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Escalating uncertainty surrounding brand communications has intensified consumer demands for transparency. Many definitions link transparency to the quantity of shared information, yet more information might not alleviate consumer uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is to develop a consumer-based conceptualisation of brand transparency that recognises the subjectivity in how transparency manifests for consumers.

This research adopts a qualitative approach, leveraging 10 exploratory interviews with experts and 20 in-depth interviews with consumers.

Confronted with information asymmetry, consumers rely on cues (openness, clarity, timeliness, evidence-based, explanatory) to evaluate a brand’s intentions to provide accurate information about focal domains in a way that establishes brand transparency. Focal domains of brand transparency (pro-social values, processes and product and service offerings) evolve in line with changing consumer expectations. Both consumer relationships and brand experiences influence brand transparency perceptions.

This study challenges an inherent assumption that access to more information informs brand transparency perceptions; instead, consumers require transparency about salient and focal topics. By delineating the observable signals consumers use to infer transparency and highlighting how consumers’ biases towards certain brands and product categories influence their perceptions of brand transparency, this study contributes to customer–brand relationship literature.

The authors identify challenges for evoking brand transparency perceptions when information is salient. The authors stress the importance of open dialogue across all touchpoints to address consumer queries.

By challenging some assumptions of brand transparency literature, which have evolved from accounting and governance disciplines, this research introduces a distinctive perspective on consumer-based brand transparency.

Chadwyck‐Healey Announces the Patrologla Latina Database. The Patrologia Latina Database is a major text conversion and electronic publishing project. It is a complete machine‐readable edition of the classic nineteenth‐century collection of texts edited by the ecclesiastical publisher Jacques‐Paul Migne.

This paper aims to identify Chinese consumers’ dish value systems and investigate whether and to what extent their dish values vary by type of consumers.

We used a best–worst scaling (BWS) developed based on previous literature on food values and attributes of Chinese dishes to elicit Chinese consumers’ dish value structure. Then, we estimated each participant’s share of preferences for dish values and applied Ward’s linkage cluster analysis to identify the heterogeneity of their dish values.

Our results indicate that food safety values, including the safety of agricultural products, additives and food processing, are valued most by Chinese consumers. They rate health-nutrition values as the second most important dish values. There is significant heterogeneity in Chinese consumers' dish values. Their dish values tend to drive their dish consumption patterns.

The dish is the mainstay of the Chinese meal. This study is among a few studies that examine Chinese consumers’ dish values that underlie consumer dish preferences and choices. The results provide essential information to promote a healthy and sustainable diet among Chinese consumers by understanding their values and motivations for making dish choices.