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The purpose of this paper is to present the contemporary thinking on deliberate lookalikes and to provide a better understanding of its key forms (counterfeits, copycats and no-name imitations) and markets (deceptive and non-deceptive).

This editorial contains a review of current and past literature on deliberate lookalikes along with summaries of all the articles accepted for publication in the special issue on deliberate lookalikes. The guest editors used academic databases such as Web of Science to find the most representative scholarly work on deliberate lookalikes literature.

This editorial identifies pertinent research gaps in the literature on deliberate lookalikes. The five selected articles address some of these research gaps and provide useful insights on the purchase and usage of deliberate lookalikes along with directions for future research and ways to apply different research methods that could have important implications for scholars and managers.

The editorial and special issue extends the knowledge about the deliberate lookalikes and their effects on firms, brands and consumers. This work opens new avenues for the research about different forms and markets in the context of lookalikes.

The purpose of this paper is to address how marketing assets and resources of the firm perform under different product (brand) innovation conditions using the dynamic marketing capabilities (DMC) research perspective. The study contributes to the DMC research stream showing the effects and performance of heterogeneous firm drivers and resources. Academic research to date has paid a little attention to the interrelationship between market share as a performance metric, dynamic capabilities and product (brand) innovation. The current study bridges this knowledge gap by empirically validating the effects of DMC on market share performance output using panel data for 753 retail food brands.

The model was initially fitted with the β regression analysis and cluster analysis in the second step of the estimation procedure. The results of simulation by Monte Carlo experimentation are discussed.

The findings show that firms leverage their marketing capabilities unequally in the multi-brand portfolios, which leads to an unequal intra-firm distribution of assets and resources. The research contributes to the understanding of the brand competitive dynamics and appropriate deployment of assets and resources for improved firm performance.

These findings are useful for both academics and practitioners because they address new and future research. In doing so, the authors advance the firm performance and branding literature with extension in the DMC literature.

This study aims to investigate whether users’ engagement with a social media platform is affected as they engage in non-sponsored brand-related user-generated content (UGC). The concept of non-sponsored brand-related UGC encapsulates various social media patterns in which individuals choose how to consume, contribute or create brand-related content with no formal brand incentive or control.

The study focuses on the question of how users engage with non-sponsored brand-related UGC on Instagram and assesses the influence of UGC perceived value, using partial least squares variance-based structural equation modeling.

The research shows significant and positive effects of UGC on Instagram users’ intentions to engage with the platform and the influence of UGC perceived value on UGC uses. The findings deepen the understanding of the mechanisms underlying non-sponsored brand-related UGC in consumer engagement marketing, with significant implications for brand managers and the future development of Instagram and other social media platforms.

The UGC functional, social and emotional values are evaluated for their effects on generating the three distinct patterns of consumer online brand-related activities (consumer, contribute and create) in the non-sponsored brand-related UGC context.

This paper explores the moderating effects of four personal cultural orientations or PCOs (independence, interdependence, risk aversion and ambiguity intolerance) on the relationships among counterfeit proneness, subjective norms, ethical judgments, product evaluation and purchase intentions for counterfeit products.

A field study with 840 consumers in Hong Kong using a self-administered structured questionnaire is used to test all the hypotheses.

Consumers with high (low) scores on interdependence (independence) show stronger positive effects of counterfeit proneness on subjective norms and its effects on the counterfeit evaluation and purchase intentions. In contrast, consumers with high (low) scores on independence (interdependence) show stronger positive effects of counterfeit proneness on ethical judgments and its effects on counterfeit evaluation and purchase intentions. Consumers with higher scores on risk aversion and ambiguity intolerance show negative moderating effects on most of the relationships in the unified conceptual framework.

The authors collected data in Hong Kong, which is predominantly Chinese in culture. Hence, future research in other parts of the world with more diverse cultural values would help test the validity and generalizability of the results.

The findings would be useful for managers of genuine brands to learn more about the process that explains deliberate counterfeit purchase behavior.

The authors extend the unified conceptual framework for deliberate counterfeit purchase behavior by incorporating four PCOs to explore cultural differences in the socio-psychological decision-making process underlying this behavior.

The author aims to present a model of the brand value drivers, measured by brand equity. The goal of this research is to identify the drivers, and determine how they influence brand equity performance in the researched industry, in order to develop a more effective brand strategy.

The author studied an aggregate dataset for 739 food brands. Six predictors were controlled for (i.e. marketing investments, price, revenue, perceived quality [organic and functional] and brand ownership), while the impact of the brand equity drivers on brand value was estimated. The model was formulated and estimated using a robust OLS procedure. Several data sources have were in this study, such as market-based data from ACNielsen, as well as information and variable constructs using data from the Bureau Van Dijk Electronic Publishing AIDA financial statements database.

Results suggest that marketing investment, price, revenue, brand ownership and perceived quality are highly associated with brand equity, and consequently with a higher brand value in the food industry.

This study has only studied one industry (food), one industry segment (enriched-food) and one country (Italy).

The majority of marketing studies apply a single research approach and measures. This is the first study of brand equity that combines consumer, financial and marketing approaches. The model contributes to theory and practice in terms of suggesting which business drivers create brand value and what type of brand strategy a firm can apply in order to create brand value.

This paper aims to look into contemporary thinking within the brand equity paradigm, with a view to establishing avenues for further research on the drivers of brand equity formation, enabling a more in-depth understanding of the antecedents of brand equity and its determinants, as well as the development of an improved instrument to measure brand equity. The brand equity paradigm and its importance for marketing theory have been in the research focus for more than two decades. There is no agreement in the literature how to develop a unique measure of brand equity, neither what are the sources, drivers or determinants.

The authors develop the relating conceptual study through the differentiation and integration as specific conceptual goals. The authors present a taxonomic framework of brand equity grounded on a synthesis of contemporary approaches to the theme.

The authors identify gaps in the brand equity literature. The analysis and development of the conceptual study in this paper shall serve as beacons for future research and provide valuable theoretical insights on the determinants of brand equity formation and the development of better brand equity measurement tools.

The authors synthesized contemporary approaches in the field, identified research gaps and proposed open questions that should be tackled, as well as provided avenues for future research. The authors argue that creation of a unifying brand equity theory should be based on three pillars: stakeholder value, marketing assets and brand financial performance outputs.

This paper aims to show the effect of brand equity, marketing investment and product differentiation on price in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), multinational companies (MNCs) and retailers (private labels). Academics have been researching brand equity, return on investment and effects of product differentiation for many years, but there has been little work that has taken a holistic view.

The author studied an aggregate data set for 735 fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands, taken from Nielsen (10,282 households). Regression analysis was used in the first step, a cluster analysis in the second step of modeling procedure.

The study suggests that brand equity, marketing investment and product differentiation are closely associated with price. Using a cluster analysis, the authors found that the premium price is significantly associated with product differentiation based on innovation and company type.

The managerial implications of the models estimated by regression analysis are discussed as well as the results of the cluster analysis and possible research enhancements.

The role of the value in brand performance output has not been investigated in the financial context, only in consumer or marketing mix context. Little is known about how price strategy depends on brand equity, product innovation activities or marketing investments intended to improve brand performance, neither how this strategy improves brand performance among different players in the market (retailers, SMEs and MNCs).

The research practice in management research is dominantly based on structural equation modeling (SEM), but almost exclusively, and often misguidedly, on covariance-based SEM. The purpose of this paper is to question the current research myopia in management research, because the paper adumbrates theoretical foundations and guidance for the two SEM streams: covariance-based and variance-based SEM; and improves the conceptual knowledge by comparing the most important procedures and elements in the SEM study, using different theoretical criteria.

The study thoroughly analyzes, reviews and presents two streams using common methodological background. The conceptual framework discusses the two streams by analysis of theory, measurement model specification, sample and goodness-of-fit.

The paper identifies and discusses the use and misuse of covariance-based and variance-based SEM utilizing common topics such as: first, theory (theory background, relation to theory and research orientation); second, measurement model specification (type of latent construct, type of study, reliability measures, etc.); third, sample (sample size and data distribution assumption); and fourth, goodness-of-fit (measurement of the model fit and residual co/variance).

The paper questions the usefulness of Cronbach's α research paradigm and discusses alternatives that are well established in social science, but not well known in the management research community. The author presents short research illustration in which analyzes the four recently published papers using common methodological background. The paper concludes with discussion of some open questions in management research practice that remain under-investigated and unutilized.