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This study describes how a multinational enterprise (MNE) gains acceptance after rebranding acquired brands from different countries among its internal and external stakeholders and identifies factors that influence this process.

The study employed a single case-study approach, including 18 semi-structured in-depth interviews with employees of a firm involved in the rebranding process in six countries. The countries are Sweden, Germany, the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

The findings reveal how the MNE integrated brands it acquired in different international markets into one overarching corporate brand. The study shows that in emerging countries, external legitimation (external implementation process, country profiles and customer buy-in) constitutes the most significant challenge. By contrast, in developed countries, internal legitimation (employee buy-in and internal implementation process) is more challenging.

The study contributes to and extends the rebranding literature by using a legitimation lens to analyze the rebranding process. This lens shows how internal and external stakeholders are both crucial to successful rebranding. The study provides a comprehensive perspective of the process, identifies challenging factors and differentiates between their importance in emerging and developed countries.

To address the dearth of research on how firms legitimize a new brand in different national contexts, the study compares the rebranding process in multiple countries and discusses the factors influencing the rebranding process.

Employer branding (EB) has become a powerful tool for organizations to attract employees. Recruitment communication ideally reveals the image that companies want to portray to potential employees to attract talents with the right skills and competences for the organization. This study explores the impact of EB on employer attractiveness by testing how pre-existing employee preferences interact with EB and how this interaction affects employer attractiveness.

A quasi-experiment among 289 final-year students was used to test the relationships between EB, perceived employer image, person-organization (P-O) fit and employer attractiveness, and the potential moderating variables of pre-existing preferences, in this case operationalized as locational preferences. Students are randomly assigned to four vacancies: one with and one without EB cues in two different locations: Groningen and Amsterdam. The authors used standard scales for attractiveness, perceptions of an employer and person-organization fit. The authors test the relationships using a regression analysis.

Results suggest that if respondents have previous predispositions, then their preference can be enhanced using an EB-targeted strategy. Based on these results, the authors can conclude that EB and related practices can be successful avenues for organizations in the war for talent, particularly if they reaffirm previous preferences of potential employees.

The research is original in the way it provides empirical evidence on the relationship between EB and attractiveness, particularly when previous employee preferences exist. This is of value to employers using EB as a tool to influence employer attractiveness.

This paper seeks to explore the influence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on employee performance in the workplace, viewed from a managerial perspective. It concentrates on key elements such as employee engagement, trust in GenAI and attitudes toward its implementation. This exploration is motivated by the ongoing evolution of GenAI, which presents managers with the crucial task of understanding and integrating this technology into their strategic frameworks.

We collected 251 responses from managers and senior managers representing companies that have embraced GenAI in Spain. A hierarchical regression analysis was employed to examine the hypotheses. Subsequently, mediating effects and moderated mediation effects were scrutinized using the bias-corrected bootstrapping method.

The data analysis suggests a significant enhancement in employee engagement and performance from a managerial perspective, attributed to improved attitudes and trust toward the adoption of GenAI. This conclusion is drawn from our research conducted with samples collected in Spain. Notably, our findings indicate that while positive attitudes toward GenAI correlate with enhanced engagement and performance, there exists a weakening effect on the significant positive impact of GenAI adoption in the workplace. This suggests that GenAI is still in its early stages of adoption within these companies, necessitating additional time for managers to develop greater confidence in its efficacy.

This study represents one of the pioneering investigations centered on the implementation of GenAI within the workplace context. It contributes significantly to the existing body of literature concerning the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model in technology innovation adoption within work environments.

While brand purpose has gained traction in academia and industry, it overlaps with other socially-oriented branding concepts, generating confusion and criticism around what brand purpose is and how it should be implemented. This study aims to clarify conceptualisations of brand purpose and related concepts, developing a managerial framework for effective implementation and contributing a future research agenda for scholars.

The paper presents the results of a systematic literature review on brand purpose, exploring the current knowledge. A total of 202 studies from 75 journals were drawn from a wide range of databases and met the identified criteria relevant to brand purpose, published up to and including 2023. Full papers were empirically analysed using qualitative iterative thematic analysis to identify common and emerging themes and synthesise this into a framework.

Beyond identifying the diverse applications of brand purpose, the BEING framework is proposed. This acronym captures five principles of brand purpose: beyond profit, enduring commitment, integrated values, nurturing stakeholders and genuine action.

The BEING framework provides clear managerial guidance for implementing brand purpose, urging brand leaders to enact meaningful brand purpose and champion purpose within organisations.

As more brands pursue a higher purpose, this research elucidates the meaning of brand purpose and offers an actionable framework for brands to contribute to a better world.

This work examines the related branding concepts, clarifying the brand purpose concept and offering the BEING framework to articulate essential components of effective brand purpose.

This research aimed to explore the commonalities and differences in the type of information provided on corporate websites in relation to their employment brand equity.

Mixed methods of content analysis, ANOVA and regression analyses were employed to answer the research questions. The data were collected from multiple sources, including the websites of a sample of forty companies listed as the US Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work in 2012 and information presented on Fortune’s website as well.

Employment brand equity hardly showed any significant impact on either company’s job growth or reputation in the ranking as an “employer of choice”.

The results indicated some practices to make a company’s employment brand outstanding and how its web presence reflected its “brand” and presence for potential employees. They are useful for HR practitioners concerned with building an employee brand. For example, the more highly ranked companies in the Fortune 100 tend to provide more forms of online support related to employment opportunities.

Using brand equity theory from the marketing arena and applying this within the human resources management area, this study suggests that “employment brand equity” became a major factor that many companies and organizations should focus on to enhance their standing with job seekers, particularly talented ones. Nearly a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, the best companies to work for in the US had paid attention to digitalization via websites and social media, to attract talent (and support employees).

The fundamental mission of every green city is to harmonize urban living with environmental preservation. However, a critical challenge arises when the residents of such cities do not share the same level of environmental consciousness, potentially eroding the integrity of the green city’s brand identity. Hence, this study aims to explore the factors influencing residents’ identification with green city branding and assesses how this identification subsequently affects their green citizenship behaviors.

A survey of 1,217 residents from 15 green cities across six countries was conducted and analyzed using SPSS 28.0 for descriptive statistics and PLS-SEM for measurement and structural model analysis.

The results indicate that green city-self connection, green city distinctiveness and environmental benefits significantly impact GCRI, which, in turn, significantly influences green city protection, loyalty and advocacy behaviors. However, green city social and economic benefits did not affect resident identification.

The results of this study provide valuable managerial insights for city brand managers, green city developers and governmental representatives. The study underscores the importance of considering residents as crucial internal stakeholders in the creation of a green city identity that effectively promotes sustainable urban living and an eco-friendly culture.

This study provides theoretical insights into the relationship between green identification and residents’ willingness and commitment to act as ambassadors and promote their city’s green values.

This research aims to address the need for a more in-depth empirical investigation of exploring the link between the adoption of corporate citizenship (CC) practices and different aspects of customer behavior in a developing country. Also, it develops a research framework and assesses the mediating role of brand image, brand love, brand reputation and brand trust between customer perceptions of CC and customer loyalty.

Working with a sample of 290 private bank customers in Iran, partial least square-based structural equation modeling is used to test the conceptual model.

The findings reveal significant and positive relationships between CC, brand image, love and reputation. Indirectly and in the relationship between CC and customer loyalty, there are significant relationships through the serial roles of image-reputation, image-love and image-trust. Most importantly, the findings add value to the current knowledge by exploring the mediating effect of brand image, love, reputation and trust between CC and customer loyalty. Finally, this study has resulted in an updated prediction model of private banking customer loyalty.

This study makes a unique theoretical contribution to the literature by evaluating and comparing the mediating role of image, love, reputation and brand trust between CC and customer loyalty using the hierarchy of effects model.

This study aims to examine whether sport companies that promote gender equality through femvertising, an advertising trend that empowers women and confronts gender stereotypes, actually support women’s rights with institutionalized approaches to challenge gender issues. Some sport brands even have won awards for their femvertising efforts, however, not all of them have modified their policies and programs to support gender equality. Sport femvertising can be a new area for CSR-washing and this study investigated this potential.

Utilizing a content analysis, this study compared sport brands' (award-winning vs non-award-winning) level of engagement in internal and external CSR activities regarding gender equality. Sport brands’ CSR attempts and number of women in leadership positions were analyzed through companies’ CSR reports, annual reports and websites.

Only few differences between two groups (award-winning vs non-award-winning) of sport brands were observed regarding their gender equality CSR engagement. In some cases, non-award-winning sport brands had a greater percentage of women in leadership and practiced more internal gender equality CSR.

This paper provides valuable information about the potential of femvertising as an advertisement, as well as CSR strategy. Results of this study broaden our understanding of how sport companies embraced this advertising/CSR technique and the repercussions. Findings provide guidance for sport marketers who seek to improve their brand image through femvertising.

This study aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on customer-based brand equity (CBBE), with a focus on the mediating role of customer value cocreation (CVCC). The objective is to understand the direct and indirect links between CSR and the dimensions of CBBE (image, quality, awareness, loyalty) in the context of the luxury hotel industry, thus filling existing gaps.

This quantitative study of luxury hotel guests in Morocco used a questionnaire. After a pilot study with 10 professionals, the final version was administered, generating 204 valid responses. Purposive convenience sampling was chosen. PLS analysis was favored.

The results highlight the significant influence of CSR on the four dimensions of CBBE. Likewise, CVCC exerts a significant effect on CBBE aspects, except for brand loyalty. CVCC partially mediates the relationship between CSR and brand image, perceived quality and brand awareness. However, it does not have a significant mediating role in the CSR−brand loyalty relationship.

The study, despite its contributions, is limited to the luxury hotel industry in Morocco, raising concerns of external validity. Future research should diversify service contexts and explore the multidimensionality of CSR.

Luxury hotel managers should prioritize authentic communication to optimize their CBBE through CVCC. An inclusive and strategic approach to cocreation is essential to strengthen the impact of CSR on CBBE. Integrating CSR into customer touchpoints and human resources policies is crucial.

This study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, enriches understanding of the complex interactions between CSR, CVCC and CBBE in Morocco and North Africa. Its originality lies in its exclusive contribution to the region’s marketing literature, broadening the field of knowledge. By exploring these relationships in the specific context of the region, it offers new perspectives to researchers and practitioners interested in CSR, CVCC and CBBE.

Patriotism is often described as the “love of country” that individuals display in the acclamation of their national community. Despite the prominence of this sentiment in various societies around the world, organizational research on patriotism is largely absent. This omission is surprising because entrepreneurs, human resource (HR) divisions, and firms frequently embrace both patriotism and patriotic organizational practices. These procedures include (among other interventions) national symbol embracing, HR practices targeted toward military members and first responders, the adulation of patriots and celebration of patriotic events, and patriotic-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR). Here, the authors argue that research on HR management and organization studies will likely be further enhanced with a deeper understanding of the national obligation that can spur employee productivity and loyalty. In an attempt to jumpstart the collective understanding of this phenomenon, the authors explore the antecedents of patriotic organizational practices, namely, the effects of founder orientation, employee dispersion, and firm strategy. It is suggested that HR practices such as these lead to a patriotic organizational image, which in turn impacts investor, customer, and employee responses. Notably, the effect of a patriotic organizational image on firm-related outcomes is largely contingent on how it fits with the patriotic views of other stakeholders, such as investors, customers, and employees. After outlining this model, the authors then present a thought experiment of how this model may appear in action. The authors then discuss ways the field can move forward in studying patriotism in HR management and organizational contexts by outlining several future directions that span multiple levels (i.e., micro and macro). Taken together, in this chapter, the authors introduce a conversation of something quite prevalent and largely unheeded – the patriotic organization.