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The aim of this paper is to measure the empirical relationship between self‐congruity and game usage and purchase. This is important because it highlights that games affect self concept and the symbolic value that can be obtained from the game. It is aimed to implement this study across four game types.

A total of 493 consumers were surveyed and confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling conducted across four game groups to model this same relationship.

It was found that self‐congruity was positively related to game usage and purchase.

Game development for consumers online, on wireless devices and on consoles should place greater emphasis on the practical implications of self‐congruity. Games impact self concept through self‐congruity. So, it is important that marketers understand the potential harm and positive impact of games on the consumers' cognition.

This is the first paper to explore and model self‐congruity and game purchase and usage behaviour. This paper is further unique because it provides results across four games groups: all games representing, followed by the alternative models, Sports/Simulation/Driving, Role‐playing Game (RPG)/Massively Multiplayer Online Role‐playing Game (MMORPG)/Strategy, and Action/Adventure/Fighting,

Downward line extension is a valuable growth strategy that enables multiple products and services to meet diverse customer needs. However, downward extended products launched by high-status brands may be challenged by horizontal extended products launched by relatively low-status brands when these two types of products target similar consumers. This study aims to examine the impact of product type (horizontal extended versus downward extended) on consumers’ purchase intentions, the underlying mechanism and the moderating role of power distance belief.

Four scenario-based experiments were conducted to probe the research questions.

Consumers develop lower purchase intentions for downward (versus horizontal) extended products due to the reduction of perceived fit and self-congruity (Study 1). Beyond that, power distance belief moderates the impact of product type on consumers’ purchase intentions, as a low power distance belief reduces the negative effect of downward line extension (Studies 2a, 2b and 2c). Perceived fit and self-congruity mediate the interaction effect between product type and power distance belief on consumers’ purchase intentions (Study 2c).

This study provides marketing practitioners with guidance on implementing the strategy of downward line extension.

This study serves as a preliminary effort to compare consumers’ responses between downward and horizontal extended products, which deepens the understanding of downward line extension. It also contributes to the body of knowledge about line extension and power distance belief by demonstrating the moderating role of power distance belief in a line extension context.

Purpose of this study was to understand intention of tourists to visit a destination by exploring factors related to destination image and self-congruity of tourists with destination image. A quantitative survey-based methodology was employed for gathering data. Study used a convenience sample of 225 students and faculty members from a leading university in India. Regression analysis was carried out for testing the main effect and moderation impact. The results revealed that cognitive destination image and self-congruity had a direct impact on destination image. However, the results did not establish a moderating effect of self-congruity on relationship between destination image and return intention. The study findings have direct implication for destination marketing managers for drafting a positioning strategy for their destinations.

From a relational maintenance perspective, this study explores the impact of being envied (benignly vs maliciously) on consumers' feelings of social anxiety and its influence on their tendencies toward inconspicuous consumption, based on the resource conservation theory and the model of “Sensitivity about Being the Target of a Threatening Upward Comparison.” (STTUC)

Four studies were conducted in this paper. Studies 1a and 1b tested the main hypothesis that being maliciously envied (vs benignly) can increase consumers' inconspicuous consumption of luxury products and luxury hotel experiences. Study 2 replicated this finding and examined the mediating role of social anxiety. Study 3 investigated the moderating effect of ideal self-congruity (low vs high).

The findings reveal that being maliciously envied (vs benignly) is associated with higher levels of inconspicuous consumption and social anxiety acts as a mediating role. Moreover, when individuals have a strong sense of ideal self-congruity, the positive impact of being maliciously envied (vs benignly) on inconspicuous consumption is further amplified, confirming the moderating role of ideal self-congruity.

This study sheds light on a novel mechanism that elucidates how different types of being envied influence consumers' inconspicuous consumption and the conditions under which this impact is heightened.

Researchers have paid little attention to elucidating how customer-perceived innovative apparel attributes are linked to brand reputation and consumer buying behaviors. This study intends to bridge that gap by providing empirical evidence on the effects of product novelty, product difference and product inimitability on brand reputation and behavioral intentions in the context of garment purchasing. We also investigate the moderating effects of self-congruity and value consciousness on the attribute‒brand reputation linkages, as well as their immediate influence on the domain variables.

The proposed model was estimated using data from a web-based survey of 299 female apparel customers. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the relationships between variables.

The results indicate that product novelty, product inimitability, self-congruity and value consciousness significantly influence brand reputation. The results also demonstrate that self-congruity, value consciousness and brand reputation have direct effects on behavioral intention, while self-congruity and value consciousness appear to moderate the relationship between innovative product attributes and brand reputation.

This study is the first to present a conceptual model that systematically encompasses product innovation, brand perceptions and behavioral links in the field of women's clothing. The findings have important implications for both academics and practitioners in the field of fashion marketing.

This study aims to propose and test a research model outlining the chain effects of social media marketing activities (SMMA) on brand equity, encompassing the potential mediators of self-congruity, consumer empowerment and brand experience.

An online survey was conducted, and 241 valid responses were acquired. The data was submitted to Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), complemented by the artificial neural network (ANN) analysis.

The results revealed that SMMA can foster the development of self-congruity and consumer empowerment. These two psychological responses represent the key drivers to reinforce the positive brand experience and ultimately lead to brand equity. The sequential mediating effect was confirmed. The ANN analysis offered further insights into the ranking of variable importance.

The present study presents a breakthrough by taking into account the roles of self-congruity, consumer empowerment, brand experience simultaneously and assesses their sequential mediating roles in the linkage between SMMA and brand equity.

This study aims to investigate Chinese young consumers’ brand loyalty toward sportswear products from a self-congruity perspective. With different performance observed between global and domestic sportswear brands in the Chinese market, this study also aims to examine the impact of country of origin on Chinese young consumers’ behavior toward sportswear brands.

A survey with street intercept method was conducted in Shanghai to collect data for this study. Multiple independent t-tests and structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrap method were used to test the hypotheses.

The SEM results indicate a significant influence of brand self-congruity on consumers’ brand association and perceived quality, which, in turn, influenced consumers’ brand loyalty. The multiple t-test results suggest a significant difference between Chinese and global sportswear brands in terms of consumers’ brand association and attitudinal brand loyalty. No significant difference was found in terms of consumers’ behavioral brand loyalty.

The main limitation of this study comes from the convenience student sample.

First, brands need to strategically design the brand image to represent the largest segment of the target market. Second, while global brands could focus on their pricing strategies, domestic brands need to focus more on maintaining a positive brand association in consumers’ mind.

This study contributes to the growing research on the self-congruity perspective of brand loyalty by empirically confirming the indirect effect of brand self-congruity on brand loyalty via the mediation effects of brand association and perceived quality in the context of the ever-growing Chinese sportswear market.

The purpose of this paper is to treat bloggers as human brands and applies self-congruity theory to explore how actual and ideal blogger-reader self-congruity, combined with the blog’s functional congruity, influences blogger-reader relationship quality (BRRQ) and the blogger’s informational influence, taking perceived interactivity among blog members as a moderator.

Using a survey of 372 female beauty blog readers, this study employs the structural equation modelling approach to investigate the proposed model.

The empirical findings indicate that readers’ perceived self-congruity with beauty bloggers raises the bloggers’ informational influence, mediated by BRRQ and functional congruity. Actual self-congruity has greater predictive power than ideal self-congruity in explaining bloggers’ informational influence. Moreover, perceived interactivity plays a two-sided role because it strengthens the positive impact of BRRQ on informational influence but weakens the positive impact of functional congruity on informational influence.

The findings should help marketers identify influential beauty bloggers through their presented image on their blogs to encourage readers’ acceptance of their opinions about products and services. However, when focusing on beauty blogs featuring high-perceived interactivity among blog members, marketers should carefully balance the facilitating and offsetting effect of perceived interactivity and identify bloggers equipped with superior BRRQ.

Using human brand and parasocial interaction perspectives, this study contributes to emerging research on human brands and blog marketing and demonstrates that perceived interactivity is a double-edged sword in stimulating a blogger’s informational influence.

This paper aims to propose and test a conceptual model of theme park experiences by investigating the relationships among brand experience, self-congruity, flow and brand-related outcomes.

Data were collected from guests who had visited a theme park in the past 12 months. Confirmatory factor analysis, consisting of second-order factor analysis and structural equation modeling with the incorporation of alternative model testing, was employed.

The findings revealed that theme park customers’ internalization of brand experience influenced their attitudinal and behavioral tendency with regard to the brand through self-congruity and flow.

This study provides strategies for theme park designers and marketers under pressure to create a desired experiential setting that motivates visitors to engage in activities through various brand stimuli. Well-designed theme parks can create an optimal state of focus and attention, immersing visitors to the extent that they lose their sense of time and place, affecting their attitude and behavior toward the theme park brand.

Theme parks provide a highly experiential, immersive and personally relevant experience with brand elements. Very few studies have attempted to investigate the consequences of theme park experience from the theoretical perspective of customers’ connection with the brand. This study proposed and validated a conceptual model to capture how theme park experience influenced visitors’ commitment to and active engagement with theme park brands through the mechanisms of self-congruity and flow.

This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework to bridge the gap between the dimensions of brand equity (brand awareness, brand association and perceived quality) and the purchase intention of transnational higher education.

The paper revisits and critically reviews the concepts of marketing in higher education, brand equity, and self-congruity as well as related past studies.

Several past empirical studies concluded that the dimensions of brand equity have been unable to significantly influence purchase intention. The review and synthesis of the literature have supported the feasibility of self-congruity to mediate the relationship, thus closing the gap. This study has been able to extend the self-congruity concept into external and internal self-congruity to fit the context of this study which is transnational higher education choice.

Focusing on a developing market of Indonesia, it is anticipated that the proposed model will assist the future research in branding of transnational higher education. It was hypothesized that educational brands that are congruent with prospective students' self-image both externally (from the perception by the reference group) and internally (from the perception by themselves) will be more likely to yield positive purchase intention. As a result, this study adds to the current body of knowledge in the field of transnational higher education choice which was found to be lacking.