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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the largely unexplored conceptualisation of the brand-as-a-person metaphor in small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by examining its potential relation with the SME owner-manager, the pathways to its creation and development and the intuitive nature of this relationship.

A grounded theory approach was used, and data were collected through a set of 36 semi-structured interviews with 30 SME owner-managers in various sectors in Mexico.

The results indicate that SME owner-managers intuitively humanise their brands. The study revealed four pathways to develop the brand-as-a-person metaphor in the SME context: through personality traits, tastes and preferences, abilities and knowledge and values, all suggesting that SMEs’ brand-as-a-person metaphors are largely an extension of their owner-managers.

The paper presents a theoretical framework that illustrates the four pathways to the creation and development of brand-as-a-person that are derived from the brand’s relationship with the SME owner-manager. The results of cross-industry semi-structured interviews are limited to a single culture context.

SME owner-managers should first undertake an introspective personal assessment of their intuitive and conscious decision-making, as SME owner-managers often make decisions in an intuitive way. The results suggest that they should act in a more conscious, responsible and rational way when formulating their brand strategies.

This is the first study to clarify the profound influence of SME owner-managers’ personal characteristics, including personality traits, tastes and preferences, abilities and knowledge and values, on the brand-as-a-person metaphor. This study also confirms the intuitive learning strategy formulation of SME owner-managers’ branding practices and SMEs’ need for a more rational approach to branding.

The purpose of this study is threefold. First, human brands are conceptualized and the distinction between them and personal brands is established. Second, human-brand research is reviewed in light of a strategic brand management framework and gaps in the knowledge that may suggest new research pathways are identified. Third, the extent to which a brand management model designed for products could be applied to human brands is explored.

A systematic literature review was conducted in this study. The content analysis of the selected set of papers allowed the assessment of the state of this field of brand management and the identification of proposals for future research.

Substantial research exists on different aspects of human brands. However, these studies are fragmented in nature, thus highlighting the need for specific and complete human-brand management models.

A limitation of this literature review is that it is based on a sample of papers collected by one specific criterion; furthermore, the way the papers were classified may be challenged. However, this study provides a comprehensive picture of studies on human brands available today.

A parsimonious distinction and connectivity between human and personal brands suggest a branding-by-individual continuum. Additionally, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first identifiable one that summarizes the growing literature on human brands, reveals important gaps in the knowledge and calls for the development of particular human-brand management models.

Celebrity-branded products constitute a brand extension growing phenomenon. Authenticity may explain why some of these offerings are successful despite low perceived fit, a traditional measure for brand extension acceptance. The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a framework based on the meaning transfer model that depicts the effects of brand extension authenticity, brand extension fit and idol attachment on the valuation of such offerings. An exploration of both functional and hedonic extensions is provided to control for product-type variables.

Scenario-based survey data from a general population (n = 646) was collected and analyzed with ordinary least squares regressions.

Brand extension authenticity is a significant antecedent of brand extension success in both product types, and brand extension fit is the most relevant antecedent only in functional extensions. Idol attachment exerts less influence than fit and authenticity in the functional extension. However, its relevance considerably improves in the hedonic extension.

A better understanding of consumers’ responses to celebrity brand extensions is essential to the branding literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to consider brand extension authenticity as a predictor of celebrity brand extension success and advances our knowledge of consumer behavior in relation to celebrities as brands and their products as brand extensions. The conceptual and empirical relevance of brand extension authenticity is demonstrated, highlighting its predictive power when compared with brand extension fit and idol attachment in a celebrity brand extension model, and a boundary condition related to product typology is uncovered.

The purpose of this paper is, first, to identify the relationship, if any, between customers’ perceptions of justice (functional element) and employee effort (symbolic element) and their effects on satisfaction and loyalty in the context of service recovery and, second, to determine the impact of cross-cultural differences on these relationships.

Survey data from actual customers were gathered in three countries (n = 414) and analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results demonstrate the role of the constructs of perceived employee effort and perceived justice in influencing post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty across cultures. While perceived justice is valued across cultures, customers from feminine (masculine) cultures require more (less) employee effort to influence post-recovery satisfaction positively. Customers from low (high) uncertainty cultures are more (less) willing to give the provider another chance after a service recovery.

The study shows that both functional and symbolic elements of service recovery are important determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty and that their influence can be significant in a cross-cultural context.

International service managers must consider the nature of cultural differences in their markets to develop and implement tailored recovery strategies that can result in satisfied customers.

This study is the first to integrate the functional and symbolic elements of service recovery, their impact on customers’ behavioral responses and the influence of cultural variations.

This paper aims to investigate how small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) use particular brand communication activities to develop their brands.

As a means to build some understanding about this phenomenon, a “contemporary marketing practices” perspective was used as a theoretical framework to 30 holistic case studies in Mexico. Semi‐structured interviews were carried out with brand owner/managers.

Findings suggest four categories of brand communication activities based on interactional, transactional, and e‐marketing approaches, including “close and personal”, “mass‐personalisation”, “mass”, and “e‐communication” activities.

Many more activities were found in interactional marketing as it appeared to be more suited to SMEs and context. Future research may address key activities for further investigation such as word‐of‐mouth as a key role in SME brand communication.

This study confirms the key participatory role of the brand owner with regard to brand communication activities.

This is one of the first articles that attempts to explain how SME brands use marketing communication tools to interact with their stakeholders for brand development.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how small to medium‐sized enterprise firms can develop internationalization processes successfully.

A case study is used to illustrate the milestones of the global process.

The paper finds that, although internationalization is a complicated task, the adequate management of resources allows firms to achieve their objectives.

The paper takes as reference a national culture‐based hand‐crafted product, which is really difficult to internationalize.

This paper aims to develop and test a conceptual model of organizational structure design that incorporates some factors influencing strategy implementation. The research also aims to consider inter‐functionality in new product development (NPD) processes and marketing decisions, measured from the dispersion of these activities among functional areas.

The research was conducted across 424 small and medium‐sized furniture manufacturing companies. In total, eight hypotheses were proposed and tested using structural equation modeling.

Most important among the study's findings was that inter‐firm relationships and inter‐functional processes are relevant for the study of organizational structure design. It was found that the dispersion of the new product development process and of marketing decisions exert a positive influence on architectural marketing capabilities. The results showed that the dispersion of NPD processes and marketing decisions influence the development of marketing capabilities only in those companies with inter‐firm relationships. The paper also found that inter‐firm design did not affect the impact of the relationship between the dispersion of marketing decisions and NPD process on specialized capabilities.

The study focuses research on Brazilian small to medium‐sized furniture enterprises and could have single‐source bias in its data collection process.

The findings provide insights into ways of integrating structures. It is observed that a higher integration of areas in marketing decisions is related to the dispersion of the NPD process. Given that dispersion in NPD is a disseminated practice, it is found that higher dispersion in marketing activities has an impact on product development.

The paper's findings confirm the influence of organizational design on the development of planning capabilities and on the implementation of marketing strategies.

This paper seeks to highlight the significance of the recent debate on the “academic‐practitioner divide” for postgraduate marketing education in terms of informing objectives, chosen scope and structure and service provision.

Data were collected on 60 programmes at 45 UK higher education institutions (HEIs) by desk research and from 129 PG students enrolled at five British Universities by means of a questionnaire.

It was found that these were close parallels between PG and UG programmes in the UK. From the perspective of students intending to become marketing practitioners, five key strengths and weaknesses of current marketing education provision were identified.

Data on current PG marketing programmes was only collected from a sample of UK HEI's and not internationally. Data from students was collected only from five UK Universities.

Suggestions are made for the ways and means by which PG programmes can be enhanced pedagogically and made more relevant to practice. Brief proposals are also made in respect of improving input into programme and class design by current practitioners – especially programme alumni.

It is hoped that all sections of this paper will be of value to postgraduate programme leaders in directing, leading and developing their courses strategically and tactically.