because fiscal policy aids in both economic growth and income inequality. In the empirical literature, the emphasis has been on independently estimating the growth effects of fiscal policy or the distribution effects of fiscal policy, leaving out the existence of possible trade-off between economic growth and income inequality following a fiscal shock. To the best of our knowledge, no empirical study has been done on Ghana to empirically examine the trade-off between economic growth and income inequality as we do in this paper.