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This paper aims to explore the impact of brand authenticity on forming self-reinforcing assets (enticing-the-self, enriching-the-self and enabling-the-self), which subsequently influence the brand-self connectedness and consumers’ behavioral intentions.

The authors surveyed 347 consumers in the USA and Brazil and used structural equation modeling to test the relationship among brand authenticity, self-reinforcing assets, brand-self connectedness and behavioral intentions.

Brand authenticity was found to influence the self-reinforcing assets. In turn, the self-reinforcing assets promoted closeness toward the brand, thereby increasing the behavioral intentions of consumers to buy a product, visit a store/website in the future and recommend the brand to other people.

Marketing practitioners can use these results to promote better brand positioning by considering brand authenticity as a key factor in how consumers cognitively assess brands.

This paper shows that brand authenticity is a key antecedent of consumer–brand self-reinforcing assets.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the “automaker‐supplier” relationships that exist in a supply chain of the Brazilian automotive sector, based on assumptions and variables of transaction cost economics (TCE).

The paper explored case studies carried out at an automotive engine manufacturer and six of its suppliers, applying semistructured interviews.

The findings indicate that automakers seek to utilize a form of hybrid relationship with their suppliers, which sometimes resembles competition and at other times cooperation; asset specificity tends to be greater in the first‐tier of the supply chain; and asset specificity seems to be mediated by aspects such as the amount of production destined to the manufacturer, the objective of maximizing return on previous investments, and the configuration of higher value‐added supply operations.

The results corroborate that close, long‐lasting, and trustful relationships tend to reduce transaction costs and improve performance, but in some cases, “latent competition” may also lead to reduced costs; managers should not undervalue the self‐reinforcing effects of asset specificity in a context of shared investments; and business strategy should guide every decision made inside supply chains in order to align supply and operations priorities.

Considering the deep restructuring process that Brazilian automotive industry has experienced, this paper brings its contribution in using TCE tools to analyze relationships inside an engine‐producing supply chain, dealing with the links between TCE and supply chain management.

This paper aims to outline the role of brands as relationship builders and to offer a better understanding of the recent developments and key literature in the area of consumer–brand relationships.

This paper is an editorial based mainly on a literature review on consumer–brand relationships. It uses the sentiment range and passion intensity to position various brand relationship constructs. This work follows the same bibliometric-analysis approach used by Fetscherin and Heinrich (2014) and looked for publications in the Web of Science on brand relationships, with reference to Fournier’s (1998) seminal work and data collected for the period between January 2010 and November 2018.

First, this work presents the key consumer–brand relationship terms and positions the work on brand love, brand like, brand hate, brand dislike and brand indifference. In addition, the bibliometric analysis offers a number of insights into the current state of the academic research in the area of consumer–brand relationships, including a clear indication that the research on consumer–brand relationships is increasing.

This work and the whole special issue together help in the understanding of brands as relationship builders, clearly explaining the continuum from strong positive or negative relationships with brands to no relationship with brands and the current state of research in the area.

This study reviews existing cryptocurrency research to provide answers to three puzzles in the literature. First, is cryptocurrency more like gold (i.e., a commodity) or should it be classified as a new financial asset? Second, can we apply our knowledge of the traditional capital market to the emerging cryptocurrency market? Third, what might be the future of cryptocurrency?

Bibliometric analysis is used to assess 2,098 finance-related cryptocurrency publications from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database from January 2009 to April 2022. Three key research streams are identified, namely, (1) cryptocurrency features, (2) behaviour of the cryptocurrency market and (3) blockchain implications.

First, cryptocurrency should be viewed and regulated as a new asset class rather than a currency or a new commodity. While it can provide diversification benefits to the portfolio, cryptocurrency cannot work as a safe haven asset. Second, crypto markets are typically inefficient. Asset bubbles exist and are exacerbated by behavioural finance factors. Third, cryptocurrency demonstrates increasing potential as a medium of exchange and store of value.

Extant review papers primarily study one or two particular research topics, overlooking the interaction between topics. The few existing systematic literature reviews in this area typically have a narrow focus on trend identification. This study is the first study to provide a comprehensive review of all financial-related studies on cryptocurrency, synthesising the research findings from 2,098 publications to answer three cryptocurrency puzzles.

Although consumers’ tendency to support domestic companies by buying local products is growing, few studies discuss the corporate branding for domestic brands. This study aims to help domestic brands develop corporate branding strategies by examining the effects of corporate image of domestic brands on customers’ purchase intentions.

This study investigates various aspects of corporate image, including product quality, corporate ability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and local-customer-first (a measure that is identified in this study). It conducts a survey (N = 283) and tests eight hypotheses with bivariate regression analyses with SPSS, Hayes’ PROCESS macro and structural equation modelling with AMOS to identify significant relationships.

The results show that all aspects of corporate image have significant positive effects on customers’ purchase intentions towards domestic brands. However, the effect of CSR image on purchase intention is fully mediated by the corporate ability and product quality images, whereas consumer ethnocentrism moderates the corporate ability and local-customer-first images.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the effect of corporate image on customers’ domestic brand purchase intentions in emerging economies when the product quality image in the country is low. This study also identifies a new factor, local-customer-first, and its positive effect on purchase intention. It is recommended that domestic brands strengthen their CSR, corporate ability and local-customer-first images to gain local customers’ support. Furthermore, it is found that corporate ability and local-customer-first are more highly valued by ethnocentric consumers. These findings can help domestic brands develop corporate branding strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to explicate why and how modularization of business models can lead to path dependence or strategic flexibility, thus either inhibiting or favoring business model innovation.

Conceptual paper that depicts a model based on the extant literature. The derived implications for business model innovation are illustrated by several examples.

Modularity can be used as cognitive frame to explore issues of dynamics, evolution and transformation of business models. Thereby, the paper reveals drivers as well as barriers to business model innovation which sensitizes managers that modularity as a design principle is a two-edged sword: managers cannot simply rely on what they know about the benefits of modularity because this might lead to path dependence in the future.

The authors suggest that middle managers might best focus on managing modules and their direct relations. Senior management should put more emphasis on encouraging extra-modular thinking.

By outlining the concept of business model modularity, the authors add to the scarce literature that addresses modularity beyond the fields of products, production and organization design. The discussion also advances to the literature on drivers as well as barriers to managing business model innovation. While most of the extant literature has portrayed modularity as a means to increase flexibility, only a few studies have revealed the downside of modularity and explained how it gives rise to path dependence. In this respect, the authors highlight the relation between managerial action, self-reinforcing mechanisms and characteristics of the environment. Finally, the paper’s findings provide a lens to consider contradictory strategies simultaneously which is crucial for managing complex business models.

The purpose of the present article is to discuss the role of financial marketing in the creation of self‐reinforcing trends and bubbles. If the fundamental problems of financial marketing are not controlled, they can lead us to the world of the cynics, of raiders, of hostile takeovers where there is no free interplay of supply and demand. On the other hand, it would be wrong to consider every rise in the share price, which is not related to assets in place, as a bubble. The real art of financial marketing is to present to the public in an intelligible and convincing manner, the real options embedded in the firm's growth opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the impact of value-added intellectual capital (VAIC) on the financial performance (FP) of companies in Mauritius.

The research uses a dynamic panel vector error correction model (PVECM) which simultaneously allows for endogeneity and causality issues among the variables used.

The results show that VAIC enhances corporate FP, with a reported lower effect in the short run as compared to the long run. Other important determinants of firm’s performance are asset turnover, capital turnover and firm’s size. Leverage, on the other hand, is observed to be performance reducing in nature. FP of the companies is also a significant determinant of VAIC, implying reverse causal effects exist between the two variables of interest, namely, VAIC and FP.

The study can be enhanced by doing an industry-specific comparison of the impact of VAIC on FP for more insights.

It is recommended that managers pay more attention to the role of firms’ stock of tangible and intangible assets, as this has a positive impact on firms’ FP. Also, the results may help to increase awareness of the importance of effective intellectual capital (IC) management within an organization. More so, as demonstrated by Ståhle et al. (2011), VAIC indicates the efficiency of the company’s labor and capital investments within firms in Mauritius. This study may, therefore, enable Mauritian firms to measure their IC efficiency and develop policies to promote and improve upon their intellectual potential to enhance firm’s performance.

The main theoretical contribution of this paper relates to the assessment and conceptualization of the bi-directional relationship between VAIC and FP. It confirmed that there are self-reinforcing feedback effects between VAIC and FP. Methodologically speaking, this paper investigates the VAIC–FP nexus in a dynamic setting using a dynamic panel data framework, namely, a PVECM which also allows for additional insights into the short- and long-run effects.

The purpose of the paper is to show how the sustainability of urban settlements can be improved by treating as a variable the design of property rights: to realty, corporations, and currencies, and the communication and control architecture of communities.

System science shows how the resulting increases in the richness and variety of communication and control channels improve the governance of urban precincts. The new variables also provide a way to integrate the design of the built environment into the design of its governance architecture. The scope of orthodox economic analysis is extended to include the value of assets and liabilities to provide additional feedback signals. This more holistic economic framework increases the richness of the “semiotic” channel of social communication and control that complements those based on senses, words and prices.

The analysis reveals self‐reinforcing feed‐forward and feedback channels between the use and maintenance of the built environment and its governance architecture not available in less holistic design frameworks.

The paper identifies the need for urban planners to extend their discipline to become governance architects and how the knowledge of system scientists can be applied to improve the design of capitalism.

A new design paradigm is identified that allows improvements to be introduced in the ability of towns or suburbs, to become self‐financing, self‐governing political units. The paradigm identifies how capitalism can be designed to become more efficient, equitable, responsive, and democratic.

The aim of this paper is to explore and discuss the causative factors of the current financial crisis from an Islamic perspective. This paper also examines Islamic finance as an alternative financial system and a potential long‐term solution to financial instability.

The paper provides descriptive, analytical and comparative analyses.

The paper offers insights into the causes of the current international financial crisis. It highlights an alternative and a solution to this dilemma in the form of Islamic finance and stresses the stability of the Islamic finance system.

The findings presented in this paper can be used by policy makers, regulators and practitioners in both the Islamic and conventional financial sector as they provides insights into factors that can insulate the market from future crisis. However, to expect a wholesale transformation to an Islamic financial system is idealistic.

This paper contributes to the understanding of Islamic finance principles and its value as a solution to the current and any future financial crises. A highly original conceptual idea is used in the metaphorical comparison to the Tower of Babel. The findings of this research will be of interest to western and Islamic financial practitioners, policy makers and academicians.