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PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the process of internal brand management that makes employees identify with the corporate brand and produce positive attitudes and behaviors, thus contributing to customer satisfaction. Three constructs, brand‐centered HRM, brand psychological ownership, and brand citizenship behaviors, are utilized to examine the process of internal brand management. The first construct, brand‐centered human resource management (HRM), represents managerial practices that improve brand cognitions and brand attitude of employees. The second construct, brand psychological ownership, explains the psychological experiences that make employees feel brand ownership and then express altruistic spirit of the brand. The third construct, brand citizenship behaviors, shows that employees live the brand.Design/methodology/approachThis multilevel research of collecting data from 453 employees, 172 supervisors, and 933 customers from 26 hotels demonstrates the results of different levels. Hierarchical linear modeling is utilized to investigate the relationships among these constructs.FindingsResults at the individual level show that brand psychological ownership of employees has positive effects on brand citizenship behaviors, and all factors of these two constructs are also correlated positively. Results at the cross level demonstrate that brand‐centered HRM has positive effects on brand psychological ownership and brand citizenship behaviors. Organizational‐level brand citizenship behaviors positively affect customer satisfaction. Furthermore, brand psychological ownership partially mediates the relationship between brand‐centered HRM and brand citizenship behaviors.Practical implicationsAn organization can adopt brand‐centered HR practices to make employees produce brand psychological ownership and brand citizenship behaviors, thus contributing to customer satisfaction. HR managers can strengthen employees' brand citizenship behaviors by fostering their brand psychological ownership feelings.Originality/valueThis paper explores the conception, measurement, and explanatory power of the new research construct (i.e. brand psychological ownership) on the effectiveness of internal brand management.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors affecting consumer's fast fashion brand loyalty by examining US college students' perceptions and loyalty toward fast fashion. Design/methodology/approach Using consumer-based brand equity approach, a research model which examines the factors affecting consumer's brand loyalty in the fast fashion context was proposed. It was hypothesized that consumer's perceptions of fast fashion, including brand awareness, perceived quality, perceived value, brand personality, organizational associations, and brand uniqueness, affect consumer brand loyalty. Based on the valid data from 419 US college students, this study employed structural equation modeling to investigate the factors affecting US college students' brand loyalty toward fast fashion. Findings Results reveal that for the US college students, brand awareness, perceived value, organizational associations, and brand uniqueness are the contributing factors to generating consumer's loyalty toward fast fashion brands. Originality/value Due to the fact that fast fashion has become a key feature of the global fashion industry over the last decade, there is phenomenal growth in the availability of fast fashion brands in the US markets. This study provides valuable insights about young consumers' perceptions of fast fashion brands and the factors' contributions to their brand loyalty.

PurposeBrand communities now play a significant role in building brand loyalty. Past researches focus on how brand community facilitates brand loyalty under normal market situations. Yet, limited research examines consumer responses to negative events within the brand community context. Drawing from social identity theory and the theory of involvement, the present study aims to reveal the role that group eWOM plays in influencing brand community members’ evaluation on negative brand decisions.Design/methodology/approachBy using an experimental study, the current research adopts far brand extension as the empirical testing ground.FindingsThis research illustrates that group eWOM's influence on brand community member's attitude toward the negative brand information is affected by member's level of brand community identification and brand involvement. When the group eWOM opposes far extension, high brand community identified members are driven by social creativity to resist negative impacts to the brand. However, when the group eWOM supports far extension, high brand involved members are strengthened by group eWOM to promote favorable brand evaluations and attenuate negative impacts to the brand.Practical implicationsFirms should leverage the ingrained associations between brand community identification, brand involvement and group eWOM in affecting brand community’s responses to insulate brand community from the impacts of negative events.Originality/valueThe present study extends prior research on customer loyalty from an individual perspective to reveal the significance of group dynamics in influencing brand community’s response to negative events.