Editorial

Citation

Veloutsou, C. and Guzman, F. (2018), "Editorial", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 349-350. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-07-2018-002

Welcome to the 4th issue of Volume 27 of the Journal of Product and Brand Management. This issue has in total nine contributions, mostly focusing on brand management, with a few papers on very topical issues such as negativity, the effects of technology on brand management and the effects of expression when developing messages and brand names in various contexts. We hope that you find this issue enjoyable and useful for your research. The contributions in this particular issue are mostly from academics based not only in the USA but also from Australia and Germany.

In the first paper of this issue, Anthony Koschmann and Jagdish Sheth (member of the Senior Advisory Board of the Journal) analyze how loyalty level varies between different products and use panel data to explore loyalty versus variety-seeking in the branded house strategy by testing three related propositions. Their results reveal that loyalty rates are high among modified brands, with little switching to other lines within the brand, while loyalty and switch rates are highest for the flagship branded offer.

The next three papers investigate branding-related issues in the context of new technologies. Vishag Badrinarayanan and Jeremy Sierra (member of the Editorial Review Board) use survey data from two video game communities to explore brand tribe formation. In particular, they investigate the link between social approval (tribe reputation, tribe legitimacy and brand stigma) with tribe commitment and the direct effect of tribe commitment on brand tribalism.

Jennifer Chandler, Rommel Salvador and Yuna Kim look at brand expressions in their Twitter accounts and their influence on the firm’s value. The study uses speech act theory and analyses data collected from four corporate Twitter accounts. The results imply that the tone of expression in the Twitter messages influences a firm’s value the following day. More specifically, accommodative language leads to an overall negative influence on firm value, while the use of defensive language has a positive influence on firm value the day after the postings are made.

Dara Schniederjans, Stephen Atlas and Christopher Starkey used data collected from 670 respondents in the USA to examine how consumers react to impression management and the effects on receivers’ perception-attitude-intentions over platforms with limited textual content. Within a context of mobile devices, the results support that impression management tactics, namely, ingratiation, intimidation, organizational promotion, supplication and exemplification, influence consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and intentions. The study also compares differences on the effect of the impressions over perception-attitude-intentions model and proposes that initial differences in perceptions enlarge during the stage of purchase intentions.

Two papers in this issue examine elements of brand expression and signaling, but in conventional contexts. Merlyn A. Griffiths’ work focuses on the use of expletives and derogatory terminology when developing brand names (brand vulgarity). This conceptual work is based on relevant literature and proposes that although brand vulgarity is intended to capture attention, specific conditions are necessary for it to be accepted. More specifically, the perceived offensiveness, exposure, and the reclaiming and reappropriation of vulgar terms, are expected to influence the degree of support to this particular brand naming strategy.

Jay Carlson and Larry Compeau use a qualitative study and an experiment to investigate the effects of reference prices, which do not include a semantic cue, on consumers’ responses in a factory outlet store. The analysis of the data suggests that a price tag including cue-less reference prices is normally not considered from consumers as a seller’s mistake but is seen as somewhat less believable. Cue-less reference pricing is likely to positively affect consumers who also believe that the products available for sale in a factory story were previously available in other more mainstream stores.

The following two papers focus on negativity and its effects on brand equity. Mingzhou Yu, Fang Liu, Julie Lee and Geoff Soutar examine Chinese consumers’ responses to negative publicity in the internet’s context. Their findings suggest that different negative incidents, and in particular brand blame and information severity, have dissimilar effects on attitudes, brand image and purchase intentions, while the relation between brand image and brand attitudes and intentions depends on the level of information severity.

Verena Thaler, Uta Herbst and Michael Merz focus on real scandals and use experimental design to examine the effect of these scandals on brand equity. The results of both experiments reveal that brands with strong brand equity do not have as strong negative effects on their brand equity as other brands after a scandal and that negative spillover effects within a high-equity brand portfolio are unlikely.

In the final paper of this issue, Daniel Hoppe uses data collected from a hospital in Germany and builds on social identity theory to examine employer branding and internal branding. In this study, the perceived employer brand image is approached as an antecedent of favorable brand-related outcomes and specific employee behaviors (corporate brand identification and brand citizenship) that could benefit the employer brand.

For this issue, the Journal of Product and Brand Management relied on the help of 25 reviewers based in 6 different countries. They are listed below in alphabetical order:

Russell Abratt, Nova Southeastern University, USA.

Sally Baalbaki, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA.

Charles Bodkin, University of North Carolina, USA.

Weifeng Chen, Brunel University, UK.

Danielle Chmielewski, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Heather Christiansen, Clemson University, USA.

Deborah DeLong, Chatham University, USA.

Kirk Hazlett, Curry College, USA.

Pramod Iyer, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA.

Stavros Kalafatis, Kingston University, UK.

Stacy Landreth-Grau, TX Christian University, USA.

André Le Roux, IAE, Université de Poitiers, France.

Yoon-Joo Lee, University of Southern Indiana, USA.

Joan Lindsey-Mullikin, Calfornia Polytechnic State University, USA.

Ioanna Papasolomou, University of Nicosia, Cyprus.

Carmen Pérez-Cabanero, University of Valencia, Spain.

Stuart Roper, Bradford University, UK.

Wei Shao, Griffith University, Australia.

Jeanetta Sims, University of Central Oklahoma, USA.

Alexandros Skandalis, Lancaster University, UK.

Francisco Guzmán and Cleopatra Veloutsou