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The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors affecting consumer’s fast fashion brand loyalty by examining US college students’ perceptions and loyalty toward fast fashion.

Using consumer-based brand equity approach, a research model which examines the factors affecting consumer’s brand loyalty in the fast fashion context was proposed. It was hypothesized that consumer’s perceptions of fast fashion, including brand awareness, perceived quality, perceived value, brand personality, organizational associations, and brand uniqueness, affect consumer brand loyalty. Based on the valid data from 419 US college students, this study employed structural equation modeling to investigate the factors affecting US college students’ brand loyalty toward fast fashion.

Results reveal that for the US college students, brand awareness, perceived value, organizational associations, and brand uniqueness are the contributing factors to generating consumer’s loyalty toward fast fashion brands.

Due to the fact that fast fashion has become a key feature of the global fashion industry over the last decade, there is phenomenal growth in the availability of fast fashion brands in the US markets. This study provides valuable insights about young consumers’ perceptions of fast fashion brands and the factors’ contributions to their brand loyalty.

A food traceability system that provides detailed information on food production, processing, transfer, and distribution can create value in food exchange. This study aims to investigate which type of consumer personality places greater value on the food traceability label.

According to the meta-theoretic model of motivation and personality (3M), this study develops a framework that links personality traits with food safety issues. Data are collected from a survey of consumers in shopping malls. The research hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling.

Based on the 3M hierarchical model, consumers who have open, conscientious, and extroverted personalities, and material and body needs tend to have higher needs for learning and health consciousness. They care more for food value and have positive perception of food traceability labels. This results in intentions to purchase products with a food traceability label.

Using their conclusions on the relationship of personality traits with a food traceability system, the authors provide suggestions for businesses planning marketing strategies to gain competitive advantages. For consumers, a food traceability system creates value in food exchange. Regarding policy concerns, the government should regulate the implementation of a food traceability label to disclose comprehensive information regarding food safety.

Although various constructs are linked to food traceability, few studies have focused on the value of food exchange. Consumers with specific personality characteristics have different perceptions and reactions to a food traceability system. This study can fill the knowledge gap regarding the relationship between the value of food exchange and consumer personality traits.

This study aims to investigate the interaction between branding strategies, levels of perceived fit and consumer innovativeness on the evaluation of new products from the perspective of situational strength.

Two experiments were conducted to empirically test the hypotheses.

A significant three-way interaction of branding strategy, perceived fit and consumer innovativeness on the evaluation of the new products was found. A significant two-way interaction of branding strategy and perceived fit was also found. Situational clarity fully mediates the relationship between branding strategy and consumer product evaluations at various fit levels.

The theory of situational strength may shed light on the selection of target market when managers launch new products. Innovative consumers are the target market for the new products under new branding or low fit sub-branding; under brand extension or high fit sub-branding, consumers are the target for the new products regardless of their degree of innovativeness.

This is the first work to apply situational strength theory to a new product evaluation context. The theory provides a unified framework for explaining the cognitive processes involved when consumers use and combine marketing cues (i.e. branding strategies and fit levels) to evaluate new products; it also facilitates evaluating how the effects of consumer innovativeness are accentuated or attenuated based on various combinations of marketing cues. Most research on the evaluation of new products has examined the influence of consumer innovativeness, perceived fit or branding strategies as distinct entities. This study simultaneously examined the three.

To provide a theoretic framework of the development of customer capital and an empirical verification using Taiwanese multilevel firms.

The authors used survey research to collect data from members of four Taiwanese multilevel companies. They explored the mediating roles of the drivers of customer equity in the “relationship marketing activities‐customer capita” effect. A total of 306 valid responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling analysis.

Four types of relationship marketing activities – core service performances, recognition for contributions, dissemination of organization knowledge, and member interdependence enhancement – have significant influences on relationship equity. Relationship equity in turn affects customer capital. Value equity and brand equity respectively have significant effects on customer acquisition and customer retention. Customer acquisition has a significant “feedback” effect on value equity, and relationship equity affects brand equity positively.

The generalizability of this research is constrained due to a non‐probability sample of firms being used to verify the theoretic framework. It is also constrained due to the fact that only customer‐side data were collected and proxy measures of customer capital were used.

Effective and ineffective types of relationship marketing activities have been identified. The causal paths between relationship marketing and customer capital have been illustrated.

This paper sheds light on the approach to building customer capital for membership‐emphasized organization.

Brand communities now play a significant role in building brand loyalty. Past researches focus on how brand community facilitates brand loyalty under normal market situations. Yet, limited research examines consumer responses to negative events within the brand community context. Drawing from social identity theory and the theory of involvement, the present study aims to reveal the role that group eWOM plays in influencing brand community members’ evaluation on negative brand decisions.

By using an experimental study, the current research adopts far brand extension as the empirical testing ground.

This research illustrates that group eWOM's influence on brand community member's attitude toward the negative brand information is affected by member's level of brand community identification and brand involvement. When the group eWOM opposes far extension, high brand community identified members are driven by social creativity to resist negative impacts to the brand. However, when the group eWOM supports far extension, high brand involved members are strengthened by group eWOM to promote favorable brand evaluations and attenuate negative impacts to the brand.

Firms should leverage the ingrained associations between brand community identification, brand involvement and group eWOM in affecting brand community’s responses to insulate brand community from the impacts of negative events.

The present study extends prior research on customer loyalty from an individual perspective to reveal the significance of group dynamics in influencing brand community’s response to negative events.

This paper aims to investigate the process of internal brand management that makes employees identify with the corporate brand and produce positive attitudes and behaviors, thus contributing to customer satisfaction. Three constructs, brand‐centered HRM, brand psychological ownership, and brand citizenship behaviors, are utilized to examine the process of internal brand management. The first construct, brand‐centered human resource management (HRM), represents managerial practices that improve brand cognitions and brand attitude of employees. The second construct, brand psychological ownership, explains the psychological experiences that make employees feel brand ownership and then express altruistic spirit of the brand. The third construct, brand citizenship behaviors, shows that employees live the brand.

This multilevel research of collecting data from 453 employees, 172 supervisors, and 933 customers from 26 hotels demonstrates the results of different levels. Hierarchical linear modeling is utilized to investigate the relationships among these constructs.

Results at the individual level show that brand psychological ownership of employees has positive effects on brand citizenship behaviors, and all factors of these two constructs are also correlated positively. Results at the cross level demonstrate that brand‐centered HRM has positive effects on brand psychological ownership and brand citizenship behaviors. Organizational‐level brand citizenship behaviors positively affect customer satisfaction. Furthermore, brand psychological ownership partially mediates the relationship between brand‐centered HRM and brand citizenship behaviors.

An organization can adopt brand‐centered HR practices to make employees produce brand psychological ownership and brand citizenship behaviors, thus contributing to customer satisfaction. HR managers can strengthen employees' brand citizenship behaviors by fostering their brand psychological ownership feelings.

This paper explores the conception, measurement, and explanatory power of the new research construct (i.e. brand psychological ownership) on the effectiveness of internal brand management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of organizational commitment and trust on knowledge sharing and on knowledge utilization. Also, the study aims to examine the influence of knowledge sharing on knowledge utilization.

A quantitative study was conducted among 307 employees working at Canadian organizations.

The results reveal that both affective commitment and professional trust have positive influences on knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization, whereas personal trust and continuance commitment do not. The authors also found that business ethics moderates the relationship between knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization.

These findings extend the literature on knowledge management and demonstrate, from a practical perspective, that in order to build a knowledge-sharing culture, managers must create conditions that allow affective commitment, professional trust and business ethics to flourish.

The current study offers an initial investigation of the effects of both kinds of commitment and trust on knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization.