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The study aims to provide a theoretical framework of how information, entertainment and social interaction value associated with automotive Facebook brand pages (FBPs) in Sri Lanka influence customer engagement behaviors (CEBs), and further, how CEB is likely to result in FBP-specific relationship outcomes.

A printed questionnaire was used to collect the data from a convenience sample of 374 undergraduate Facebook users in Sri Lanka, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS 21.0.

The findings highlighted that information, entertainment and social interaction value positively influenced CEBs in automotive FBPs in Sri Lanka. Moreover, results showed that CEB had a positive influence on FBP trust, FBP commitment and FBP loyalty. Additionally, information value was found to positively influence FBP loyalty, while social interaction value had a positive influence on FBP trust and FBP commitment.

The study proposes a framework for relationship building in automotive FBPs by integrating values that drive CEBs and the FBP-specific relationship outcomes of CEBs. As such, the novelty of this paper is that it focuses on building customer relationships with the FBP, instead of the brand in the context of automotive FBPs in a developing country, Sri Lanka. Further, this study proposes some additional linkages between the constructs apart from testing the antecedents and FBP-specific relationship outcomes of CEBs.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2019-0352

Social media brand pages have emerged as an influential relationship-building tool and continue to grow in popularity as an integral part of the marketing strategy across diverse industries. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for building relationships through customer engagement in Facebook brand pages (FBPs).

Using a sample of 327 undergraduate Facebook users in Sri Lanka, the conceptual model of the study depicting relationships between eight latent constructs, is tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS 21 statistical software.

The data analysis reveals that customer engagement with FBPs is positively influenced by customer motivations; information, remuneration, social interaction and personal identity in apparel/fashion, FMCG and hotel/restaurant FBPs. However, the relationship between entertainment motive and customer engagement is found to be insignificant. Additionally, customer engagement is found to be positively related to FBP trust and FBP commitment. Further, the study highlights that the different types of FBPs are guided by different relationship principles. Hence, the strength of the relationships between customer motivations and customer engagement, and, further, the relationships between customer engagement and FBP-specific relationship outcomes are dependent upon the type of the FBP. Moreover, customer engagement is found to be mediating the relationships between motivations (information, remuneration, social interaction and personal identity) and FBP trust.

The study provides strategies for FBP marketers. It emphasizes the value of FBPs as an effective marketing tool to build up relationships with customers. Marketers are advised to identify and address what customers expect from the FBPs to engage them on FBPs and strengthening their relationship with the FBP itself.

The study provides insights into the nature of engagement in FBPs by incorporating the motivations and FBP-specific relationship outcomes of customer engagement in a single framework. The study focuses on the development of a framework explaining the role of customer engagement in building customer relationships with the FBP itself, rather than with the brand.

This study aims to examine how brand gender (masculine/feminine brand personality [FBP] traits) stimulates brand engagement (cognitive processing, affection and activation) inside online brand communities (OBCs). The authors also explore the mediation of this effect through brand identification and brand personality appeal (BPA). The moderating role of consumers’ biological sex is also investigated.

The theoretical model has been tested with the data collected from OBC members through the structural equation modelling technique. Bootstrapping is used for mediation analysis and multiple group analysis for testing the moderating effects.

Results show that masculine brand personality (MBP) influences brand engagement directly, as well as through brand identification and BPA. However, FBP elicits brand engagement only through the mediation of brand identification and BPA. Consumers’ biological sex moderates the effect of FBP on brand engagement, but no moderation was traced for the effect of MBP on brand engagement.

The context of the research poses a limitation on the broader replication of study findings. Other limitations include the absence of community-based variables and the focused use of gender centric brands in this study. This research will help researchers to understand the nuances in the underlying relationship between brand gender and brand engagement inside OBCs.

The managers can emphasize MBP but should not downplay the importance of FBP inside OBCs. To achieve brand engagement, the marketers should curate FBP in a way to affecting consumers’ brand identification and brand appeal. To achieve consumer brand engagement, MBP can be targeted at both male and female consumers, whereas FBP holds more importance among female consumers. Therefore, classifying members as per their biological sex is recommended for better brand engagement from brand gender inside OBCs.

This study explores finer mechanisms in the relationship between brand gender and brand engagement inside OBCs by charting out the powerful mediating role played by brand identification and BPA. The moderating role of consumers’ biological sex is an important dimension to these relationships, not explored hitherto.

In Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects, value for money (VFM) tests and accounting treatment are distinct but related issues. VFM analysis should be concerned with total risk, not just with the sharing of risk, which dominates the accounting treatment decision. A framework is developed for logical thinking about what is meant by “best VFM” in the context of PFI projects. This involves consideration of the full set of alternatives, not an artificially diminished subset. The credibility of analytical techniques can be tarnished if they are misused to legitimate a predetermined decision. A reduction in construction risk may be a powerful source of VFM gains under PFI, but, under UK accounting regulation, this should not influence the accounting treatment decision. New complications about how VFM should be interpreted arise directly from the process of public sector fragmentation: affordability to the client is not necessarily the same as VFM for the public sector as a whole. Only public auditors, such as the National Audit Office, can gain access to PFI documentation on the conditions necessary for a comprehensive assessment of both accounting treatment and VFM. However, such studies require the kind of theoretical underpinning provided in this article, as otherwise the findings are likely to be ambiguous and hence vulnerable to rebuttal. In particular, VFM judgements must make explicit the basis of comparison on which they rest.

This research aims to examine the impact of brand design elements (logo shape, brand name, type font and color) on brand masculinity and femininity perceptions, consumer preferences and brand equity.

This research empirically tests the relation between brand design elements, brand masculinity and femininity and brand preferences/equity in four studies involving fictitious and real brands.

Brand design elements consistently influenced brand masculinity and femininity perceptions. These, in turn, significantly related to consumer preferences and brand equity. Brand masculinity and femininity perceptions successfully predicted brand equity above and beyond other brand personality dimensions.

Although this research used a wide range of brand design elements, the interactive effects of various design elements warrant further research.

This research demonstrates how markers of masculinity and femininity that are discussed in the evolutionary psychology literature can be applied to the brand design of new and existing brands.

This research considers the impact of multiple brand design elements (logo shape, brand name, type font and color) and involves a wide range of brands and product categories.

The authors’ research examines the impact of cross-cultural difference in dialectical thinking on consumers' responses to androgynous brands and its implication for brand equity. Their research also aims to see how consumers take both feminine and masculine attributes into consideration to form their judgments of androgynous brand equity and whether this process is moderated by brand positioning.

The authors did two experiments with 400 Chinese consumers (high in dialectical thinking) and 528 British consumers (low in dialectical thinking) to test our framework.

The authors’ experimental results suggest an androgynous brand has higher brand equity in China than in the UK. Furthermore, Chinese consumers rate higher feminine/masculine attributes of masculine/feminine brands. In addition, an androgynous brand's equity is mainly driven by its less dominant attributes. Finally, their results suggest that brand positioning moderates the mediating role of less dominant attributes, more evident when brand positioning matches (vs mismatches) an androgynous brand's more dominant attributes.

By focusing on cross-cultural differences in dialectical thinking, the authors’ research offers a novel approach to reconcile existing inconclusive results on androgynous brand equity. Second, to their best knowledge, their research is the first to examine how feminine and masculine attributes jointly decide androgynous brand equity. Finally, by focusing on brand positioning, their research highlights the importance of an androgynous brand's less dominant attributes in driving its brand equity and provides a tool international marketing managers can use to strengthen such influence.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal how a loyalty program that provides economic rewards for locally produced low-input farm products influences the consumers’ behavior of repeated purchase by focussing on the consumers’ motivation and characteristics.

This study is based on data from a questionnaire survey and actual purchase data obtained from a practical study conducted in Japan. The data were analyzed using regression analysis.

Consumers who gain economic rewards by purchasing locally produced low-input fresh food are not likely to purchase these products exclusively for the economic rewards of the program; rather, they do so to get safe and good quality food and to support local farmers and local farm conservation. The most remarkable finding is that the scheme that provides economic rewards makes such products more affordable for consumers from lower-income households.

This study is of academic value and of value to policy makers and practitioners in the local food supply chain. The study suggests that for increasing and stabilizing the demand for environment-friendly farm products, institutions for creating, designing, and supporting a new market for potential consumers are needed, together with suitable certification systems.

This study aims to determine the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation on family business performance. This study also discusses the role of family involvement as a mediating variable and the role of gender as a moderating variable in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance.

A total of 328 hotels in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, were selected as samples by the convenience sampling method. Primary data is collected through structured questionnaires that are delivered by themselves to key people in the hotel such as owners, directors and key staff (HRD, financial, relationship). Hypotheses are tested by structural equation modeling procedures using AMOS 22.0. Sobel test is used to determine the indirect effect of the mediation variable.

The results showed that entrepreneurial orientation had no significant effect on family business performance. Family involvement acts as a full mediation in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance. Gender acts as a moderating variable that can strengthen the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance. The results showed support for previous research.

The results of the study cannot conclude the national family business because it adopts convenience sampling and the sampling area is limited in Yogyakarta. Future research can use a larger sample. This study only researches hotels managed by family businesses, so it is not feasible to conclude for family businesses in general. Future research may choose to use several types of family businesses so that more varied results can be obtained. Future research could also compare hotels managed by family businesses with non-family businesses. The results also found that in addition to gender roles, respondent heterogeneity was an important component in the study of social identity. Therefore, research examining the influence of different cultures on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance should be an extraordinary topic for future study. Other results from this study also indicate that there is a role for religion in improving hotel performance. Future research is needed to further explore Islamic business modeling for family businesses.

This finding has significant implications that can help family businesses in developing strategies that are suitable for business management. Entrepreneurial orientation occupies a strategic position in developing sustainable competitive advantage in the family business of the tourism sector especially the hotel business in Yogyakarta for the better. Besides, the results of the study also showed that entrepreneurial orientation had no significant effect on performance. This relationship becomes significant when combined with active family involvement. This finding also shows that entrepreneurial orientation has the potential to have a more beneficial effect because of the active involvement of the family in helping with business management, alleviating business-related problems, and having a significant influence when the family also acts as management.

Research findings indicate the role of gender in strengthening the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and family business performance. This provides a good position for women in the social environment to show achievement. To place women on the side of gender equality and justice in the family business in Indonesia. By opening wider access for Indonesian women in the realm of business management, expanding women's participation in a family business, increasing the role of control for women, and increasing women's knowledge and skills to increase the benefits in managing family businesses so that they have sustainable resilience in the face of global competition.

The results of this study provide a new model in providing an overview of the direct and indirect roles (mediating and moderating) in the assessment of family business performance. This study uses three variables which are important in performance appraisal, namely entrepreneurial orientation (independent variable), family involvement (mediating variable) and gender (moderating variable). Where research that combines these four variables, directly and indirectly, has never been done before.

This paper aims to examine the effect of customer relationship management (CRM) on patient satisfaction and patient loyalty, controlling for other socio-demographic characteristics.

The study used a two-stage sampling process and structured questionnaires to collect data from 788 patients from three health facilities (public, quasi-public and private) in Greater Accra, Ghana. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression via the partial least squares-based structural equation model.

The results suggest that CRM is significantly positively correlated with patient satisfaction and patient loyalty, with patient satisfaction also significantly correlated with patient loyalty. Additionally, the results suggest that the introduction of education, health facility ownership, health insurance status and gender, neither impact significantly on the relationship between CRM and patient satisfaction/patient loyalty nor influenced patient satisfaction and patient loyalty directly.

The findings of the current paper can have substantial practice implications for operators in the health-care industry in Ghana. CRM components such as service quality, customer service, communication and the use of appropriate technology to deliver service will be fundamental if organizations operating in the health-care ecosystem in Ghana are to be able to compete effectively.

This is one of the very few papers on the relationship between CRM and patient satisfaction and patient loyalty in African health-care literature. Thus, the findings of the paper can constitute a great resource not only to academics but also to practitioners who are looking to be competitive in the health-care market.

This paper aims to critically review the most cited literature published from 2000 to 2020 in 24 top-ranked marketing journals on the three most studied branding concepts of the 21st century – brand equity, brand loyalty and brand image – to explore how in these papers they have been defined, measured and examined, and propose how they should move forward in an era where brands are expected to be “socially and socio-politically conscious.”

For each concept a systematic literature review is conducted. In doing so, the definitions, antecedents, outcomes and measures for each concept were accessed and synthesized.

The systematic literature reviews provide a “state-of-the-art” snapshot of each concept and collectively demonstrate there is no consensus on the independence and interdependence of these dynamic multidimensional concepts. Based on the recommended process in the measurement literature, an evolved definition of each concept is proposed. In addition to the corresponding research directions presented in the moving forward sections of each systematic literature review, common research avenues emerged.

This paper acknowledges these three branding concepts as dynamic (i.e. evolving over time), systemically reviews and synthesizes the extant literature, and provides a path forward to defining, measuring and exploring brand equity, brand loyalty and brand image in the present era where brands are expected to be socially and socio-politically conscious with responsibilities to the planet, people and profit.