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This paper aims to investigate the relationship between a sustainable university brand and the intention of international students to study at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), one of Malaysia’s premier universities. Moreover, the study explored the moderating effect of opinion leaders on the intention of international students to study at USM.

A survey involving 391 international students was conducted using a self-assessment questionnaire, data from which were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

Empirical data show that USM’s sustainability brand had a positive impact on international students’ intention to study at the university, but opinion leaders had no significant sway in influencing this decision. This finding could be attributed to USM’s established reputation as a sustainable university, which helps cement its standing as the top choice for international students.

This research only focussed on international students at one Malaysian university. Hence, the findings are not generalisable, in particular, to illuminate the experiences of students at non-Malaysian institutions, whose contexts are inevitably different than Malaysia’s.

This study offered a dimensional insight into the university management on the pivotal branding of sustainability as one of the important tools for attracting international students to study at the university. In light of the findings, it is suggested that universities magnify their efforts to support the sustainable agenda, to help create a sustainable university brand that adds value to the interests of stakeholders.

Universities are continuously faced with challenges in terms of branding. Besides, not many universities are branded as sustainable universities despite the high involvement in sustainability-focused activities. Research has scarcely focused on the influence of the “sustainable university brand” on the marketing effort of the university to international students. In studies where this topic was highlighted, they focused on the opinion leader as the moderating influence of the choice of university amongst international students.

In response to global competitive challenges, universities recently started developing better strategies for branding. Branding has been used as a differentiation strategy for higher education institutions. As the number of universities (public and private) has increased, so has the competition for students, the universities in Turkey have faced similar challenges. The main objective of this study is to investigate, from the students' perspective, the role of interactions of brand equity dimensions in creating a strong university brand.

Compiling from the literature, the study used a survey instrument to collect data at a comprehensive public university in Turkey. To assure representation of students across the campus, the sample included students at freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior and graduate levels from all major colleges.

Based on 1,300 usable surveys from students across all colleges of a major state university, the PLS-SEM model revealed significant relationships among the brand equity dimensions of brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, learning environment, emotional environment, brand trust, brand loyalty and university reputation. These brand dimensions collectively and/or individually influence the students' university learning experiences that may result in creating strong university brand equity.

The study was conducted at a government-owned university in Turkey capturing only students' perceptions. Future research could benefit from perceptions of other stakeholders like faculty, staff, alumni, and parents and testing the relationships for different types of universities. This study discusses the implications for developing university branding strategies.

The study empirically tests the validity and effects of the university brand equity dimensions with Turkish university students using structural equation modeling (SEM). It confirms that the measures of brand equity dimensions are also applicable in a different country.

The purpose of this study was to explore drivers of consumer engagement with sustainable fashion brands on Instagram to specifically answer the research question: what drives popularity of sustainable fashion among digital consumers?

Twenty-five global fashion retailers were identified and categorized as either (a) sustainable fashion brands (SFB), (b) sustainably aware mainstream brands (SAB) or (c) traditional fashion brands (TFB). Content analysis of the 25 retailer's Instagram posts over a three-week period was analyzed and categorized according to content theme. Data were analyzed for quantity of Likes and Comments (engagement) to identify engagement strategies with each of the brand groups.

It was found that different strategies may be taken regarding social media strategy for SFB, SAB or TFB. Consumers were engaged with unfamiliar content, for instance, sustainability to a consumer unfamiliar with the topic or how it applies to a specific brand. Digital consumers were looking for exciting and aesthetically pleasing posts. Specifically, all consumers were engaged with posts about Fashion and Lifestyle.

As the result of this study, sustainable fashion best practices and social media strategies were presented for the three brand categories of fashion retailers.

This study analyzed a cross-section of global fashion brands and identified “best practices” for digital consumer engagement with sustainable messages through Instagram. The findings provide original value, specifically in the area of fashion marketing via social media to communicate brand identify to digital consumers for brand growth.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns have become increasingly popular among fashion apparel brands to reduce environmental impacts of their operations and position themselves as sustainable. In light of attribution theory, this paper aims to investigate how aspects of a CSR campaign affect consumers’ perceptions of brand authenticity, brand attitudes and CSR attitudes.

This research is based on a 2 (brand image: sustainable vs disposable brand) × 2 (message source: brand website vs news article) between-subjects experimental design with random assignment to conditions and manipulation checks.

When exposed to messages about CSR campaigns, consumers have more favorable perceptions of brand authenticity, brand attitudes and CSR attitudes for a sustainable brand than for a disposable brand, particularly when consumers view information about a CSR campaign on the brand’s website. However, this is not true for disposable brands when CSR campaigns are promoted through a news source.

Sustainable brands can derive benefits by strategically partnering with causes through CSR campaigns, particularly when their campaigns are promoted through their brand’s website (vs news source). However, brands that offer disposable products (e.g. fast fashion brands) should exercise caution when implementing these campaigns; CSR campaigns may confuse customers as they do not align with the everyday practices of disposable brands.

As the apparel industry faces increased scrutiny for negative impacts on the environment, this study helps to understand whether customers perceive CSR campaigns as trustworthy and authentic, or as ploys aimed at creating more positive brand images.

Advances in digital technologies coupled with the shift toward sustainable consumption present promising opportunities for luxury fashion brands to engage younger consumers. To this end, this paper aims to provide a forward-looking approach to creating luxury experiences targeted toward young consumers by proposing a new experience consumption framework.

This paper presents a viewpoint on creating luxury experiences that address the changing dynamics of the luxury industry by responding to the disruptive surge of young consumers and their growing preference for digital connections.

The authors develop a new experience consumption framework which demonstrates how luxury brands can successfully engage young consumers and fulfill their desire to share experiences with others by leveraging sustainable participation and digital technologies. The framework identifies different sustainable and digitally immersive experiences that luxury brands can incorporate for their young consumers.

This paper offers important managerial insights for luxury fashion brand marketers and identifies future research opportunities to advance knowledge in this field.

This study aims to explore various determinants of university attractiveness and its relationship with sustainable institutes. Further, the study examines the mediating role of perceived student support and sense of belongingness on the relationship between university attractiveness and sustainable institutes.

The data analysis was conducted with 637 responses from the students from private universities located in the northern region of India. Variance based partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied in the study to investigate the proposed conceptual model on sustainable higher institutions. Additionally, by applying PLS Predict, the predictive relevance of sustainable institutions with important and performing constructs was found out.

The results of this study indicate that university attractiveness plays a critical role in enhancing perceived student support, and it has a direct and significant impact on developing sustainable institutes. Further, students’ sense of belongingness is expressed as significant mediator between university attractiveness and sustainable institutes. The predictive relevance of the study was reported to be high. Most important indicators of university attractiveness were found to be teaching, research and publications, branding and promotion, and diversity in courses offered by the private universities.

The conceptual model under study can be investigated with a moderating effect of private and government universities in future. Additionally, the role of additional variables in online scenario under current pandemic situation can be assessed through the model used in this study. Future research can be done by using qualitative analysis through thematic analysis and sentiment analysis of students in higher education institutes.

The present study is the first to explore the mediating relationship of perceived student support and sense of belongingness with university attractiveness and sustainable institutes. The conceptual framework can prove to be important for education specialists, administrators of education institutes at university level and policymakers. The study offers effective ideas for policymakers to bring sustainability in education sector in near future especially in emerging economies and attain sustainable development goals.

This study aims to examine the roles of face consciousness, materialism and emotions play in sustainable luxury brand consumption (SLBC) among Millennials in a Collective society.

Three experimental design studies using scenario-based methodologies along with the survey method were conducted in China to test the proposed research model.

Study 1 shows that face consciousness negatively and significantly affects SLBC, and this effect is mediated by materialism. Study 2 reveals that when Millennials experienced great authentic pride, there is a positive association between face consciousness and SLBC. Furthermore, Study 3 reveals that when Millennials are exposed to a high risk of embarrassment, materialists’ willingness to engage in SLBC increases.

The current research has significant theoretical implications for studying SLBC, especially among young consumers. This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationships among face consciousness, materialism, pride, risk of embarrassment and SLBC in a Collective culture context, where luxury consumption is valued.

Sustainable luxury consumption is a new and under-examined research area. This research extends the SLBC literature in the context of a collective society and provides empirical evidence for sustainable consumption and luxury consumption in general. The research also contributes to the literature by examining the moderating role of self-conscious emotion in the relationship between face consciousness and SLBC.

This study aims to examine whether, and how, perceived product scarcity strengthens the attitude–behavior relation in the case of sustainable luxury products.

Three online studies were conducted to examine the moderating role of perceived product scarcity on the attitude–willingness to pay (WTP) relationship in the case of sustainable luxury products. A preliminary study (n = 208) examined the existence of an attitude–WTP gap toward a sustainable luxury product (i.e. a bag). Study 1 (n = 171) investigated the moderating effect of perceived scarcity induced by a limited quantity message on the relationship between consumer attitude and the WTP for a sustainable luxury product (i.e. a pair of shoes). Study 2 (n = 558) replicated these findings using a different product category (i.e. a wallet) while controlling for demographic variables and examined the moderating role of consumer characteristics on the scarcity effect.

Consumers’ perceived scarcity for sustainable luxury products positively moderated the relationship between product attitudes and their WTP for the products. The moderating effect of perceived scarcity was significant for consumers regardless of their tendency toward socially responsible consumption and their preference for product innovativeness. Meanwhile, the scarcity effect was influenced by the consumers’ attitude toward the brand of sustainable products.

This research provides empirical evidence for marketers with clear managerial implications concerning how to immediately promote consumers’ acceptance of sustainable luxury products.

This study is the first to examine the role of scarcity strategy on strengthening the attitude–behavior relation for sustainable luxury products.

Luxury brands struggle to communicate their sustainability commitments to consumers due to the perceived incongruence between “luxury” and “sustainability”. This study aims to provide luxury brands with insights on how to engage consumers with different social value orientations (SVOs) to make sustainable luxury purchases in a compatible manner. It investigates the relationships between personal values (symbolism/universalism), SVOs (pro-self/prosocial orientation) and behavioral intentions toward sustainable luxury brands. It further explores whether these relationships may differ when consumers view themselves as individuals (salient personal identity is activated) versus group members (salient social identity is activated).

Study 1 (N = 419) used an online experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to either salient personal or social identity conditions to test the proposed model. Study 2 (N = 438) used a fictional brand to further validate the findings. Hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and multi-group SEM.

Results indicate that prosocial orientation significantly increases consumers’ behavioral intentions toward sustainable luxury brands. Interestingly, pro-self-orientation can also drive intentions to support sustainable luxury brands when consumers’ personal identity is salient. Salient social identity can further strengthen the relationship between prosocial orientation and sustainable luxury behavioral intentions.

This study presents a novel, inclusive definition of sustainable luxury brands and adds theoretical rigor to the SVO framework by revealing the moderating role of salient identities, contributing to the body of knowledge in luxury brand research.