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Social media brands may experience a lack of competitiveness and attraction due to the silent negative increase of customers' need for uniqueness (NFU). This is the result of a tension between the theory of brand congruence, that most brands endeavor to establish with their customers, and the theory of consumers' NFU, that many consumers aim to fulfill, that has not been previously examined. Whilst the theory of brand congruence states that consumers have a favorable attitude towards brands that greatly match their self-concept (brand similarity), the theory of uniqueness, when brand similarity is shared with others, generates avoidance of similarities with others, leading to a reduction in engagement and satisfaction. Social media platforms including Facebook are at risk from customers' NFU which significantly reduces users' satisfaction, hence reducing the attractiveness and usage of Facebook. To examine this, the paper identifies the paradox of similarity in relation to both theories and examines the relationship between consumers' socialization within Social Network Sites (SNSs), brand similarity, consumers' need for uniqueness, and consumers' satisfaction with the SNS. The conceptual model was tested using data from 341 consumers in the US. The findings show that whilst satisfaction with the SNS is enhanced by brand similarity and friend liking, it is undermined by customers' need for uniqueness. Implications for online brand communities and SNSs (Facebook) are discussed and guidance for future research is provided.

Although previous studies have examined the impact of job insecurity, there remains a need to understand specific issues related to job insecurity that results from government workforce localization policies. This study addresses this gap by examining employees' work-related outcomes: employee engagement, job burnout, and intentions to quit, recognizing the interplay of employees' identification with an organization and perceived corporate reputation in the context of Saudi Arabia's localization policies. The study uses social identification theory to explain how employees' perception of corporate reputation and their identification with a company shape their work attitudes in the presence of job-insecurity. Partial least square - path modeling (PLS-PM) and PROCESS tool is used to test hypotheses from data collected from 135 expatriate migrant employees working in different organizations in Saudi Arabia. Findings show that job insecurity has a significant effect of reducing the engagement of immigrant employees and leads to increased employee burnout and intentions to quit jobs. The results of moderation analysis show that favorable corporate reputation reduces the negative impact of job insecurity on employee's burnout and intentions to quit, whereas high level of identification with company may also reduce employee burnout, even during job insecurity. Although immigrant employees do not seek to leave a reputable organization due to localization policies, they still experience stress, become disengaged, and so are less productive. As a result, businesses should leverage their reputation towards governmental policies of localization, by advocating expatriate employees' contributions towards organizations and economy.

There is wide consensus that the brand experience literature (BEL) suffers from a deficit in conceptual works. This study argues that, for brand experience research to overcome its conceptual insipidity, it must reexamine the core of its intellectual structure to rediscover what ‘an experience provided by brands’ truly implies. The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize and present a future research framework for research into the concept of brand experience, by identifying both the core and peripheral sources of knowledge of the concept and its association with brand meaning. Through a bibliometric process covering 136 articles published between 2002 and 2018, resulting in a database of 2,698 citations, this brand experience conceptual paper fills a critical research gap by providing the first full-scale bibliometric study to date of the BEL, using a combination of high citation and co-citation metrics. Based on this conceptual reorientation, a matrix for future development is presented, enabling the reader to visualize the scope and breadth of potential brand experience research horizons in areas relating to customer experience, consumer-brand relationship, online brand experience and sensory brand experience. The four approaches listed in the matrix – firm-based, social constructionist, virtuality and embodiment – provide a roadmap for future brand experience research undertakings to explore the rich potential of experience evoked by brands.

This study asserts that conceptualising sensory brand experience (SBE) as an independent construct is critical to expanding our understanding of experiences provided by brands. To achieve this goal, a rigorous examination of its foundational knowledge structure underpinning the construct is urgently required. Using co-citation analysis examining 151 SBE-related articles with 4,038 citations over more than two decades (1994–2019), six knowledge fields deemed to have constitutive influence on SBE literature have been identified - atmospherics, product evaluation, sensory marketing, service marketing, experiential marketing and brand experience. Combining the results of a hierarchical cluster analysis and a metric multidimensional scaling analysis, the authors located three fundamental premises: (1) brand settings are arbiters of brand meaning; (2) the intrinsic processing of SBE involves the entrainment of exteroceptive and interoceptive processes; and (3) SBE outcomes are non-representational. At the end of the paper, these findings are organised into an integrative framework, highlighting research concerns and research gaps at the antecedent, processing and outcome stages. In doing so, this paper contributes to the conceptual development of SBE by constructing a doctrinal schema for future research undertakings.

Being sustainability‐oriented has become a key strategy for many firms. Equally, innovation culture and innovation outcomes have long been recognized as important contributors to the growth of firms. However, the literature on sustainability and innovation provides limited understanding of the important relationship between sustainability orientation, innovation culture and innovation outcomes. Given that large firms and small firms differ in building and employing their strategic assets, firm size matters in understanding the relationship. Through the lens of resource‐based view, we develop a theoretical model embedding the four components and test it using data from a global survey: the 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study. Our research contributes to sustainability literature and innovation theory by providing an integrated framework to explicate the mechanism through which the innovation culture of the firm impacts on innovative performance through the sustainability orientation of the firm. The findings advance our understanding of the extent to which sustainable orientation can explain the relationship between innovation culture and innovation outcomes. Our evidence shows that the innovation culture of a firm facilitates the sustainability orientation of the firm and that the converse also applies. The research also contributes to our knowledge of the differences between large and small firms in leveraging their strategic assets in terms of innovation culture and sustainability orientation to facilitate superior innovation outcomes. Although firm size moderates the relationship between innovation culture and innovation outcomes, the research shows that this no longer holds when sustainability orientation is included in the relationship. A strong sustainability orientation can be a competitive advantage for firms in the R&D Management delivery of superior innovation outcomes.

This study uses the attribution and signaling theory perspective to scrutinize the key impacts of the determinants of corporate website favorability. In addition, this paper examines the main influences of satisfaction and attractiveness on corporate image and reputation, observes the role that the demographics of consumers (gender and age) play in such relationships, and proposes a research model along with research tenets. To examine these tenets, the conceptual framework was empirically evaluated through the perceptions of 563 consumers toward the financial setting in Russia (563). This study employs complexity theory, which integrates the principle of equifinality. To examine the data, this research employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Additionally, this study makes a managerial contribution to the understanding of marketing and communication managers and website designers regarding the associations among corporate website favorability, its antecedents, and its consequences.

Although research into the business model has received increasing attention, few studies have so far been conducted on business model innovation in an international context. The purpose of the study is to identify different patterns of business model innovation which enables international retailers to rebuild their core business logic in new host countries. On the basis of comparing and contrasting the business model changes of 15 international retailers from various home countries to one single host country (China), our study provides an in-depth understanding of business model innovation in the context of international business. By looking at the firms’ capabilities in rebuilding their core logic in the setting of a host country, we reveal six routes of retail business model innovation. Utilizing the lens of organizational learning theory and internationalization, we identify three patterns of resource deployment by international companies in the process of developing business model innovations. Our study, therefore, provides insights and guidance for multinational companies in general, international retailers in particular, as for how to successfully adapt their business model from home country to host country.

International audience; This research investigates the impact of brand perception on brand loyalty and brand purchase intention using the lenses of complexity theory. First, the study conceptualizes and operationalizes perceptional and behavioral components of brand equity. It then examines the dimensions of brand perception, and by assessing the consequences of favorable brand perception, the study enables a better understanding regarding whether a brand marketing approach helps to improve marketing performance. The research was conducted using a mixed methodology, beginning with interviews in order to gain a better understanding of the relationship between the dimensions of brand perception. These were followed by a questionnaire survey, and the resulting data were analyzed through content analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results indicate that brand awareness, perceived quality, brand association, brand fondness, brand image, and product country image have a strong impact on the management of brand perception. The finding illustrates that it is the combinations of various perceptional elements of brand equity rather than any single factor that have strong impacts on brand loyalty and brand purchasing intention. The results support the importance of brand perception for the fashion industry, which needs to be more interactive in order to increase their customers' brand loyalty and brand purchasing intention.

This article examines the innovation and knowledge strategies that allow emerging-market companies to become major international players. By adopting a qualitative approach, this study identifies a significant paradox between the desire of some leading Chinese car companies to expand internationally and the current relationship of such companies with leading global car companies, which significantly inhibits Chinese international expansion. This study unpacks that paradox using innovation theory and the resource-based view, and develops a matrix of strategic options that can assist emerging market multinational companies to expand internationally.

General studies on technology and knowledge (T&K) transfer to developing countries have often adopted methods that yield inconsistent results. Traditional quantitative methods, alone, have limitations in their ability to account for complex interaction between variables. This article adopts configurational recipes, using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to supplement the analysis. This research carefully and systematically selects responses from experts and practitioners in the construction industry in Ghana. The results reveal two configurational recipes for high quality of T&K transfer: effective industry institutions, education effectiveness, and less congestion of firms; and joint presence of high government policy incentives, effective industry institutions, and education effectiveness. This study extends significantly the existing literature regarding T&K transfer in developing countries in general and in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in particular.

This study uses an agency theory perspective to examine how the factors that influence principal (IJV parents) and agent (IJV) relationship may affect IJV instability in China. The study proposes a framework that bridges knowledge-based theory (of tacit knowledge) and agency theory (of parental opportunism) by incorporating reactance theory (of autonomy). By comparing the empirical results of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and multiple regression analysis, using a sample of 203 Chinese-foreign IJVs, the study adds further evidence to growing methodological consideration regarding complexity theory. The results from multiple regressions show that parental opportunism and IJV's autonomy have a positive effect on IJV's instability, and that the interaction of autonomy and tacit knowledge moderates the effect of parental opportunism on IJV instability. However, fsQCA uncovers more causal paths than findings from multiple regression analysis.

While the general principles of the Institutional Perspective have been widely accepted, there has been only limited consideration to the present time of their in-depth application to the strategies of individual firms engaged in international business. The paper argues that companies engaged in such activities will find that there is a significant gap in precisely what aspects of the formal and informal institutional perspectives need to be identified and assessed for international expansion. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical paradigm that allows organizations not only to compare different countries with regard to their potential for international business expansion from the perspective of Institutional Theory but also drawing on theories of International Business Strategy where relevant. The theoretical framework assumes that such organizations are engaged in analyzing the institutional arrangements and resources of their home and possible host countries. The paper then develops a conceptual framework that identifies five major components, namely people, power, performance, pathways to international expansion, and productivity, the latter being defined in terms of knowledge and innovation. It explores each of these areas in more depth with the aim of adding a more detailed structure to elements of Institutional Theory relevant to international business expansion.

This research applies complexity theory to understand the effect of innovation capability and customer experience on reputation and loyalty. This study investigates the contribution of consumer demographics to such relationships. To this end, this article recognizes effective and intellectual experiences as the key elements of customer experience and proposes a conceptual framework with research propositions. To examine the research propositions, this study employs confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), using a sample of 606 consumers of international retail brands. The findings contribute to the literature on innovation, customer, and brand management. In addition, the results also provide guidelines for managers to create customer value in the retail environment through technical innovation capability (new services, service operations, and technology) and non-technical innovation capability (management, sales, and marketing). Furthermore, this article reflects on the link between the consumer shopping experience and firm reputation and loyalty.