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The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of brand communication, brand image and brand trust as potential antecedents of brand loyalty in a sample of consumers in Gauteng Province of South Africa.

Data were collected from 151 respondents, an 89 per cent response rate, using anonymously completed questionnaires. Research scales were operationalized on the basis of previous work. Data were collected from 151 respondents, an 89 per cent response rate, using anonymously completed questionnaires. Research scales were operationalized on the basis of previous work. Proper modifications were made in order to fit the current research context and purpose. “Brand communication” measure used six-item scales while “Brand image” used eight-item scale measure. “Brand trust” and “brand loyalty” used a four-item scale measure. All the measurement items were measured on a five point Likert-type scales that was anchored by 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree to express the degree of agreement.

The four posited hypotheses were empirically tested. The results supported all the hypotheses in a significant way except one (H2). Important to note about the study findings is the fact that brand communication has a stronger effects on brand image than on brand trust. However, brand image strongly influences brand trust. Notably too, the relationship between brand trust and brand loyalty is robust. This finding indicates that brand communication can have a strong influence on brand trust and brand loyalty via brand image. Perhaps this could be due to the fact that customers are likely to trust and be more loyal to brands with good image and reputation.

Despite the usefulness of this study aforementioned, the research has its limitations. Most significantly, the sample size was small and limited to Gauteng Province of South Africa. The study can be strengthened by increasing the sample size and including participants in other geographical areas. Future studies can also attempt to compare the perceptions of customers on the current study antecedents of brand loyalty from non-durable/FMCG to other product/service categories groups.

The findings of this empirical study are expected to have to provide fruitful implications to both practitioners and academicians. On the academic side, this study makes a significant contribution to the brand management literature by systematically exploring the impact of brand communication on brand image, brand trust and brand loyalty in South Africa. On the practitioners’ side, this study therefore submits that marketers ought to pay attention to both brand communication and brand image in order to build customer brand trust. By increasing the perceived level of brand image through effective brand communication, marketers will be able gain customer brand trust. Eventually, the customers will become loyal to a brand they perceive to trustworthy. In this regard, from a policy perspective, it is recommended that managers and business strategists ought to develop policies and strategies aimed at winning customers brand loyal or increasing customers’ brand trust since such an endeavour is likely to lead to customer retention and marketing cost reduction. There is growing evidence in the extent literature indication that loyal customers are likely to share their experience with brands with their peers through “word of mouth” (WOM) (Bennetta et al., 2005; Zehir et al., 2011; Russell-Bennett et al., 2013). At the same time, the society will tend to benefit from such information shared by their peers based on their brand experience.

Overall, the current study findings provide tentative support to the proposition that brand communication, brand image and brand trust should be recognized as significant antecedents for gaining and sustaining brand loyalty in South Africa. This study therefore, stand to immensely contribute new knowledge to the existing body of brand management literature in Africa – a context that is often most neglected by some researchers in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of marketing in the economic growth and competitive strategies of Sub-Sahara African firms. It also seeks to offer a backdrop for the papers in the present volume of AJEMS.

It is based on a review of a selection of literature that highlights past and current perspectives of marketing’s contribution to economic growth and firm performance in developing economies.

The review suggests that trade liberalization in African countries since the 1980s has changed the competitive landscape of firms located in these countries and has compelled them to develop market-oriented strategies in order to enhance their performance. But the strategies adopted tend to target the growing middle income segments of the population in the urban areas and to ignore the poor.

It provides directions for future research into issues of inclusive marketing policies and strategies – i.e. strategies that embrace the bottom of the pyramid and transforms the production base of African economies.

Organizations are being compelled to revamp their loyalty programs due to the increase in digital transactions, customer acquisition costs and competition in the loyalty market. Given the significance of consumer-brand relationships, businesses must quickly identify the relationships that best elicit brand loyalty. Thus, this study seeks to develop a comprehensive model about the consumer-brand relationship that encompasses the following constructs: brand trust, brand satisfaction, brand preference, brand affect, brand equity, brand image, commitment, variety seeking, and relationship length, and their influence on brand loyalty. The study also investigates the impact of the bandwagon effect, in tandem with the aforesaid antecedents.

A data set comprising 248 consumers in India was used to validate the measures and test the hypotheses. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesis. The data analysis was carried out on R version 4.0.2.

The study found that all the selected constructs exert influence on brand loyalty, although commitment, brand equity and brand preference exhibited the strongest impact. The bandwagon effect also demonstrated a strong effect.

This study advances the field's understanding of information processing through a consolidated meta-view of various consumer-brand relationship constructs along with bandwagon effects. Perhaps the most important contribution is shedding light on the influence of bandwagon effects on brand loyalty.

This paper investigates the inhibitors and enablers of supply chain integration (SCI) across multiple tiers in the supply chains of manufacturing-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malawi.

Following a qualitative approach, data were collected through face-to-face interviews across three supply chains, each consisting of a focal manufacturer, a major supplier and a retailer.

The research identified interpersonal relationships, supplier cost transparency and joint supply chain management (SCM) investments as key enablers of SCI. Concerning the inhibitors of SCI, the study found that a lack of external integration inhibited internal integration by acting as a source of disruption to intra-firm processes and relationships. Further, the research found weaker links between manufacturer–-retailer dyads than in manufacturer–supplier dyads, which constrained the ability to achieve multi-tier supplier–manufacture–retailer integration. The study also revealed that resource and infrastructural deficiencies, a culture of fear and intimidation within and between firms, corruption in sourcing transactions and a lack of inter-firm trust inhibited SCI.

The paper extends earlier evidence that internal integration is a prerequisite for external integration demonstrating that a basic level of external integration is necessary to prevent disruptions to internal integration.

This study is one of the few to go beyond the focal firm perspective and explore the inhibitors and enablers of SCI across multiple supply chain positions, and provides new evidence on the role of external integration in achieving internal integration.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a state of the art description of open air markets (OAM), a little-known phenomenon that is indispensable in Africa’s consumer packaged goods industry.

A qualitative methodology comprising in-depth semi-structured interviews and direct observation was employed.

Analysis of data from Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, reveals that channel members have roles that are different from that of their Western counterparts. For example, distributors often do not distribute and principals are expected to actively sell on behalf of their distributors to empty the latter’s warehouse. Also, while many end-users in developing countries expect credit sales and opportunity to bargain, extant literature does not include these demands in the formal list of service output demands. Another major finding is the surprising order underlying OAM. It is the bedrock of commercial activities: for most consumer packaged goods manufacturers, sales through OAM account for over 90 percent of revenue.

The focus on one industry and country limits the generalizability of the above findings.

Africa is the next growth frontier. Tapping into this growth requires a deep understanding and appreciation of the important role played by its unique marketing channels.

Given the dearth of documented knowledge about marketing channels in emerging markets, this study addresses an important gap. Its findings could inform theory development and encourage more research on marketing channels in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to present the mechanism of online customer brand trust building through the lens of Walther’s Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) – Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT).

This paper integrates a range of theoretical and empirical works across branding and marketing, including concept of brand trust, use of online social media in brand communication and customer brand relations and CMC-SIPT theory and relational marketing literature other relevant information which were found useful in the given context were reviewed. The aim was to collect a broad spectrum of ideas, based on their relevance to the research purpose to propose effective online brand trust building framework.

This paper proposes three different developmental stages in brand trust building on online social media networks. Each stage is guided by the components of CMC-SIPT. Stage I is interaction and compliance of the brand communication clues which suggest that the aggregated level of interaction and compliance in online brand communication on social media determine the movement of the customer to the next level. Stage II suggests information processing at three successive layers by the customer as identification, internalization brand information and bonding, which eventually prompt the customer to the next level of brand trust building. Stage III is related to trust building which is the critical stage as customer internal states of arousal are experienced, which reduces the emotional risk of decision-making and increases confidence and trust of the customers in brands.

The proposed framework of brand trust building has not been tested empirically. Future research could test and validate the proposed model tracking intrinsic changes in the customer in different brand trust development stages. This research is important for marketers or brands who wish to move beyond the notion of merely satisfying customers, to establishing more powerful emotional bonds between their brands and customers. It fills a gap in brand-trust literature and provides marketers and researchers a means to understand and draw strategies for consumers’ attraction toward brands (Patwardhan and Balasubramanian, 2011). The proposed framework has the capacity to revolutionize the way business and brands engage with society by enhancing and establishing trusting relationship.

To date, this research has not been done specifically from the SIPT perspective. This research is the first to examine brand communication strategies in an effort of building brand trust in the context of online social media network from the CMC-Social information theory perspective. It highlights the peculiarities of online brand communication on social media networks and customer information processing in presenting three stages of customer brand trust development to explain the development and flow of events.

Due to increasing interest in sustainability, consumers prioritize environmentally friendly consumption across various service sectors. This study aims to examine how environment-related attributes of food delivery services affect customer behavior. Specifically, the authors use the stimulus-organism-response framework to explore how environmentally friendly food packages correlate with customers’ environmental support and patronage behavior.

The authors collected data from US food delivery service customers. To test the hypotheses, the authors used partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The authors find that customers’ perceptions of the environmental friendliness of food packages influence their satisfaction and trust, which in turn affect their environmental support and patronage behaviors. Also, customers’ trust and satisfaction mediate the relationship between their food consumption experience and its outcomes. The authors further explore demographic factors that influence the proposed relationships.

Due to the popularity of food delivery services, this study has theoretical and practical implications for restaurant service providers and highlights the potential of environmentally friendly packaging to increase both environmental support and loyal behavior.

Online brand is becoming a popular and major gateway for consumers for booking various services specifically when they travel for several purposes. The present study aims to explore whether exposure to two separate yet similar modes of communication intervene consumer's brand trust and their subsequent loyalty intention toward the brand. The study further aims to investigate whether consumer's price consciousness has any influence on association between brand trust and brand loyalty in the process of decision -making.

The present study follows a different approach to data collection. The data have been retrieved from online brand (Oyo) page on Facebook through Google Form application. In all, 289 useable responses were retrieved from the travelers aged between 18 and 30. Structural equation modeling using SPSS 25.0 and Amos 26.0 has been applied to examine the effects of brand communication and online reviews on brand loyalty through brand trust.

Empirical evidence supports that even after having strong brand communication, online reviews play a crucial role in consumer's brand loyalty through brand trust. The study further reveals that price consciousness acts as a significant moderator in the relationship between consumer's brand trust and brand loyalty.

The current research contributes to the online brand and marketing knowledge by empirically showing the pertinence of consumer–brand relationship in an online brand context through a parsimonious model by examining how the two distinct mechanisms of communication influences consumer brand trust and loyalty intention.

The parsimonious framework of consumer–brand relationship adds to explicating the dual marketing challenges of communication and to draw a positive consumer response (i.e. consumer brand loyalty). The study attempts to examine the impact of two distinct yet identical modes of communication which facilitate shaping consumer brand trust that reinforce the strategic value of the circumstance and equips it with solid theoretical structure within an endeavor of the strategic significance of online brand managers.

Betting games have become a global industry worth billions of dollars providing employment to millions and contributing to the gross domestic product (GDP) of several countries. While there are debates and controversies surrounding betting games discourse, a growing body of literature shows that it has been exacerbated by growing unemployment rates. This paper aims to examine the nexus between the increasing involvement of youth in betting games and unemployment from the Nigerian perspective.

The study adopts simple random and stratified sampling techniques to select participants for the study. Three hypotheses were tested for this study and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.

The three hypotheses tested in this study were coined from previous literature. The study established a direct link between technology advancement, promises of winning big coupled with bonuses while unemployment was not significant to youth involvement in betting games. The study also showed that playing betting games provides another source of income to the youth, who are already engaged in one form of work or another. Finally, youth involvement in betting games has created awareness regarding different sports in the world, while contributing to Nigeria’s economy.

As betting games centre as a business in Nigeria has contributed substantially and positively to unemployment in Nigeria; the Government of Nigeria are encouraged to streamline and regulate the activities of the sector such that they can contribute significantly to the country GDP and provide employment opportunities to the youths.

The research shows that the reason why betting games have a massive turnaround of youths in Nigeria is not majorly because of unemployment but as another means to a substantial financial individual/family income. Thus, Nigerian youths see betting games as an avenue to make more money. The study is the first of its kind to examine the nexus between betting games, technology and unemployment hence, its contribution to knowledge.

This study aims to examine the impact of habitual Facebook use (HFU) on life satisfaction and psychological well-being. In addition, the study examined the impact of life satisfaction on psychological well-being. Moreover, the study investigates the impact of social safeness in moderating the relationship between HFU and life satisfaction.

The study employed a quantitative survey design, using a sample of 261 Generation Y students based in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Scales for data collection were operationalized from prior studies. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The study’s results disclosed that HFU positively and significantly impacts life satisfaction and psychological well-being. In addition, life satisfaction positively and significantly impacted psychological well-being. Moreover, the results showed that social safeness had a positive and significant moderating effect on the nexus between HFU and life satisfaction.

This study contributes to understanding HFU as a precursor to life satisfaction and psychological well-being among Generation Y students. Also, evaluating the moderating effect of social safeness contributes to a more thorough understanding of the link between HFU and life satisfaction. Furthermore, this research aims to add to the body of knowledge in Africa’s communication psychology and social media literature, a field that has received little academic attention in developing countries.