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This study examines how substantive and/or associative claims about the local origin of organic products moderate the determinants and consequences of a grocery retailer’s corporate social responsibility (CSR).

An experiment with four different conditions – no claim, substantive claim (i.e. number of kilometres), associative claim (i.e. photograph of the producer) and a combination of substantive and associative claims – was carried out in a laboratory store in France with 249 consumers who were randomly divided into four independent samples (a between-subjects design). To analyse the data, partial least squares structural equation modelling was mobilised using XLSTAT (2022) software.

The study indicates that using claims about the local origin of organic products via in-store signage is an appropriate tool for grocery retailers. For the three types of claims considered, the ethics of the offering influences the retailer’s CSR, which has an indirect impact on consumers’ actual purchases of local organic products via two routes: trust and affective commitment and trust and preference for the retailer. However, grocery retailers should favour a combination of substantive and associative claims to create a stronger impact on purchases.

This research extends the use of substantive and associative claims to sustainable products.

Consumers consider retailers' standard private labels (PLs) as relevant choices, compared to national brands (NBs), and their demand for private label products has increased significantly over the past decade. At the same time, PLs have undergone a profound transformation as retailers have enhanced their quality. The goal of this research is to investigate the impact of claims used to highlight the enhanced quality of standard PL products on consumers' perceptions and behaviours.

A between-subjects experiment, set in a store laboratory, was used to study consumers' perceptions and behaviours. The impact of six non-nutrition claims – linked, according to the self-other trade-off, either to concern for consumers' health (internal to the self) or for the environment (external to the self) – on consumers' reactions has been studied. Then, the data collected were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

This research indicates that health claims retailers make to echo consumers' own concerns have positive impacts at three basic levels: the brand, the retail chain and the store. It also highlights the central role of trust in standard PLs, which, once activated by the non-nutrition claims made by retailers and the increase in the quality of standard PLs thus inferred by consumers, can improve consumers' attitude toward the food retailers' stores and reinforce their intentions to visit again and recommend them.

From a theoretical perspective, this research supplements cue utilisation theory as it applies this framework to standard PLs and establishes that consumers use extrinsic cues (i.e. communications on non-nutrition claims) to infer the quality of standard PL brand products. It also complements scant studies on retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR) with quality aspects of their own labels as it specifies the levers (i.e. the claims) to use to improve retailers' CSR image and consumers' behaviours.

From a managerial perspective, this research highlights the superiority of retailers' claims related to consumer health and, more specifically, of claims highlighting the natural origin of ingredients. For this specific assertion, trust in the standard PL and the CSR image of the brand have direct and indirect impacts, via attitude toward the stores, on consumers' intentions to return to and to recommend these stores.

Despite the increasing importance of products as effective tools for communicating companies' CSR policies, scant research has been conducted on consumers' reactions to non-nutrition claims, which are increasingly prominent in the marketplace.

The objective of this exploratory study was to investigate the communication themes that retailers should prioritise to convey terroir store brands’ (TSBs) authenticity and the impact of their authenticity on several variables (i.e. value, attitude, trust, intentions and effective purchases). TSBs combine a variety of products that adhere to stringent standards associated with a terroir. Charters et al. (2017) referred to a terroir as “a resource based on unique physical origins and shared cultural personification that shape a product’s benefits into a meaningful value proposition” (p. 755). Three communication themes were studied: the ingredients’ origin, traditional local recipes and the producer’s history in a region (terroir).

An experiment was conducted in a store laboratory. A total of 420 consumers representative of the French population were randomly assigned to four independent groups in a between-subjects study design. They shopped in the store laboratory with a section dedicated to a TSB. Each of the independent samples in this experiment was exposed to posters in the store laboratory related to the three communication themes studied. The control group did not see any posters.

The study showed that the level of TSB authenticity was highest for the communication theme related to the traditional local recipes of the culinary dishes offered by the TSB. Next came the theme related to the ingredients’ origin, followed by the producer’s history in the terroir. Moreover, for the communication theme related to the traditional local recipes, TSB authenticity had a direct impact on value, trust and intentions. Moreover, the link between intentions and effective purchases of TSB products has only been established for this specific communication theme.

First, this study adds to the limited research on TSBs’ authenticity and identifies the communication themes retailers should use to promote such brands. It also proposes an integrative model of the consequences of TSBs’ authenticity in the retailing field that highlights the direct and indirect links (through value, attitude, trust and intentions) between authenticity and consumers’ effective purchases. Finally, it indicates the kind of discourse on TSBs that conveys their authenticity.

This study investigates consumer reactions to dispensers offering solid packaging-free products (e.g. pasta, lentils, cereals) integrated in a delimitated area in a grocery store. More specifically, the research examines the impacts of the overall appeal of packaging-free solid food product dispensers and their perceived ease of use on consumers' intention to use these dispensers and purchase packaging-free products. Moreover, using a set of variables, different buyer profiles are highlighted.

The field study for this research was conducted in a delimitated area (i.e. a shop within a shop) dedicated to solid packaging-free products (e.g. pasta, lentils, cereals) in a university cooperative store in the province of Quebec, Canada. A total of 456 buyers and consumers of packaging-free products from this store took part in the field study and completed our survey.

This study shows packaging-free dispensers' overall appeal and perceived ease of use to be determinants of consumers' intention to use these dispensers and purchase packaging-free products. The Rebus (response-based procedure for detecting unit segments) method highlights the need to consider three buyer profiles (enthusiastic, pragmatic, and sceptical) with different reactions to the specific dispensers used by retailers for packaging-free products.

This study focuses on buyers' reactions to packaging-free dispensers in stores, during the purchase process, whereas previous ones highlighted the drivers of and barriers to consumer adoption of packaging-free products (before the purchasing process starts). It also points to the need to fine-tune the segmentation of consumers of packaging-free products, which must be based not only on consumers' previous experience or familiarity with these products but also on the integration of their drivers and barriers.

This research has three research objectives. First, this research will demonstrate that the link between consumers' attitude towards a region and their intention to purchase products from that region is not direct but indirect. Second, this research will establish that perceived value of regional products and consumers' preference for these products are mediating variables of the relationship between consumers' attitude towards a region and their intention to purchase regional products. Lastly, this research will highlight cognitive (through perceived value) and affective (through preference) routes or paths, from consumers' attitude towards a region to their purchase intention of products from that region.

As previous works in the authors’ field of research, the authors conducted a field study, combined with a questionnaire survey. 398 consumers responded to the authors’ questionnaire in a hypermarket (belonging to the retailer Système U) in Vendée (a region in France). The authors measured their attitude towards this region, their preference for regional food products and their purchase intention of these products as well as the perceived value of regional food products.

The perceived value of regional products and consumers' preference for these products are full mediating variables of the relationship between consumers' attitude towards a region and their intention to purchase products from that region.

This research supplements prior works. It shows that the link between consumers' attitude towards a region and their intention to purchase regional products is indirect. Consumers' purchase intention of regional products is not directly attributable to their attitude towards the region of origin of these products. Regional products and their features have to be reintegrated into this equation.

This study identifies several routes or paths to explain consumers' purchase intention of regional products. A cognitive route or path, from consumers' attitude towards a region to their purchase intention of products from that region, mediates by perceived value. An affective route or path, from consumers' attitude towards a region to their purchase intention of products from that region, mediates by preference. A hybrid path that combines cognitive and affective paths, as this research established a link between perceived value and preference.

This research foregrounds regional products and their features, too often neglected in favour of consumers and their characteristics.

This study aims to examine the relationship between brand personality and customer-based brand equity (CBBE) by investigating the mediating role of consumer-brand relationship (CBR), which is represented through three variables, namely, brand trust, attachment and commitment.

This study adopts a cross-sectional descriptive research design. It included a mix of symbolic and utilitarian brands, namely, Pepsi and Sprite (soft drinks), Levi’s and Peter England (clothing), Pantene and Head and Shoulders (shampoos) based on their greater familiarity among Indian consumers. Primary data were gathered from 612 respondents through a self-administered online questionnaire survey approach. Structural equation modeling was performed to analyze data and validate the research model.

The present study establishes both direct, as well as the indirect linkage between brand personality and CBBE. Results also suggest a partial mediating role of the variables representing CBR while linking brand personality to CBBE.

The present study makes two contributions. First, it advances existing literature on brand personality and brand equity by establishing the mediating role of the CBR while linking brand personality to CBBE. Second, it establishes the importance of both the trust and attachment-based commitment mediator model of CBR influencing CBBE, which has not been addressed by prior studies.

This research aims to address ethnocentric consumers’ willingness to boycott dual origin brands, in the particular case of national brands linked to a very specific regional origin, through analysing the paradox of (unfavourable) regional ethnocentrism versus (favourable) consumer–brand relationship (i.e. brand identification, trust and love) on consumers’ decision to buy or boycott those brands in that circumstances. Building on social identity and cognitive dissonance theories, this study aims to examine the Spanish consumer relationship with national brands originated in Catalonia considering the current conflicting circumstances in the region.

The authors collected data by means of personal questionnaires, distributed among 277 Spanish consumers of Catalan brands of Cava. The data is analysed by using structural equation modelling and linear structural relations.

After controlling for brand familiarity, the results of this study reveal that ethnocentrism negatively distorts consumers’ confidence in dual origin brands and highlight the role of identification and trust as brand love antecedents. It also reveals that ethnocentrism has a more profound impact on boycotting decision than brand love.

This study is one of the few to capture the puzzlement created by the paradoxical nature of the brand’s duality of origin. Furthermore, it contributes to the marketing literature by examining the impact of ethnocentrism on two relationship variables (i.e. identification and trust) and exploring their joint impact on consumers’ decision to buy or boycott. The findings of this study can be helpful for companies facing boycotting behaviour triggered by ethnocentric consumer reaction towards dual origin brands.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo abordar la disponibilidad de los consumidores etnocéntricos para boicotear las marcas de origen dual -en el caso particular de marcas nacionales vinculadas a un origen regional muy específico-, mediante el análisis de la paradoja del (desfavorable) etnocentrismo regional versus la relación (favorable) entre el consumidor y la marca (es decir, la identificación, la confianza y el amor a la marca) en la decisión de los consumidores de comprar o boicotear dichas marcas en esas circunstancias. Partiendo de las teorías de la identidad social y la disonancia cognitiva, este estudio examina la relación del consumidor español con las marcas nacionales originales de Cataluña, considerando las circunstancias conflictivas actuales en la región.

Los datos se recogieron mediante cuestionarios personales, distribuidos entre 277 consumidores españoles de marcas catalanas de Cava. Los datos se analizaron utilizando modelación de ecuaciones estructurales y relaciones estructurales lineales.

Después de controlar la familiaridad con la marca, nuestros resultados revelan que el etnocentrismo distorsiona negativamente la confianza de los consumidores en las marcas de origen dual y destaca el papel de la identificación y la confianza como antecedentes del amor por la marca. También revela que el etnocentrismo tiene un impacto más profundo en la decisión de boicotear que el amor por la marca.

Este estudio es uno de los pocos que captura la confusión creada por la naturaleza paradójica de la dualidad del origen de la marca. Además, contribuye a la literatura de marketing al examinar el impacto del etnocentrismo en dos variables relacionales (la identificación y la confianza) y explorar su impacto conjunto en la decisión de los consumidores de comprar o boicotear. Nuestros hallazgos pueden ser útiles para las empresas que se enfrentan al comportamiento de boicot provocado por la reacción etnocéntrica de los consumidores hacia las marcas de origen dual.