The Tie that Binds: The Impact of Self-Congruity and Brand Experience on Brand Attachment

This study extends brand attachment literature by investigating the effects of self-congruity types on brand attachment and bridging a gap concerning the mediating effect of brand experience on self-congruity-brand attachment linkage. The results indicate a direct effect between social self- congruity and brand attachment and a full mediation effect of brand experience on actual and ideal self-congruity and brand attachment. Also, the implications of this relationship differ by consumers’ need for uniqueness and self-regulatory focus

An Examination of Twitter\u27s Role in the Formation of Collegiate Sport Fans\u27 Allegiance Using the Revised Psychological Continuum Model (PCM)

Allegiance has long been considered one of the most notable research topics in sport studies (Funk & Pastore, 2000; Wann & Branscombe 1990). Allegiant fans are those who have formed strong connections to their favorite team, and these attitudes strengthen their psychological involvement. Twitter has grown dramatically since its inception in 2006, totaling more than 500 million users as of early 2013 (Gupta, Goel, Lin, Sharma, Wang, & Zadeh, 2013). Twitter is one of the most popular communication technologies used by both fans and sport organizations (Clavio, 2011), and allows individuals, organizations, and other social groups to connect with one another (Hambrick, Simmons, Greenhalgh, & Greenwell, 2010). The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effects of Twitter on the formation of fan allegiance using the revised Psychological Continuum Model (PCM), which reflects fans\u27 psychological development to allegiance with a particular sport team. Subjects (N = 412) were collected from fans attending four men\u27s baseball games at Clemson university during the spring 2013 season. Of the 412 collected surveys, only 212 were Twitter users who followed the Clemson Men\u27s Baseball team\u27s Twitter account. The results demonstrated a significant relationship between Twitter usage and team allegiance reflected through a high level of psychological connection to a specific team. Based on the results of this study, practitioners can identify a unique market segment from surveyed participants, which could help them attract and reach team allegiance through Twitter. Specifically, more Twitter usage regarding a specific team influences fans with weak attachments, to strengthen their attachment toward a team and increase their Twitter usage. Since this study shows the positive relationship between the frequency of Twitter usage and fan allegiance, it could target participants with lesser Twitter usage to increase their frequency, thus, increasing new marketing and communication strategy related to Twitter. Finally, the empirical evidence of this study can provide a better understanding of the growing phenomena of social media and the trends of Twitter usage in sport study context. This study could extend to include other kinds of social media and their effectiveness during interactions between sport organizations and sport fans

The Influence of a Professional Sport Team’s Philanthropic Initiative on Fans’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Participation Intention

Within corporate social responsibility (CSR) research, there has been significant evidence of the positive impacts that CSR could bring to businesses. However, few studies, especially in the context of sport, have focused on how CSR benefits an actual social cause. Therefore, through a three-article format, the overall purpose of the dissertation is to examine how a professional sport team could use its CSR as a social marketing strategy to increase its fans’ willingness to participate in the team’s CSR program in contributing to a specific social cause. Specifically, Article 1 assesses whether CSR participation intention significantly differs among fans with varying psychological connection levels to a sport team. Article 2 examines how fans’ trust in a sport team increases their CSR participation intention, especially among fans with a low psychological connection to a sport team. Lastly, Article 3 investigates how fans’ perceived CSR authenticity plays a significant role in the overall study findings. The study findings: (a) demonstrate that fans are more likely to participate in a sport team’s CSR program when they are aware of the philanthropic activity engaged by the team and that CSR participation intention was higher for fans more loyal to the team, (b) provide evidence that enhancing fans’ trust in the team helps increase CSR participation intention, especially among those having a lower psychological connection to the sport team, and (c) emphasize the importance of authenticity within a sport team’s CSR initiative, where fans develop trust in the team to a similar extent for all fan groups, thus, increasing the likelihood for fans to participate in the team’s CSR program

Do athletes deserve to have consumers advocating for them?: the effect of athlete brand personality, brand image attributes and brand loyalty on athlete brand advocacy: the mediating effect of deservedness

In a context where sports are socially driven by the athletic ideal, athletes' deservedness has proven to encourage advocates to fight for their belonged outcomes and rewards. This research is needed for the specific field of sports because it extends deservedness studies into what creates the consumer support system, which may be essential to, afterward, catch other sports entities to also contribute to the athlete brands’ success. Assuming advocates as the main support system, they are seen as a key element able to effect change to the athlete’s worthy rewards. This thesis targets athletes that want to leverage their brand and their brand managers, who should understand the best way to articulate the athletes’ promoted efforts (for social evaluation of deservedness), then develop the support system and encourage brand advocacy. This mindful investigation cares to address a new perspective of deservedness in the relationship athlete - consumer and conclude on what is the relational level most associated to deservedness and worth of social fair distribution of support - brand advocacy. An online questionnaire was conducted towards individuals who had a favorite athlete (N=300) and PLS-SEM was used to test and validate 6 hypotheses. Findings indicate that "athlete brand personality" does not significantly influence "athlete brand advocacy" and the mediating role of deservedness in this relationship is also non-significant; "athlete brand image attributes" and "brand loyalty" significantly strengthen "athlete brand advocacy" and the mediator role of "athlete deservedness" in these relationships is positively significant.Num contexto em que o desporto é socialmente guiado pelo atleta ideal, o merecimento deste estimula os advogados da marca a lutarem pelos seus resultados e recompensas. Esta pesquisa é necessária para o desporto, visto que expande os estudos de merecimento sobre o sistema de suporte dos consumidores, o que pode ser essencial para, eventualmente, contagiar outras entidades a contribuir para o sucesso da marca do atleta. Tendo os advogados como o principal sistema de suporte, estes são um elemento-chave capazes de efetuar mudança sobre as recompensas que o atleta recebe. Os alvos desta dissertação são os atletas que pretendempotenciar a sua marca e os respetivos gestores, que deverão perceber a melhor maneira de articular a divulgação dos esforços dos atletas (alvo de avaliação social do merecimento), desenvolver o sistema de suporte e estimular a defesa da marca. Esta investigação cuidadosa preocupa-se em tratar de uma nova perspetiva de merecimento na relação atleta-consumidor e concluir sobre o nível de relação mais associado com merecimento e digno da defesa da marca. Um questionário online foi direcionado a indivíduos que tinham um atleta preferido (N=300) e o método PLS-SEM foi usado para testar 6 hipóteses. As conclusões indicam que a "personalidade da marca do atleta" não influencia significativamente a defesa dessa marca e o efeito mediador de "merecimento" nesta relação também é não-significativo; os "atributos da imagem de marca do atleta" e respetiva lealdade significativamente fortalecem a sua defesa e o efeito mediador de merecimento nestas relações é significativamente positivo

Consumer brand relationships

We have investigated the dynamics of how consumer make relationship with brand (non-human entities) that is consumer brand relationships.This relationship is like the same relationship between two people in the society.Meta-analytic literature review has been conducted to explore different aspect of this relationship dynamics.The investigation reveals that brands work as a relationship partners with consumers.Relationship dimensions, which are considered as ground of relationship types, constructed by authors differs resulting different types consumer brand relationships.However, various authors measure relationship quality based on the same ground relationship strength and feelings using different theories.This research has implications for both academicians and practitioners as they can comprehensively conceptualize the consumer brand relationship, its nature, type and dimensions explored by researchers and their present state

The effect of brand trust and brand community commitment on online brand evangelism behaviour

In line with social media development, the online brand community becomes an alternative media that could contribute to overall brand success or vice versa.Among others, the online brand community could significantly affect brand evangelism behaviors.This study attempts to extend the understanding on how members’ brand community commitment influences brand evangelism which is considered as an extra-role behavior from the members.The study among 167 members of the online brand communities revealed that brand evangelism is explained by the uni dimensional construct.The result indicates that trust towards the online brand community and brand community commitment significantly affect brand evangelism.Implication and future research direction are also highlighted at the end of this article

The impact on festival´s loyalty from co-creating festival’s sustainability

Nowadays sustainability plays an important role in consumers’ decision making and this has extended to the events sector. Festivals, face increasing numbers of participants that choose events according to the green commitments. However, greenwashing practices lead to attendees’ scepticism toward the green practices and claims, which then decreases participants’ loyalty. This thesis aims to understand whether co-creation is a successful tool to overcome participants’ green scepticism and therefore increase participants’ loyalty toward the festival. In an experimental study design, 196 participants reported loyalty levels for a green festival. The study analysed different scenarios regarding the development of practices in a festival: green against non green. Further, we analysed if loyalty toward the event differed according to whether the practice was co-created or not. The new feature was presented either as co-created with the festival’s attendees or exclusively by the festival’s organization. Our findings show that the relationship between the event’s sustainability and the participants’ loyalty is mediated both by their trust in the green practices and by their identification with the festival’s organization and festivalgoers’ community. Additionally, we found that co-creation does not moderate the relationship analysed, and therefore our results do not lend support that co-creation represents an efficient way to increase attendees’ trust and identification and consequently their loyalty. These findings contribute to the literature on co-creation in the context of festivals’ sustainability. Ultimately, it draws managerial implications for events’ organizations and how they can drive attendees’ loyalty through eco-friendly commitment and its communication.A sustentabilidade desempenha um papel importante nas decisões dos consumidores no sector dos eventos. Cada vez mais consumidores escolhem os eventos de acordo com os compromissos ecológicos. No entanto, devido às práticas de "greenwashing" os participantes estão a desenvolver um cepticismo em relação às práticas ecológicas, o que diminui a sua lealdade. Esta tese pretende compreender se a co-criação é uma ferramenta de sucesso para superar o cepticismo ecológico dos participantes e, assim, aumentar a sua lealdade. Num estudo experimental, 196 participantes reportaram a sua lealdade para um festival com práticas ecológicas. O estudo analisou dois cenários diferentes: um festival com práticas ecológicas e outro sem práticas ecológicas. Analisámos também se a lealdade para com o evento era diferente consoante a prática fosse co-criada com os participantes do festival ou exclusivamente pela organização do mesmo. Os resultados mostram que a relação entre a sustentabilidade do evento e a lealdade dos participantes é mediada tanto pela sua confiança nas práticas ecológicas como pela sua identificação com a organização e comunidade do festival. Constatamos que a co-criação não modera a relação analisada, pelo que os nossos resultados não apoiam que a co-criação represente uma forma eficiente de aumentar a confiança e identificação dos participantes e a sua lealdade. Estes resultados contribuem para a literatura sobre co-criação no contexto da sustentabilidade dos festivais. Em última análise, pode ter implicações na criar gestão de eventos e para a forma como as organizações podem criar lealdade através de um compromisso sustentável e da sua comunicação

THE INFLUENCE OF CONSUMER BRAND IDENTIFICATION ON BRAND LOYALTY: MEDIATED BRAND COMMUNITY COMMITMENT

Abstrack. The purpose of this study is to propose a research framework that is consumer brand identification of brand loyalty where brand community commitment is a mediating variable within the framework of this research. This conceptual research is compiled based on the existing theoretical and marketing literature, where marketing with the community is becoming the company's trend today. This paper is useful for the development of research models and provides opportunities for future research to make empirical contributions. Keyword : Consumer brand identification, brand loyalty, brand community commitmen

Social support, social capital and online community e-loyalty: an empirical study

Online communities, as an essential manifestation of online social relationships, sociality factors (including social support factors and social relationship factors, etc.) ought to facilitate the formation of community trust and community satisfaction. However, although the existing literature has explored the underlying mechanisms of online community trust and satisfaction formation, few studies implemented research from the integrated sociality perspectives. In this thesis, we integrate social capital theory and social support theory to consider social capital and social support as important antecedent social factors in forming community trust and community satisfaction, which influence users' trust and satisfaction in online communities. Community trust and satisfaction further promote community loyalty. Specifically, this thesis scrutinizes the influence of three levels of social support factors such as information support, emotional support, and human-computer network management support and three kinds of social capital such as structure, cognition, and relationship to online community trust and satisfaction. Based on the proposed research model, 430 online community users' survey data were collected through an empirical questionnaire and the research model was tested through the partial least squares structural equation model method. The results of the thesis suggest that social support factors, including information support, emotional support, and interpersonal network interaction support, and social capital factors including structural capital, relational capital, and cognitive capital significantly affect community users' loyalty not only directly but also indirectly through enhancing community users' trust and satisfaction. Thus, users' trust and satisfaction with the community are significant mediating variables.Nas comunidades online, como uma importante manifestação das relações sociais online, os fatores de socialidade (incluindo fatores de apoio social e fatores de relacionamento social) devem facilitar a formação de confiança e satisfação da comunidade. No entanto, embora a literatura existente tenha explorado os mecanismos subjacentes à formação da confiança e da satisfação da comunidade online, poucos estudos consideraram a perspectiva social de forma integrada. Nesta tese, integramos a teoria do capital social e a teoria do suporte social para considerar o capital social e o suporte social como importantes fatores sociais antecedentes na formação da confiança e satisfação da comunidade, que influenciam a confiança e a satisfação dos utilizadores em comunidades online. A confiança e a satisfação da comunidade promovem ainda mais a lealdade da comunidade. Especificamente, esta tese estuda a influência de três níveis de fatores de suporte social - suporte de informação, suporte emocional e suporte de gestão da relação homen-computador - e três tipos de capital social - estrutura, cognição e relacionamento - na confiança e satisfação da comunidade online. Com base no modelo de pesquisa proposto, 430 observações de utilizadores de comunidades online foram recolhidos através de um questionário. O modelo de pesquisa foi testado através de métodos de equação estruturais. Os resultados da tese relevam que fatores de suporte social, incluindo suporte de informação, suporte emocional e suporte de interação de rede interpessoal, e fatores de capital social, incluindo capital estrutural, capital relacional e capital cognitivo, afetam significativamente a lealdade dos utilizadores da comunidade, não apenas diretamente mas também indiretamente, aumentando a confiança e a satisfação dos utilizadores da comunidade; a confiança e a satisfação dos usuários com a comunidade são variáveis mediadoras importantes