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Recent studies have indicated that consumers who knowingly purchase counterfeits could be in love with the brands whose counterfeits they own. Arguably, this love may not be the same as the love felt by individuals who purchase the original brand. Research in this field has not studied how these two love types differ in its genesis and consequences. Therefore, the paper aims to discuss this issue and intends to fill this gap.

This study performed a multi-group analysis using (PLS-SEM) between two groups of customers (real-buyers and fake-buyers) to elucidate the factors that separate fake-love from real-love. This study adopted a combination of convenience sampling and field visits to identify 500 individuals who were classified as either real-buyers or fake-buyers.

The relationship between social-self and brand love is significantly stronger for fake-buyers as compared to real-buyers. However, the relationship between inner-self and brand love is significantly stronger in the case of real-buyers as compared to fake-buyers. Real-buyers tend to be more brand resilient than fake-buyers as their love emanates primarily from the inner-self. Additionally, fake-buyers indulge in +WOM more than real-buyers as their brand love emanates from the social-self.

This is the first study to explore the concept of brand love among consumers who purchase counterfeits in spite of being able to afford the original brands. This is also the first study that is focused on identifying the antecedents and outcomes that separate real-love from fake-love.

This paper aims to test a theory-driven model reflecting the effects of perceived personalization on consumer–brand relationships on social media.

The conceptual model is empirically tested through two studies using partial least squares-structural equation modeling. Other techniques, such as common method bias, multigroup comparison, mediation analysis and model fit comparison, are also used to give more insights into the analytical process.

Data from two studies show that perceived personalization is positively related to brand-related outcomes including brand self-expressiveness, consumer–brand engagement and brand connection. While consumer–brand engagement and brand connection are positively related to brand love, brand self-expressiveness is not.

The paper contributes to the advertising and brand management literature by shedding light on a better understanding of the impact of personalization in the digital world.

Management could learn important lessons from personalization. If a strategy of promoting personalized ads is implemented successfully, those ads could change customer perceptions of brands which ultimately strengthens brand love.

This research provides an empirical model that helps marketers better understand the factors affecting brand love with personalized ads on social media.

This study aims to test and extend Carroll and Ahuvia’s (2006) model on the antecedents and outcomes of brand love by examining the moderating effects of experience and price on the relationship between brand love and offline word of mouth (WOM) and between brand love and electronic WOM (eWOM).

An online survey was conducted on Facebook, which generated 342 valid responses. The data were analyzed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling.

The results mainly support the model by confirming that the self-expressiveness of the brand and trust are positively associated with brand love. No association between hedonic product type and brand love was found. The study’s findings also suggest positive associations between brand love and both types of WOM. Experience and price were found to strengthen the relationship between brand love and offline WOM but not the relationship between brand love and eWOM.

This study contributes to the literature by introducing and testing an extended model of brand love. It tests two moderating effects on the relationship between brand love and WOM.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of brand love in place brand communication by incorporating potential antecedents and behavioral outcomes of place brand love in a social media setting.

Data were gathered from 281 residents and visitors of a place through an online survey focusing on a place brand video. Structural equation modeling was employed to examine the research model.

Results show that place brand love has a strong direct relationship with positive word of mouth (WOM), and an indirect effect on intention to share the place brand message. Self-expressiveness of the place brand message also seems to influence place brand love as well as intention to share the message.

The role of self-related concepts and brand love to a place has theoretical implications for research in place branding and electronic word of mouth. The study has limitations to its generalizability in terms of cultural aspects and sample representativeness.

Place marketers need to successfully reflect the self-concept of key stakeholders in communication messages in order to increase the probability that recipients will engage in positive WOM and share the message.

Research on place brand love is scarce and previous studies have focused solely on brand love in connection to tourists. The main contribution of the current study is the exploration of the role of brand love in connection to residents, who are vital co-creators of the place brand.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on online sales configurators (SCs), also known as mass-customization toolkits, which enable consumers to self-customize their product solutions online. The paper aims to provide new insights into which characteristics of an online SC increase the consumer-perceived benefits of possessing a mass-customized product.

Previous studies on mass customization (MC), sales configuration, and learning psychology are used to develop the research hypotheses, which are tested by analyzing data from 675 configuration experiences from a convenience sample of potential consumers using 31 real online SCs for laptops/notebooks, economy cars, and sport shoes/sneakers.

The paper finds support for the hypotheses that SCs with higher flexible-navigation, focused-navigation, and easy-comparison capabilities enhance not only the traditionally considered utilitarian benefit (UT), but also the consumer-perceived uniqueness benefit (UN) and self-expressiveness (SE) benefit (SE). Furthermore, consistent with the study’s hypotheses, SCs with higher benefit-cost communication and user-friendly product-space description capabilities are found to improve UT. The hypotheses that these two capabilities enhance UN and SE, however, are not supported. Post-hoc analyses suggest that the examined SCs are generally UT-centered and need improvement of their ability to communicate the UN and the SE a consumer could derive from the purchase of his/her configured product.

While prior research has primarily been concerned with conceptually arguing and empirically showing that uniqueness and self-expressiveness are two additional sources of consumer value in business-to-consumer MC, this is the first empirical study that offers insights into which characteristics online SCs should have in order to draw from these two value sources.

Tremendous growth and worldwide expansion of Islamic banking industry has gained widespread attention of economist, bankers, investors and financial experts regardless of economic and political volatility in global banking industry. To compete with conventional banking, Islamic banks are setting up themselves with innovative technologies to gain competitive edge and market share. The establishment of mobile banking has been proven a technological wonder by eliminating time and space boundaries, and one can access financial services anywhere and at any time. For effective market segmentation, recognizing gender differences in factors affecting the adoption patterns of m-banking may provide competitive edge. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate how gender differences impact the intention to adopt Islamic mobile banking in Pakistan.

The study uses extended technology acceptance model (TAM) on final 243 participants from Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) methodology has been applied for data analysis using SPSS 21 and AMOS 21.

Results have identified two interesting and different models for males and females in intention to adopt Islamic mobile banking. It is inferred that males are more task driven and desire for personality, value and status, so their intention is significantly impacted by perceived usefulness and perceived self-expressiveness. Whereas, females have found lack of IT knowledge and trust; therefore, their intention is significantly impacted by perceived credibility. However, the perceived financial cost was found of no concern for both males and females and social norms influenced the adoption, but there existed no significant gender differences.

The contribution of this study to existing literature is twofold. First, the existing research on mobile banking has mainly applied TAM on conventional banking overlooking the important ethnic group, the Muslims, who prefer Islamic banking. Second, the impact of gender differences is investigated in factors affecting intention to adopt Islamic mobile banking that has not been studied previously. The study fills the gap.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the antecedents and consequences of loyalty to consumer networks hosted by companies in the scope of social networking sites (SNS). These company social networks (CSNs) have traditionally been studied as online brand communities but more research is needed to understand their role for host companies.

This study identifies CSN performance dimensions (host reputation, informativeness, communication self-expressiveness, rewarding activity and consumption support) and analyzes how they influence attitudes and behavioral intentions toward CSNs (identification with the community, satisfaction and loyalty) and toward the host company (satisfaction and loyalty). A conceptual model is tested through a survey administered to members of a large grocery retailer CSN on Facebook.

Results show that all six identified performance dimensions significantly impact CSN loyalty. However, while self-expressiveness, communication and rewarding activity (which are closely related to social and hedonic value) are predictors of loyalty to the CSN, through the mediation of identification with the community, they neither indirectly (through the mediation of identification) nor directly impact satisfaction with the host. Conversely, informativeness, communication and host reputation are good predictors of loyalty to the CSN, through mediation of satisfaction with the CSN, and also exert an indirect positive influence on satisfaction with the host. Finally, consumption support positively influences loyalty to the CSN through the mediation of identification with the community and directly positively influences satisfaction with the host company.

These results reveal the dichotomous nature of CSNs, as communities of people with shared interests and supplementary services created by companies to add value to their core offering. While perceptions regarding the community facet are independent from attitude toward the host, perceptions regarding supplementary service are significant predictors of satisfaction with the host. These results offer implications for future research and management of companies’ social media presence.

This paper aims to empirically test the influence of brand characteristics on brand addiction, as well as the consumers’ behaviors caused by this construct.

The paper adopts a Web-based self-completion survey by achieving a total of 529 completed surveys. Then, structural equation modeling has been employed by using SPSS AMOS.

Results highlighted how the brand characteristics of self-expressiveness, innovativeness and authenticity have a positive influence on brand addiction; brand addiction leads consumers to feel emotions of irritability and to adopt obsessive and compulsive behaviors toward the brand.

Even if the choice of using a survey’s sample composed of students attending an Italian University ensures good internal validity of research (owing to the homogeneous character), the results are not generalizable (except for this population group).

The study identified two different spheres of brand addiction (one connected to the brand’s characteristics and the other to the consumers’ psychological-behavioral outcomes), along with possible strategies firms could adopt to strengthen the possibilities to transform their customers into addicted ones and to avoid/reduce the negative consequences deriving from brand addiction.

The paper provides a response to the call for more studies into the brand addiction analysis by empirically testing possible antecedents and outcomes, thus enriching the existing quantitative research focused on this concept.

The purpose of the present paper is to develop and validate a scale of romantic brand jealousy and to examine the role played by the brand love-jealousy framework on consumers' active engagement.

In order to develop and validate the romantic brand jealousy scale the present study has employed Churchill's methodology. The study has used common factor analysis and structural equation modeling using LISREL 8.72.

This research provides empirical evidence for a three-item romantic brand jealousy scale. The study results indicate that the romantic jealousy scale developed is valid and reliable. It also shows that in contrast to previous literature, wherein authors found that brand love would create customer engagement, the brand love-jealousy framework would act as a better mediator to create customer engagement and also to motivate the customer to purchase the brand.

This research was conducted in a specific country (India). It would be more robust if the scale developed by this study could be examined in the context of other countries.

This study is expected to help managers to formulate a better marketing strategy to increase customer engagement using the proposed brand love-jealousy framework.

This research adds value to the domain of consumer psychology research by proposing that brand jealousy needs to be created along with brand love in customer's mind to augment the level of active engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine advertising strategies’ (functional vs emotional) influence on consumers’ evaluation and adoption of smartwatches by drawing on the elaboration likelihood model and the schema incongruity theory. Moderating effects of consumer characteristics (personal innovativeness and extraversion) on the value assessment and attitude relationship are also tested.

The model was assessed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling with a sample of 999 non-smartwatch users.

Results show that functional ads elicit higher levels of hedonic than functional (usefulness) and ergonomic values (ease of use), whereas emotional ads produce higher levels of functional (usefulness) in comparison to hedonic value (enjoyment). Collectively, functional, ergonomic, hedonic and symbolic values shape consumers’ attitude and their subsequent behavior. In addition, findings demonstrate that extraversion positively moderates the symbolic value–attitude relationship, whereas personal innovativeness negatively moderates the functional value–attitude relationship.

Smartwatch sales have floundered despite substantial investments in ad campaigns. This study provides novel insights into managing non-users’ value perceptions of smartwatches with the optimal use of ad strategies. Furthermore, it is also one of the first studies to validate the moderating role of extraversion on the symbolic value–attitude link, thus contributing to the emerging literature on wearable technology.