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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 50156

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jana Majerova

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina, Univerzitna 1, 010 26 Zilina, Slovak Republic
Interests: brand management; corporate social responsibility; international marketing

Prof. Marzanna Katarzyna Witek-Hajduk

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Guest Editor

Warsaw Scholl of Economics, Madalińskiego str. 6/8, 02-513 Warszawa, Poland
Interests: brand management; brand valuation; international management

Prof. Anna Krizanova

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina, Univerzitna 1, 010 26 Zilina, Slovak Republic
Interests: marketing; management; brand management; business economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The higher the level of interdependence among economies, the greater the importance of implementing sustainable brand management as an imperative of achieving sustainable development. The main ideological basis of this concept is the not only declaratory but also factual fulfilment of economic, law, ethical, and philanthropic commitments of the brand, which form the content of real brand citizenship (i.e., conscious performance of the brand in society regarding all interactions that are connected with existence of the brand—not only at the level of forcing its own rights but also awareness and consequent fulfilment of its duties).

Thus, it is essential to redirect the attention of managers, which has so far been focused mainly on the effective creation of competitive advantage providing for consumer's preferences, on the factual realization of the activities which have direct positive impact on sustainable development. This shift should be obvious not only in case of brands with a significant carbon footprint in the process of production, but also in case of brands that are traditionally considered to be sustainably conformal.

From the perspective of the optimal implementation of sustainable brand management, it is vital to consider the need of modifying existing models of brand management. Only by doing this can the basic assumption of effective sustainable building and the management of subjective brand value as perceived by consumers be reached.

Based on the growing need of developing integrated models of the creation and implementation of sustainable brand management patterns focusing on behaviorism in consumers’ buying behavior, there is a gap that could potentially be filled by formulating relevant theoretical platforms as well as complex methodologies in the form of framework models oriented towards the optimization of managerial decision-making processes. So, a space must be created for the acquisition of new knowledge and the formulation of new postulates based on the application of systematic and multidisciplinary approaches forming the basis for reaching the sustainable development of society.

Therefore, we are organizing this Special Issue, which aims to discuss the challenges of contemporary sustainable brand management in light of the multidisciplinary aspects of this concept.

We invite you to contribute to this Issue by submitting comprehensive reviews, case studies, or research articles. Papers selected for this Special Issue will be subject to a rigorous peer review procedure with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications.

Prof. Jana Majerova
Prof. Marzanna Katarzyna Witek-Hajduk
Prof. Anna Krizanova
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainability
sustainable development
sustainable brand management
business ethics
brand management
branding
B2B branding
employer branding
brand value
brand equity
brand loyalty
love brands
brand community
brand citizenship
brand social responsibility
brand altruism
brand philanthropy
green branding
behavioral economics
sustainable buying behavior
buying behavior
consumer engagement
digital branding platforms
e-branding
typology of consumer behavior
generational stratification of consumers
regional specifics in branding
branding on emerging markets

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4755 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring Patterns of Evolution for Successful Global Brands: A Data-Mining Approach

by Yu-Yin Chang and Heng-Chiang Huang

Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7915; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147915 - 15 Jul 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3621

Abstract

The sustainable development of a global brand needs to consider the balance between the economy, the environment, and society. Brands that want to be ranked among the best global brands over time need to have competitive strengths, but what defines a successful global brand’s profile is underexplored in the extant literature. This study adopts a data-mining approach to analyze the time-series data collected from Interbrand’s Best Global Brands ranking lists. A total of 168 global brands from 19 countries across 24 industries between 2001 and 2017 were examined. Using the affinity propagation clustering algorithm, this study identified certain patterns of brand evolution for different brand clusters, labeled as fast riser, top tier, stable, slow grower, decline, fall, potential, and so on. Finally, the rankings from 2018 to 2020 were also added to check the model’s predictive power. The findings of this study have important marketing implications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

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18 pages, 648 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Brand Symbolism, Perceived Service Quality, and CSR Skepticism Influence Consumers to Engage in Citizenship Behavior

by Bassam Dalal and Ahmad Aljarah

Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6021; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116021 - 27 May 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 5165

Abstract

Brand symbolism, which stems from the vitality of the brand and feeds self-symbolism and social symbolism, has become an increasingly important strategy for firms to enhance consumer behavior. Building on attachment theory, social identity theory, and cognitive consistency theory, and using data from 439 customers of Starbucks in Lebanon, we used an integrative model to examine how brand symbolism, perceived service quality, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) skepticism jointly affect two types of Customer Citizenship Behavior (CCB): helping other customers and policing other customers. The findings revealed that brand symbolism has a significant positive impact on CCBs and is a stronger predictor of policing other customers than helping other customers in the hospitality context. Further, perceived service quality acts as a mediator between the brand symbolism and CCB dimensions. This study discovered that CSR skepticism negatively moderates the direct and indirect effects of brand symbolism on CCBs through perceived service quality. The findings contribute to the literature by examining the boundary conditions of how and under what conditions brand symbolism affects CCBs by enrolling perceived service quality as a mediator variable and CSR skepticism as a moderator variable in the brand symbolism–CCB relationship. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

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15 pages, 1160 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Marketing Decisions on Brand Equity and Franchise Performance

by Eunkyung Lee, Ji-Hern Kim and Chang Seop Rhee

Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3391; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063391 - 18 Mar 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5906

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide a way of pursuing a balanced profitability between franchisors and franchisees leading to the sustainability in franchising. Based on a belief that the formation of brand-centric relationship is vital for the success of franchising system, we constructed a model that examines the relationships between marketing decisions, brand equity, and the financial performances of franchisors and franchisees. We used actual data of the Korean franchise chains, including measures of channel intensity and advertising and promotional activities as franchise marketing decisions as well as the profitability of franchisors and franchisees for the analysis. The results of analysis show that while advertising and promotion expenditure has a positive impact on the performances of both franchisors and franchisees, the number of stores does not influence them in the same way. This indicates that their interests may conflict. This study suggests that marketing decisions can be utilized as a means of achieving balanced profitability that would benefit the sustainability in franchising between franchisors and franchisees. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

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18 pages, 626 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Customer’s Choice of Purchasing Channel: Do Channel Characteristic, Brand, and Loyalty Matter When Shopping in Hybrid Retailers?

by Radka Bauerová and Veronika Braciníková

Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2453; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052453 - 24 Feb 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5596

Abstract

Despite the increasing interest of researchers in the factors that lead customers to buy online, attention has not yet been paid to the factors in hybrid companies, where it is possible to choose both online and offline purchasing channels. Therefore, this paper is focused on investigating the importance of factors that affect customers in both environments. Data were obtained from 1021 respondents using an online panel from the IPSOS research company in Czechia in 2019. Two content analyses were used to obtain results. Attention was also focused on the perception of brand/loyalty in shifting retailers to the online environment or offline environment. The aim of the paper is to find out what factors and how they influence customers when deciding of purchasing channel. The results show the choice of channel is influenced by factors given by channel benefits, the product, brand perception, loyalty, and customer characteristics. Within hybrid retailers, the most preferred purchasing channel is still the offline channel. However, the results also show a significant impact of brand perception and loyalty in the transition of hybrid retailers to a purely online or offline environment, which significantly opens up opportunities for retailing management within sustainable brand management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

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13 pages, 329 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling Advertising Practices for Product Involvement and Consumer Impulsivity in Branded Apparel: A Case Study of Indian Consumers

by Sufyan Habib, Nawaf N. Hamadneh and Abdelaziz Alsubie

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2309; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042309 - 20 Feb 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3156

Abstract

The exponential growth of advertising in enhancing consumer impulsivity has drawn the interest of many researchers to explore the various dimensions of advertising and its effective modeling. The branded apparel product market has grown significantly, a large number of competitors have entered into the market with variant quality, and there are a number of attractive advertising practices. The main aim of this study was to analyze the advertising practices and their relationship with consumer product involvement and the impulsive buying behavior of consumers in branded apparel in India. In a survey of 445 Indian customers, the study indicated that advertising practices significantly affect consumer involvement in branded apparel products and enhance their impulsivity toward products. The study also indicated that the level of consumer involvement in the branded apparel product significantly mediates the relationship between advertising practices and consumer impulsive buying behavior. Effective advertising practices will help companies to enhance consumer involvement that will enable branded apparel companies in enhancing consumer impulsiveness toward products. Some of the managerial implications, limitations, and scope of future research are also presented in the study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

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12 pages, 292 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Local Aspect in the Successful Brands in Latin America: Empirical Evidence of Its Prevalence, the Role of Local and Global Companies, and Its Effect on Consumers

by Pablo Farías

Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 819; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020819 - 15 Jan 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2423

Abstract

Local businesses, local brands, and brand names in the local language help to preserve the local culture of a country. Through a content analysis, this study examined the 880 most successful brands in nine Latin American markets to evaluate the prevalence of local companies, local brands, and brand names in the local language among the most successful brands in Latin America. The results showed that local companies and local brands have a low prevalence among the most successful brands in Latin America. This study also revealed that global firms do not use local brands or local-sounding brand names. In contrast, local firms use local-sounding brand names for their local brands. The results showed that the use of local brands and local-sounding brand names is higher in local companies than in global companies. The results demonstrated a low prevalence of local focus among the most successful brands in Latin America, and showed that global companies are driving this low prevalence in the region. The results also indicated that a brand having a local-sounding brand name will increase its success. Therefore, the results suggest that local companies and especially global companies should include local-language brand names in their brand portfolios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

10 pages, 760 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability and Branding: An Integrated Perspective of Eco-innovation and Brand

by Erika Loučanová, Mikuláš Šupín, Tatiana Čorejová, Katarína Repková-Štofková, Mária Šupínová, Zuzana Štofková and Miriam Olšiaková

Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 732; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020732 - 13 Jan 2021

Cited by 44 | Viewed by 6904

Abstract

Eco-innovation presents a tool that helps companies to transform environmental constraints into opportunities and advantages such as cost reduction, better reputation, and benefit for new markets. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the perception of eco-innovation and green brands in the context of sustainability in Slovakia and their mutual relation. The applied research focused on the perception of eco-innovation and green brands. The survey was realized by the Kano model that provides customers’ opinions regarding the requirements of the monitored object. In our case, the research object is ecological innovation evaluated in terms of selected parameters. To generalize the relationships among examined parameters, cluster analysis was applied to identify clusters of examined parameters of ecological innovations. The aim of the contribution is to present the output of the cluster analysis in a form of a dendrogram showing a graphical grouping of related objects in three clusters that include examined parameters according to their perception by customers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

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14 pages, 1680 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Development of Human Resources in Globalization Period

by Zuzana Stofkova and Viera Sukalova

Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7681; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187681 - 17 Sep 2020

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 10232

Abstract

The article deals with human resource management, its theoretical principles, and its use in practice in the era of globalization. The main goal of this paper is to analyze and describe human resource management focused on the process of human resource development and education. The article shows how the principles are applied in a selected Information-Communication Technologies (ICT) company in Slovakia as an attractive employer who is interested in satisfaction, education, and growth of its employees, thus employer branding. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey with employees in the selected company. Secondary data from corporate sources were used, too. The aim of the survey was to point out the human resources management in a selected company and to examine the perception of the impact of employees development on their performance and to design effective approaches to personnel development in a selected company with an impact on employee performance. The aim of the survey was to find out whether there was a dependence between the subjectively perceived performance of the employees and individual aspects, which are the completion of technical training programs, individual evaluation of the employee, relocation of the employee, and the number of completed training activities. A questionnaire survey was used to achieve this goal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Brand Management)

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21 pages, 298 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CSR Activities and Their Impact on Brand Value in Food Enterprises in Slovakia Based on Foreign Participation

by Zdenka Kádeková, Radovan Savov, Ingrida Košičiarová and Katarina Valaskova

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 4856; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124856 - 14 Jun 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5095

Abstract

This paper highlights the activity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its impact on brand value in food enterprises with and without foreign participation in Slovakia. Attention has been paid to all three pillars—People, Planet, Profit—and their communication in relation to customers, business partners, employees, local communities, environmental protection, and company values. The paper evaluates the impact of these activities on brand value in food enterprises in Slovakia. One hundred and twenty-five food enterprises were included in the research. The paper offers eight statistically tested hypotheses, of which three have been fully confirmed. Almost 86% of food companies with foreign participation apply CSR activities, while companies without foreign participation comprise only 40% of the total share. The biggest differences in the perception of the importance of CSR activities are noticeable in foundations and charitable activities, and in sponsorship and donations, but are less noticeable in terms of ecology, corporate transparency, and cooperation with non-profit organizations. In the field of environmental protection, CSR activities are communicated and used in order to build brand value, mostly in food enterprises with foreign participation. Almost 96% of food enterprises with foreign participation that apply and communicate CSR activities see an increase in their brand value. Full article

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