Editorial

Citation

Guzmán, F. and Veloutsou, C. (2017), "Editorial", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 101-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-02-2017-1429

Welcome to the second issue of Volume 26 of the Journal of Product and Brand Management. This issue has in total eight contributions. The contributions included in this issue cover a myriad of current and relevant brand and product management topics that will hopefully be enjoyable and useful for your research. The authors of the eight papers in this issue are researchers based at universities from 11 different countries.

Msaed, Al-Kwifi and Ahmed set to determine the factors that underpin consumer-switching intention in the smartphone industry. Their proposed model is based on related theories that consider the distinctive aspects of high-technology products. The variables “relative advantage of product features” and “company innovativeness” are used to evaluate the consumer attitude to switch. Their findings indicate that perceived product usefulness, perceived ease of use and relative advantage of product features are the major factors that drive switching behavior, whereas financial cost is the main barrier.

Huerta-García, Lengler and Consolación-Segura explore how behavior toward companies supporting social causes in their advertising helps improve brand image and increase sales. They analyze this relationship from a strategic perspective. Their study includes two stages (qualitative and quantitative) through which they build and examine the fit dimensions of brand–cause relationships. Their findings demonstrate that some dimensions are effective to influence emotional responses positively.

Halaszovich and Nel set to identify determinants of customers’ intention to connect with a brand on social media (Facebook) in the absence of pull strategies. Through structural equation modeling, they show that three dimensions of customer–brand engagement explain to a certain degree the intentions to “like” a brand’s Facebook page, and identify that two of these dimensions are conditional effects of brand trust.

Van Vaerenbergh explores the topic of product and brand placement. He explores consumer reactions to paid versus unpaid brand name placements in song lyrics. Through an experiment, he tests the effects of brand name placement disclosures in song lyrics on brand attitudes and brand awareness. He concludes that consumer awareness about paid brand name placements in song lyrics has positive effects on consumers’ brand awareness and no negative effects on brand attitudes, regardless of whether it concerns a paid or unpaid brand name placement.

Mishra, Singh, Fang and Yin’s study is on co-branding. In a laboratory study, they examine the effects of single versus multiple allies on quality perception of a brand. They use a 2 × 3 between-subjects factorial design experiment to test their hypotheses. Their results suggest that for both dual- and multi-brand alliances, the quality level of the secondary brand positively influences the perceived quality of the primary brand.

Badhuri and Stanforth seek to understand if product descriptor cues related to artisanal qualities can help marketers delineate their clothing product offerings to consumers by influencing consumers’ perceived product values and the effect of consumers’ fashion clothing involvement on such value perceptions. After conducting a 2 × 4 × 2 mixed-model experiment, they conclude that framing luxury products as artisanal using product descriptor cues influences the perceived value of the products, and that the consumers’ fashion involvement positively influences this perceived value.

Hoppe investigates the interrelationships between department commitment and corporate brand commitment (CBC) and their relationship toward favorable employee behavior. With survey data collected at a health-care institution in Germany, he integrates two contrasting frameworks (“key mediating concept” and “compatibility concept”) into a mixed model by using the accessibility–diagnosticity framework, and finds support for the predictive nature of department commitment on CBC.

Finally, Gendel-Guterman and Levy examine the effect of private label brand products’ negative publicity events on their general image and the retailer’s store image. Through three empirical studies tested using structural equation modeling, they find that both moderate and extreme negative publicity have different levels of influence on the product label brand’s image dimensions and the retailer’s store image.

For this issue, the Journal of Product and Brand Management relied on the help of the following 16 reviewers based in ten different countries. They are listed below in alphabetical order:

• Saud Al-Taj, Glasgow Calidonian University, UK.

• Carsten Baumgarth, Berlin School of Law and Economics, Germany.

• Rian Beise-Zee, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan.

• Camiel J. Beukeboom, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

• Enrique Bigne, University of Valencia, Spain.

• Kalliopi Chatzipanagiotou, University of Glasgow, UK.

• Michelle Childs, University of Tennessee, USA.

• Georgios Halkias, University of Vienna, Austria.

• José Martí, Universidad Europea de Valencia, Spain.

• Muralidharan Muralidharan, Southern Methodist University, USA.

• Athanasios Poulis, University of Brighton, UK.

• Carlos Torelli, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA.

• Marc Uncles, UNSW Australian School of Business, Australia.

• Eva van Reijmersdal, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

• Gina Tran, Florida Gulf Coast University, USA.

• Pedro Verga Matos, Lisbon University ISEG, Portugal.

We would like to thank all these reviewers for helping the journal to improve the quality of its content by providing their time and expertise.

We hope that you find reading this issue intellectually stimulating and enjoyable.