Abhishek Dwivedi

We develop a seven-step empirical procedure for comparing formative and reflective measures: 1. Checking for common method bias, 2. Estimating and evaluating the formative model, 3. Examination of the stability of the formative measurement model, 4. Examining external consistency of the formative model, 5. Estimating and evaluating an assumed reflective measurement model to the data, 6. A model fit comparison between the formative and reflective approaches and, 7. A comparison of the predictive power of both measurement approaches using data-splitting and validation. We validate the procedure on a formative measure of perceived customer equity, offering useful research and managerial implications.

Workplace wellbeing is a fast-developing subject in employment relations. This qualitative study examined the workplace wellbeing of police during COVID-19. There has been a significant critique of the narrow focus only on individual resilience and stress as the cause of workers’ poor mental health and wellbeing. Research into frontline workers’ mental health and wellbeing has mainly focused on the cumulative effect of trauma and operational stress injuries on individual resilience, with insufficient consideration of the impact of organisational culture, systemic and environmental factors. Drawing on a survey of 665 police professionals from all states and territories in Australia, this research investigated individual, the nature of work, organisational and environmental factors that negatively impacted worker wellbeing during the pandemic. The paper concludes that incorporating the full range of factors related to workplace wellbeing would inform an improved, holistic approach to maintaining and enhancing employee wellness. Understanding the influence of these factors during COVID-19 has implications for employment relations theory and the practical management of frontline emergency service workers’ workplace wellbeing generally and in times of crisis and disruption.

Purpose: This study empirically examines a set of drivers (i.e. social media involvement, self-brand congruence, firm image and relationship age) of consumers’ social media brand engagement (SMBE), which subsequently influences consumer outcomes (i.e. consumer satisfaction, brand trust and perceived value).Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using a self-administered online survey of 340 social media users. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the conceptual model.Findings: Findings indicate that social media involvement, self-brand congruence and firm image are significant drivers of SMBE, while relationship age is not. SMBE subsequently impacts consumer satisfaction, brand trust and perceived value.Research limitations/implications: This study contains some limitations associated with cross-sectional research. It does not investigate consumer engagement with other entities (e.g. other commercial brands) through the use of social media.Practical implications: These findings call for marketing managers and social media brand managers to pay attention and invest resources in the significant drivers of SMBE. They also provide insights on enhancing SMBE to strengthen consumer–brand relationships.Originality/value: Based on consumer–brand relationship marketing and consumer psychology of brands, this study investigates brand-related relational drivers and outcomes of SMBE, thereby deepening understanding of consumer engagement in digital environments.

There is a need to examine the productivity of marketing investments in brand social media communication, specifically the implications for brand value enhancement. Adopting a consumer perspective, we examine how consumer evaluation of brand social media communication influences consumer willingness to pay a price premium for a brand. Building upon frameworks of marketing led brand value creation, we conceptualize two pathways to enhancing consumer WPP: one mediated through consumer brand attitude, the other through consumer brand trust. Structural equation modeling using US consumer survey data supports the research framework. We present brand attitude and brand trust as pre-conditions for enhancing consumer willingness to pay a price premium for a brand. Overall, the study clarifies the efficacy of brand social media communication as a brand-building tool.

Two characteristics of millennial behaviour motivate the present study – an increasing concern for various life issues, and an increasing level of social media usage. In the present study, we focused on millennials’ societal concerns, financial concerns and social exclusion concerns and examined how these concerns influence social media behaviour. Adopting the compensatory consumer behaviour framework, we proposed that millennials’ social media behaviour can be understood as a form of compensatory consumption, that is, a coping mechanism for dealing with major life concerns. Data collected from a commercial survey of Australian millennials supported most of our hypotheses. We observed that social exclusion concerns directly influenced social media behaviour, whereas societal and financial concerns influence social media behaviour indirectly through influencing social exclusion concerns. Our proposed model explained more than half of the variance in social exclusion concerns, and more than one-third of the variance in social media behaviour.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay of brand experience and brand attitude and its influence on brand attitude. Specifically, it proposes that the relationship will be mediated by brand credibility. Design/methodology/approach: The conceptual model is tested by estimating a structural equation model with survey data from a sample of new automobile users (n=405). Findings: The analysis reveals a full mediation of brand credibility; that is, brand credibility is an underlying mechanism through which the effect of brand experience on brand attitude materializes. In addition, contrary to the general expectation, there was no direct effect of brand experience on brand attitude. Originality/value: This study enables a new perspective on how experiential marketing underpins a brand’s influence on certain aspects of consumer behaviour. By elucidating the mediating role of brand credibility, this study adds to the understanding of how brand experience shapes brand credibility, leading to favourable brand attitude.

Purpose: The ever-growing popularity of social media platforms is evidence of consumers engaging emotionally with these brands. Given the prominence of social media in society, the purpose of this paper is to understand social media platforms from a “brand” perspective through examining the effect of consumers’ emotional attachment on social media consumer-based brand equity (CBBE).Design/methodology/approach: This paper develops a model that outlines how emotional brand attachment with social media explains social media CBBE via shaping consumer perceptions of brand credibility and consumer satisfaction. An online survey of 340 Australian social media consumers provided data for empirical testing. The inclusion of multiple context-relevant covariates and use of a method-variance-adjusted data matrix, as well as an examination of an alternative model, adds robustness to the results.Findings: The findings of this paper support the conceptual model, and the authors identify strong relationships between the focal variables. A phantom model analysis explicates specific indirect effects of emotional brand attachment on CBBE. The authors also find support for a fully mediated effect of emotional brand attachment on social media brand equity. Further, they broaden the nomological network of emotional brand attachment, outlining key outcomes.Research limitations/implications: This paper offers a conceptual mechanism (a chain-of-effects) of how consumer emotional brand attachment with social media brands translates into social media CBBE. It also finds that a brand’s credibility as well as its ability to perform against consumer expectations (i.e. satisfaction) are equally effective in translating emotional brand attachment into social media CBBE.Practical implications: Social media brands are constantly challenged by rapid change and ongoing criticism over such issues as data privacy. The implications from this paper suggest that managers should make investments in creating (reinforcing) emotional connections with social media consumers, as this will favorably impact CBBE by way of a relational mechanism, that is, via enhancing credibility and consumer satisfaction.Social implications: Lately, social media in general has suffered from a crisis of trust in society. The enhanced credibility of social media brands resulting from consumers’ emotional attachments will potentially serve to enhance its acceptance as a credible form of media in society.Originality/value: Social media platforms are often examined as brand-building platforms. This paper adopts a different perspective, examining social media platforms as brands per se and the effects of emotional attachments that consumers develop towards these. This paper offers valuable insights into how consumers’ emotional attachments drive vital brand judgments such as credibility and satisfaction, ultimately culminating into social media CBBE.