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The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between brand attachment and consumers’ positive and negative behaviours. Furthermore, this study examines the moderating effects of attachment styles on these relationships.

The study is based on a survey of 432 respondents, and the data are analysed using the structural equation modelling approach.

This study empirically supports that brand attachment and attachment styles (i.e. anxiety attachment and avoidance attachment) are distinct. Brand attachment influences consumers’ not only positive behaviour (i.e. brand loyalty) but also negative behaviours, such as trash-talking, schadenfreude and anti-brand actions. The findings of the study suggest that only avoidance attachment style moderates the relationships between brand attachment and these consumer behaviours. The link between brand attachment and brand loyalty is attenuated for high-attachment-avoidance consumers. In contrast, the links between brand attachment and trash-talking, schadenfreude and anti-brand actions are strengthened.

This study assists marketing managers in understanding that a strong brand attachment may result in negative behaviours that can harm a company’s brand image. Thus, building a strong relationship with consumers will not always be beneficial. Companies should be aware of the consequences of building relationships with consumers who have a high level of attachment anxiety and/or avoidance.

This paper highlights that brand attachment not only influences brand loyalty behaviour but also three negative behaviours: trash-talking, schadenfreude and anti-brand actions. Moreover, the links between brand attachment and negative behaviours are strengthened when consumers have a high level of attachment avoidance.

Researchers have explored contextual antecedents influencing engagement at work; yet, theory and empirical evidence suggest some individuals are more or less engaged than others. Using a relational framework based on attachment theory, the purpose of this paper is to suggest that relational models influence engagement through their influence on psychological availability and psychological safety. Study 1 examined whether attachment influences variability in engagement. Study 2 examined whether these effects could be replicated, and whether attachment influences engagement via individuals’ psychological availability and safety.

Two field studies using online self-report surveys (Study 1 n=203; Study 2 n=709).

Attachment-avoidance and attachment-anxiety were independently associated with lower levels of engagement, and psychological conditions mediated these relationships.

Relational models explain predictable variability in engagement. Employees’ ability to engage may be constrained or facilitated by their stable relational models of attachment.

The study is one of the few examining individual differences in engagement.

Extant research evidence demonstrates that customer satisfaction in a service encounter is influenced by other customer perception (OCP). However, scholarly research on the impact of OCP on brand love and the moderating influence of customers’ attachment styles in the context of hospitality industry is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap in the literature.

The data were collected from customers of five and three-star hotels in India. Regression-based process analysis (Hayes, 2013) was used to test the proposed set of hypotheses.

The data analysis shows that OCP predicts brand love through the mediation of satisfaction. Individual’s anxious attachment style positively moderates “other customer perception-satisfaction” relationship, and avoidant attachment style negatively moderates the same relationship. Thus the effect of OCP is positively moderated by anxious attachment style, and negatively moderated by avoidant attachment style.

The value of this study lies in quantitatively investigating the roles played by OCP and individual attachment styles in shaping brand love in hospitality industry. In contrast to findings from previous research, the findings from this study suggest that anxious attachment style positively influences brand satisfaction and formation of brand love.

This paper aims to investigate how consumers’ satisfaction and commitment towards hotel brands can be impacted by the consumers’ prevailing brand relationship norms.

Data were collected through experimental design and analysed using MANCOVA, structural equation modelling and Preacher and Hayes’ (2008) techniques.

The study findings indicate that the egoistic norms positively impact brand attachment styles/orientations, and the attachment orientations in turn negatively impact hotel brand satisfaction and commitment through the mediation of brand trust. Findings also reveal that altruistic norms have no significant impact on the attachment styles, but altruism impacts brand trust positively, which in turn positively impacts satisfaction and commitment.

This research adds value by examining how different consumer–brand association norms differently impact final brand satisfaction and commitment outcomes through creating healthy versus detrimental consumer–brand attachments.

The purpose of this paper is to apply trust perspective and attachment theory and determined that relational embeddedness, anxiety attachment, and avoidance attachment are major factors influencing the trust of tenants in owners/developers of shopping centers. The authors also examined whether tenants transfer this trust to new shopping center developers and the consequent effect on relational performance.

This research was empirically based on primary data collected from new shopping center developers and the consequent effect on relational performance. Structure equation modeling was employed to verify and validate the research model.

Data collected from 250 shopping center tenants were analyzed, and the findings indicate that relational embeddedness, anxiety attachment, and avoidance attachment positively affect the trust of store tenants in the owners or developers of shopping centers. Furthermore, the authors determined that trust in existing shopping center developers was transferred to new shopping center developers, which consequently enhanced relational performance.

The findings contribute to trust transfer research and provide actionable guidelines to organizations intending to provide intermediary business services.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance and gender on different forms of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

A total of 132 employees with different occupational backgrounds were surveyed by means of the “Scales to measure two dimensions of attachment insecurity” (Grau, 1999) and a German-speaking OCB questionnaire (Staufenbiel and Hartz 2000).

Results suggest that employees high in anxiety show higher ratings in OCB-conscientiousness, whereas employees high in avoidance show higher ratings in OCB-civic virtue. Moreover, we found highly avoidant individuals to be less likely to engage in OCB-altruism. Finally, besides an overall gender effect for OCB-loyalty, results reveal significant interaction effects of anxiety and gender on OCB-conscientiousness as well as of avoidance and gender on OCB-civic virtue.

Considering the increase in flexible employment relationships and in team work, we think of attachment orientations as a concept of practical relevance because adjustment to such work environments can be assumed to be highly dependent on attachment security.

The research at hand is the first that analyzes unique and joint contributions of attachment orientations and gender to the prediction of different OCBs. Thereby, it provides evidence for the neglected applicability of attachment theory to the understanding of workplace behaviors in general and of OCBs in particular. Furthermore, the present study expands existing knowledge on the relationship between gender and OCB and implies that the influence of attachment orientations on some OCB-dimensions is stronger in the absence of gender stereotypes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine criminal offenders’ dispositional empathy and relate it to perceived parenting characteristics of primary caregivers (measured as care and overprotection) and inmates’ internal working models of the self and others (measured as attachment anxiety and avoidance, respectively).

Compared to a group of 110 college students, the group of 102 inmates indicated lower levels of cognitive and emotional empathy (measured as perspective taking (PT) and empathic concern (EC), respectively). Among inmates, perceived parental care was related to PT; parental overprotection was related to EC.

The inmates’ data fit a model suggesting a mediational role of attachment anxiety in the relation between perceived parental overprotection and EC. Also, inmates’ attachment avoidance moderated the relation between attachment anxiety and EC, so that the relation only occurred when attachment avoidance was not high. The findings suggested potential protective roles of early parental bonding and positive views of social others in enhancing empathy for justice-involved populations.

The findings shed light on how inmates’ perception of parenting related to both aspects of empathy and how cognitive representations of the self and others potentially underlie the association between perceived parenting and their disposition for EC. To cultivate dispositional empathy as a means of preventing delinquency, it is important to advocate not only parenting characterized as caring and warm, but also cognitive interventions on framing positive working models of social others, particularly for those who perceive their primary caregivers as overprotective and are highly avoidant to social closeness.

The aim of this study is to investigate how corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributes to organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) among employees in hotel industry. Corporate green brand should be built not only from the provision of green products or services but also from green behavior among employees in their daily activities. This study also seeks the understanding of the moderating effects of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and employees’ attachment styles on the relationship between CSR and OCBE.

The data for testing the study model were harvested from respondents in the hotel industry in Vietnam business context.

The research results unveiled the positive effect of CSR on OCBE and the roles of CE and employee attachment styles in moderating this effect.

Hospitality organizations should integrate CSR initiatives into their sustainable strategy to shape employee OCBE. Entrepreneurial values should also be cultivated among employees to drive them to further respond to CSR initiatives and engage in OCBE.

This study expands CSR and green research streams by identifying the effect of CSR on OCBE among hotel employees as well as moderation mechanisms of CE and employee attachment styles for such an effect.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the factors promoting prosocial behavior, focusing on the role of attachment styles in individuals' construal of social exchanges in organizations and in shaping their tendencies for organizational citizenship behaviors. Positive relationships between secure attachment styles and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) tendencies, and between secure attachment styles and perceptions of interactional justice were postulated. A moderating effect of interactional justice on the relationships between attachment styles and OCB tendencies was also posited.

The participants were 212 individuals (165 women and 47 men), enrolled as undergraduate students (most with substantial work experience) at a college in Northern Israel. Self‐report structured questionnaires were used to assess the research variables.

The findings support the hypothesis, that antecedents of prosocial behavior in organizations may depend on individual schemas concerning the nature of interpersonal relationships as manifested in attachment styles. Individuals equipped by secure attachment, positive schemas of interpersonal relationships are more likely to exhibit prosocial tendencies at work in contrast with their insecure counterparts. The results confirmed the hypothesis postulating positive association between secure attachment and perceptions of interactional justice. Partial evidence was obtained supporting the contention, that interactional justice moderates the relationsips between attachment and OCB. Research limitations/implications – Future research should address the limitations of and extend the current research: trace the mechanisms whereby attachment styles unfold their effect on prosocial behaviors in organizations, extend the research samples beyond student population, measure the research variables by means other than self‐report.

The study introduces the internal working models of attachment as a new antecedent, a pervasive blueprint, guiding individual social experiences and actions such as OCB.

This paper aims to enhance current understanding of motivations for self-gifting by suggesting that an individual’s attachment state from childhood upbringing impacts self-gifting behavior.

A survey was administered to 301 consumers living in the USA. Results were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings reveal that insecure anxious and insecure avoidant individuals are inclined to self-gift for reward and as compensation for personal disappointment.

Retailers can leverage the results to customize promotional messages that reference self-gifting in relation to an individual’s attachment style. For example, messaging geared towards attachment avoidance might emphasize acceptance of one’s imperfect self and situation. Messaging with sensitivity to attachment anxiety might emphasize positive self-reflection and self-worth. Per the authors’ findings, a promotional message geared towards attachment style may better motivate self-gifting.

This research is the first known empirical research to specify a psychological antecedent of self-gifting behavior, which is an emerging area in the literature and retail environment. The findings explain nuances of self-gifting behavior by theoretically connecting insecure attachment style as a driver of self-gifting purchases for reward and personal disappointment.