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The current study aims to propose and empirically investigate a conceptual model of the most relevant antecedents and consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) attribution, thus providing a practical and concise model as well as examining brand attachment as a mediator explaining the relationship between CSR attribution and its consequences.

A between-subjects experimental design was employed. The study included two experimental conditions; intrinsic and extrinsic CSR attribution and a control condition. An online self-administered survey was utilised for data collection. The sample was a convenience sample of 336 university students. Both one-way between-groups ANOVA and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) were utilised for hypotheses testing.

The most significant antecedents of CSR attribution in order of importance are the firm's approach to CSR communication, past corporate social performance, CSR type and the firm's call for customers' participation in its CSR. CSR attribution exerted a significant direct positive impact on brand attachment and trust. Three significant indirect consequences of CSR attribution were PWOM intention, purchase intention and brand loyalty intention. Whereas trust played a significant mediating role between CSR attribution and its three indirect consequences, brand attachment exerted significant mediation only between CSR attribution and brand loyalty intention. Brand attachment might mediate the relationship between CSR attribution and purchase intention. However, brand attachment failed to play a mediating role between CSR attribution and PWOM intention.

Several studies marginally investigated CSR attribution. Despite the vital role of CSR attribution in how consumers receive firms' CSR engagement, the availability of CSR attribution-centric studies is limited. By introducing a model of the most relevant antecedents and consequences of CSR attribution, this study aids in understanding the psychological mechanism underlying consumers' CSR attribution and provides valuable implications.

This study aims to explore and extend the consumer–brand relationship literature by integrating the relatively new construct of brand coolness with a growing body of work on gratitude. Specifically, gratitude is explored alongside emotional brand attachment as an additional mechanism affecting the relationship between cool brands and the loyalty outcome of repurchase intention. Consumption context is examined as a boundary condition to the effect of gratitude.

Data was collected from an online survey of a Qualtrics panel of 356 US consumers. A moderated mediation model is used to explain the effects of brand coolness on repurchase intention via emotional brand attachment and brand gratitude in the moderating presence of consumption context.

Brand coolness significantly increases repurchase intention. Furthermore, emotional brand attachment and brand gratitude are established as parallel mediators of the relationship between brand coolness and repurchase intention, with brand gratitude exhibiting a significantly stronger mediated effect. The impact of brand coolness on brand gratitude is moderated by social visibility, with publicly consumed cool brands stimulating greater brand gratitude than their privately consumed counterparts.

Brand gratitude is shown to influence repurchase intention independent of the impact exerted by consumers’ emotional brand attachment. Cognitive appraisal theory is used to distinguish brand gratitude from other mediators studied in consumer–brand relationships. Findings establish the moderating influence of the social visibility of the brand on the relationship between brand coolness and gratitude.

This paper aims to examine the impact of brand self-congruence on brand advocacy. In addition, the roles of brand love and attachment are examined through a serial mediation model.

A total of 324 valid and useable responses collected from an Australian consumer panel were analysed through IBM SPSS. Underpinned by social identity theory and self-expansion theory, a set of hypotheses was examined in a research model.

The findings show that consumers' brand self-congruence positively impacts brand love, attachment and advocacy intention. Moreover, brand attachment and love mediate the relationship between brand self-congruence and advocacy.

The findings of this research suggest that brand managers should cultivate emotions to build a strong consumer–brand relationship.

This research advances the current understanding of brand advocacy literature concerning brand self-congruence, love and attachment. The findings suggest that consumers' brand self-congruence, combined with brand love and attachment, will generate greater advocacy.

This research aims to examine the role of consumers' brand trust and attachment on advocacy intention before and after the occurrence of brand misconduct in retail banking. In addition, the influence of brand attachment on consumers' willingness to switch, advocate for and forgive brands is examined in a post-misconduct scenario.

Data were collected through a self-administered online survey questionnaire. A total of 304 valid and usable responses from Australian participants were analysed using IBM SPSS 27.0.

The findings reveal that brand attachment mediates the positive relationship between trust and advocacy intention. Furthermore, brand attachment (1) dilutes consumers' switching intention and (2) strengthens their willingness to forgive the bank after misconduct.

Results suggest that retail banks should create strong brand attachments with their consumers. In addition to brand trust, brand attachment will generate greater advocacy intention among consumers. Moreover, practitioners in retail banking can leverage brand attachment to mitigate the negative impact of brand misconduct.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to examine the impact of brand attachment on the consumer–bank relationship within the context of brand misconduct. The study is also unique in its analysis of the mediating role of brand attachment between brand trust and advocacy. This research further adds to the current literature by suggesting that strong and positive customer connections to the brand facilitate communication and marketing efforts after brand misconduct and that these are effective in maintaining consumer-bank relationship.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the effects of place attachment on brand loyalty. This study further ascertains whether the effects of emotion-based attachment on brand loyalty are stronger for customers who have a positive experience with a restaurant brand. Additionally, the authors investigate whether emotion-based attachment mediates the relationships between identity-based attachments, place dependence and brand loyalty in the restaurant setting.

The authors administered the questionnaire to customers (diners) of restaurants in Ghana, and they were completed via a paper and pencil/pen approach. The authors tested their hypotheses using structural equation modeling.

The findings show that identity-based and emotion-based attachment enhances brand loyalty within a restaurant setting. The results also show that place dependence attachment promotes emotional bonding with restaurant brands. The study's findings also show that place dependence attachment does not have a direct and positive significant effect on brand loyalty except when an emotional response is produced.

Place attachment studies in a restaurant setting are rare. This study thus contributes to the place attachment literature in restaurants setting.

This study aims to identify and examine the effect of brand reputation on brand advocacy by evaluating the mediating effect of emotional attachment. The study also tests the relationships by appraising the moderating effect of experience and price perception. The research model is also assessed across the two brand types (hedonic brands and utilitarian brands).

Overall, 426 valid questionnaires were collected through an online survey. To test the proposed hypotheses, structural equation modeling was used.

The results mainly support the model by confirming that brand reputation is positively related to emotional attachment. The brand reputation also has an indirect effect on brand advocacy through emotional attachment. The findings of the study reveal a positive relationship between emotional attachment and brand advocacy. Both moderators applied were found to reinforce the relationships. The results also show the different outcomes for the two brand types.

This research contributes to the literature by introducing and assessing a research model that displays the path in which a brand reputation significantly affects advocacy for a brand through emotional attachment. Two moderators are involved in this path. Corresponding to the research model, an assessment of hedonic and utilitarian brands is also performed.

Fashionable brands need to develop brand attachment so that their consumers become fans and act as apostles by recommending them. But how can companies develop brand attachment? This paper aims to investigate, on the one hand, the role of four drivers of brand attachment (perceived quality, brand personality, credibility and awareness) and three effects (loyalty, buying intention and perceived risk). On the other hand, three groups of fashionable brands with different positioning strategies are compared to analyze if the brand positioning strategy moderates the proposed relationships in the analyzed country.

To achieve the two objectives, surveys with the same instrument were conducted twice, and a sample of 1,922 consumers from the three most populated cities of Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca) took part in the study. They chose fashionable brands with functional (n = 1,066), hedonic (n = 463) and symbolic (n = 393) positioning strategies. They mentioned, for example, functional brands such as Avon, La Lechera, Nokia or Converse; hedonic brands such as Christian Dior, Oreo, Apple or Timberland and symbolic brands such as Axe, Coca-Cola/Coke, Motorola or DBond.

The results of this study show that (1) brand positioning affects attachment, (2) a functional positioning leads to higher consumers' loyalty, (3) a hedonic positioning leads to the strongest brand personality and credibility and (4) a symbolic positioning seems to be the less useful option in terms of desired effects.

First, this paper considers three different subscenarios in launching a new product: hedonic, functional and symbolic brand positioning. The comparison of these three scenarios makes progress with respect to previous research since the connection between consumers' brand attachment and positioning brand strategy has been scarcely addressed to date. Second, no study has been found that assesses the simultaneous effect of four key antecedents capable of enhancing brand attachment (personality, quality, awareness and credibility), causing three major effects (loyalty, purchase intention and decrease in perceived risk).

This study aims to extend research in marketing on two important relational constructs, customer satisfaction and brand attachment, by comparing their long-term effects on customer behaviors with different levels of performance difficulty in a relatively understudied domain of durable products.

Using a two-stage quantitative study with US customers from five durable product categories, the authors first explored the hierarchy of customers’ loyalty behaviors based on increasing effort in a pretest study (N = 675). Then, the authors tested the effectiveness of satisfaction and brand attachment for customers’ loyalty behaviors over a nine-month period in a longitudinal study (N = 2,284) with customers from the same product categories.

Compared to satisfaction, brand attachment emerges as a stronger long-term predictor of customer behaviors. The performance difficulty of customer behaviors positively moderates the impact of brand attachment and negatively moderates the impact of customer satisfaction. Brand attachment is particularly effective in predicting difficult-to-perform customer behaviors, which require customers to expend resources such as time and money. Customer satisfaction is mainly effective for predicting easy-to-perform behaviors, but its long-term impact is significantly lower for easy-to-perform behaviors than brand attachment.

The use of consumer durables in the study and samples from only one country restricts the generalizability of the findings.

The complementary roles of customer satisfaction and brand attachment are highlighted. Only satisfying customers is not enough to engage customers in behaviors that require resources such as money, time and energy for the brand.

A comparative study on the long-term effectiveness of two established relational metrics in explaining different customer behaviors varying in their performance difficulty in an understudied domain of durable products.

The present study has been carried out to study whether and how different aspects of brand management (brand identity, brand image and brand meaning) are instrumental in maintaining and enhancing attachment strength of students with higher education institutes (HEIs). Further, to understand what brand management aspect channels the impact of what branding driver on attachment strength in most effective manner.

The study analysed combined mediating effects as well as specific mediating effects to test the mediating role of brand management aspects.

The study reveals that brand image plays highest mediating role among all aspects of brand management. HEIs need to enhance service quality because brand image carries the highest influence of service quality on attachment strength. Similarly, brand identity carries the highest influence of heritage on attachment strength. Brand meaning carries the highest influence of competence and reputation on attachment strength.

The present study, based on empirical research, has built the framework and mechanism for creating attachment strength utilising the intangible resources of HEIs through brand management. The present study examines how specific intangible resources exhibit varying influences on attachment strength via distinct brand management mediation effects.

The present study provides framework for designing branding strategies to build and channelise necessary intangible resources of branding for nourishing and nurturing attachment strength.

The present study contributes to scarce branding literature in context of HEIs. The study proposes role of HEI branding in developing students' attachment strength with their HEIs.

This paper aims to explore whether brand corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives increase consumers’ happiness via a mediating mechanism of emotional brand attachment and to examine how brand CSR’s effect may be moderated by CSR fit (e.g. CSR-brand fit vs misfit) and sense of relatedness (e.g. low vs high).

A series of six studies (including the one that is available online), combining field and experimental data, were conducted to test the hypothesized relationships.

Results support the hypothesis that brand CSR initiatives make consumers happy by increasing their attachment to the brand (Studies 1 and 2). This effect is strengthened both directly and indirectly through emotional attachment when brands engage in CSR fit activities (Study 3), but it is weakened when brands engage in CSR misfit activities (Study 4). Furthermore, the effect is more pronounced when brands choose CSR activities that have a high sense of relatedness, and it is eliminated when brands use CSR activities with a low sense of relatedness (Study 5). Finally, the results indicate that when brand CSR programs make consumers happy, they become more likely to purchase, spread positive word of mouth and pay a premium (Study 6).

This research has several major implications for business-to-consumer companies that are unsure about the value of brand CSR initiatives, want to make consumers happy but are unsure which CSR strategies to focus on and/or have decided to launch CSR initiatives but lack guidance on the specific strategies relevant to their desired performance outcomes.