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The purpose of this study is to provide information that reflects the true state of affairs and to develop a conceptual model that examines the moderating effect of uncertainty on relative brand trust–love.

Extant empirical studies, conceptual literature and related theories were identified and integrated to develop the conceptual model.

Findings of the study suggest that relative brand trust–love arises because of different components of uncertainty. Relative brand trust–love exhibited by the customer is moderated by uncertainty at the individual level, brand level and technology level. These uncertainties represent the situation that considers if relative brand trust–love can be enhanced. A few propositions have been suggested for such situations to enhance relative brand trust–love.

This paper proposes a conceptual model and also makes research propositions that need to be validated and confirmed empirically. It adds value to theoretical advancements in strengthening the customer–brand relationship. Furthermore, results suggest that relative brand trust–love can be improved over time if these components can be supported by increasing information at different levels. The conclusions will be informative to practitioners and brand managers in strengthening a brand into the market more effectively. Moreover, it can transform the brand into a global brand and help build sustainable long-term relationships. Findings can be useful and interesting information for the researchers who are interested in finding strategic ways for effective decision-making related to brand trust and brand love.

The conceptual model, and the propositions related to different levels of uncertainty, and its effect on relative brand trust–love, is a new approach in enhancing relative brand trust–love and hence helpful in strengthening the quality of customer–brand relationships.

This research aims to explores consumers' motives and attitudes toward misinformation (fake reviews), its characteristics and its impact on individuals, brands and firms.

A thematic analysis was undertaken to meet the research objectives by analyzing qualitative data from in-depth interviews with a diverse sample (N = 48).

The findings indicate that altruism, impression management, matching ideologies, message appeal and perceived source power are the critical motivations for individuals to share misinformation. Misinformation leads to conflicts and avoidance among individuals and harms brand's reputation.

This study utilizes thematic analysis to extend and contribute to the literature on misinformation. The current research provides an overarching framework to decode the misinformation phenomenon for researchers and practitioners.

This study offers valuable insights to marketers to develop strategies to tackle the menace of false information to safeguard brand reputation.

Social media has become an inescapable part of our lives. However, recent research suggests that excessive use of social media may lead to fatigue and users’ disengagement. This study aims to examine which brand-related factors contribute to social media fatigue (SMF) and its subsequent role on driving lurking behaviors, particularly among young consumers.

Based on survey data from 282 young users of social media, a holistic model of brand-related drivers and outcomes of SMF was tested, emphasizing the contribution of brands’ social media presence to users’ disengagement.

Research shows that branded content overload and irrelevance, as well as branded ads intrusiveness significantly impact SMF, which in turn plays a mediating role between brand-related drivers and lurking behaviors. The authors further conclude that the impact of SMF on lurking is stronger for users who follow a larger set of brands.

The study contributes to social media research by addressing its “dark side” and empirically validating the role of brands’ social media presence in developing young users’ fatigue and disengagement. The study further adds to the scant literature on SMF, which was mostly developed outside the branding field. Research also provides valuable insights to brands on how to improve their social media performance.

This study aims to examine the influence of collectivism, brand prestige and brand identification on green brand loyalty among Generation Z and older generation travellers in India. Loyal consumers are essential for the long-term success of hotels.

A single cross-sectional design is used in the study, with a total of 277 Generation Z and 299 Older generation travellers surveyed directly at three different tourist destinations in India. The PLS-SEM approach is used to analyse the data.

The study’s findings showed that among Generation Z travellers, factors such as collectivism, brand identification and brand prestige play a significant role in shaping green brand loyalty towards hotels. Furthermore, we noted that collectivism directly influences brand prestige and identification. Conversely, for the older generation, the study did not substantiate the impacts of collectivism on green brand loyalty nor the relationship between brand identification and green brand loyalty.

This study uniquely contributes to the literature by revealing generational differences in the influence of collectivism and brand factors on green brand loyalty within the Indian hotel industry.

本研究探讨了集体主义、品牌声望和品牌认同对印度 Z 世代和老一代旅行者绿色品牌忠诚度的影响。 忠诚的消费者对于酒店的长期成功至关重要。

该研究采用单一横断面设计, 直接在印度三个不同的旅游目的地对总共 277 名 Z 世代和 299 名老一代旅行者进行了调查。 PLS-SEM 方法用于分析数据。

研究结果表明, 在 Z 世代旅行者中, 集体主义、品牌认同和品牌声望等因素在塑造酒店绿色品牌忠诚度方面发挥着重要作用。 此外, 我们注意到集体主义直接影响品牌声誉和认同。 相反, 对于老一代人来说, 该研究没有证实集体主义对绿色品牌忠诚度的影响, 也没有证实品牌认同与绿色品牌忠诚度之间的关系。

这项研究揭示了集体主义和品牌因素对印度酒店业绿色品牌忠诚度影响的代际差异, 对文献做出了独特的贡献。

Este estudio examina la influencia del colectivismo, el prestigio de la marca y la identificación de la marca en la lealtad a la marca ecológica entre la Generación Z y los viajeros de la generación anterior en la India. Los consumidores leales son esenciales para el éxito a largo plazo de los hoteles.

En el estudio se utiliza un diseño transversal único, con un total de 277 viajeros de la Generación Z y 299 de la Generación Mayor fueron encuestados directamente en tres destinos turísticos diferentes en la India. El enfoque PLS-SEM se utiliza para analizar los datos.

Los hallazgos del estudio mostraron que entre los viajeros de la Generación Z, factores como el colectivismo, la identificación de marca y el prestigio de la marca juegan un papel importante en la configuración de la lealtad hacia las marcas ecológicas hacia los hoteles. Además, observamos que el colectivismo influye directamente en el prestigio y la identificación de la marca. Por el contrario, para la generación mayor, el estudio no corroboró los impactos del colectivismo en la lealtad a la marca verde, ni la relación entre la identificación de marca y la lealtad a la marca verde.

Este estudio contribuye de manera única a la literatura al revelar diferencias generacionales en la influencia del colectivismo y los factores de marca en la lealtad a las marcas ecológicas dentro de la industria hotelera india.

Fashion brands are one of the strongest means of expressing consumers identity. This study explores and empirically validates the concepts of brand love and hate for masstige fashion brands from the purview of emerging markets. This study deciphers three components of masstige fashion brand promise through the lens of hedonic identity, uniqueness and expected social gains for the affluent middle-class consumers. The model is complemented by the impact of environmental and society’s well-being.

Empirical evidence was obtained through an online survey in India. Total of 222 complete responses were used to test hypotheses by fitting a model with the partial least squares algorithm.

Fashion brand love is triggered by consumers’ hedonic identity and expected social gains. Brand hate is fuelled by environmental and societal well-being concerns, expected social gains and uniqueness. Theoretical contribution is threefold: First, the relevance of social and environmental consequences reflecting consumers’ accepted responsibility for their masstige consumption is introduced. Second, the study deciphers the emotions related to masstige brand love and brand hate for emerging market’s affluent middle-class. Third, empirical results contribute to the ongoing discussion on whether brand hate and love are two distinct concepts or collapse to be two extremes of one and the same continuum.

Middle-class consumers in India are strict in their avoidance and rejection of the lower classes’ preferred fashion brands. Targeting must consider the social classes hierarchy. Marketing-mix design, particularly prices and distribution networks, need to enable a distinction between the social classes.

Masstige fashion brand love and hate turn out to be two distinct constructs that co-exist rather than being two extremes of one and the same dimension.

Indian middle-class consumers satisfy their need of environmental and social caretaking by avoidance and brand hate but continue to choose masstige brands to demonstrate social status and are not modernizing their traditional accumulative materialism.

Social media has significantly impacted the value creation processes within the consumer–brand relationship. This study aims to examine value formation processes within a cosmetics social media brand community and to establish the types of value formation associated with different categories of interactions within a social media brand community.

The research adopted a netnographic approach and followed the operational protocols of netnography. Conversations in one large cosmetics social media brand community were observed and downloaded for analysis over a two-month period. Examples of value-creation and formation processes were identified using netnographic interpretative procedures to develop higher-order themes.

The findings supported the creation of a “Consumer and brand value creation and co-creation framework” highlighting disparate value types within the following interactions: consumer-to-consumer; brand-to-consumer; and consumer-to-brand. The identified value types were specific to the actors (i.e. consumers and brands) involved in value formation processes. The analysis also revealed consumers’ ability to independently generate value through direct interaction with a social media brand community and the brands’ role in supporting consumers in value formation through value facilitation.

The pivotal role of disparate actors’ interactions in value formation processes is highlighted, alongside the autonomous ability to form value with the aid of resources stored and shared within the social media brand community. The network of interactions and value-creation processes contribute to a holistic understanding of the interactions in a social media brand community. Furthermore, the research explores and highlights the emerging role of social media brand communities as “value vestiges”.

The proliferation of digital communication on social media provides new opportunities for businesses to take advantage of Internet memes to boost customer engagement. Academic literature on digital communications mostly focuses on popular forms such as selfies, branded posts, and branded emoticons. Less attention has been paid to brand memes and their implications for brand management. Based on the cue utilization theory, this research aims to investigate the informational cues of brand memes foster brand partnerships.

The structural equation modeling and importance-performance matrix analysis were used to empirically validate the research hypotheses with 595 respondents to an online survey.

Three informational cues of brand memes (i.e. comprehensibility, novelty, and meme-brand congruity) stimulated consumers' attitudes, which in turn impacted consumer-brand relationships. Another brand meme informational cue, sarcasm, negatively moderated the relationships between the three informational cues and consumer-brand relationships.

Our findings indicate that a brand can engage consumers in conversations on social media and foster long-term consumer-brand relationships through brand memes.

This study aims to fill various gaps detected in the literature on mass prestige (hereafter referred to as masstige) theory. The originality of the work stems from the multidimensional application of Paul’s (2015) model, the introduction of brand addiction as a construct from the consumer-brand relationship (CBR) theory within the context of wines and the exploration of a new and less studied sector in masstige strategies.

A structured questionnaire was distributed to collect data from masstige wine brand buyers in Portugal, of whom 166 completed the questionnaire correctly. A conceptual model was developed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings include that only two dimensions of Paul’s (2015) masstige scale affect brand addiction: brand knowledge and excitement and status. Brand addiction has a positive effect on brand loyalty and electronic word of mouth (eWOM), and brand loyalty has a positive impact on eWOM. Theoretical and managerial implications were explored.

This research added a CBR perspective to masstige theory and applied masstige theory to wine brands for the first time. These three distinctive aspects collectively contribute to the novelty and significance of the research, opening up exciting possibilities for future investigations and providing a valuable contribution to the academic community and the wine industry alike.

The study explores different types of anti-luxurians on social media (SM), the characteristics of luxury brands, tendencies to disengage and the opposition to them to propose future directions for luxury marketing in the post-pandemic world.

A qualitative approach was employed, wherein 979 posts from SM platforms were analyzed with the text analytics software package KH Coder through word-frequency analysis and an inductive technique.

The analysis identified the presence of eight types of online anti-luxurians: true luxurians, nature-experienced lovers, life simplifiers, anti-haulers, highly expected consumers, natural environment protectors, antidiscrimination consumers and historic-politic antagonists. Their degree of disengagement and opposition were discussed and graphically mapped.

This is the first study to discover various types of anti-luxurians on SM platforms and graphically map their level of disengagement and opposition toward luxury brands. This study fills an existing critical gap in the luxury marketing literature.

The study's primary purpose is to establish the direct and indirect roles of word-of-mouth communication (WOM) in initiating and maintaining consumer loyalty in the bottom of pyramid (BOP) markets in the Indian context. In addition, the study seeks to evaluate the conditions (viz. extent of media usage, brand distribution intensity and brand social connections) under which WOM leads to the initiation and maintenance of consumer brand loyalty.

The study hypotheses were formulated following the social identity theory. Later, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 898 rural BOP consumers. Structural equation modelling technique was applied to test the study hypotheses.

Results suggested a positive effect of WOM on brand credibility and self-brand connections-indicative of the initiation of strong cognitive and affective relationships respectively. Brand credibility and self-brand connections also mediated the paths between WOM and brand loyalty-indicative of the maintenance and continuation of strong affect-laden relationships. These indirect relationships were moderated by the extent of media usage, brand distribution intensity and brand social connections.

This is among the first studies that holistically evaluate the role of WOM in developing customer loyalty to rural BOP consumers against the backdrop of the systemic deficiencies in these markets.