Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore ethical consumers' brand avoidance. The study contributes to brand-avoidance research by exploring what role consumers' ethical concerns play in their brand avoidance. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach is adopted by interviewing 15 active members of organizations that represent ethical concerns for the well-being of animals, the environment and humans. Findings – The study indicates that consumers with a strong value-based perspective on consumption (such as ethical consumers) may reject brands in two different but interrelated ways. In essence, the study reveals characteristics of brand avoidance that have not been discussed in earlier research, in terms of two dimensions: persistency (persistent vs temporary) and explicitness (explicit vs latent). Practical implications – The study shows the importance of considering the phenomenon of brand avoidance, as it may reveal fundamental challenges in the market. These challenges may relate to consumer values that have not been regarded as important or that have been thought of as relating only to a specific group of consumers. Originality/value – The ethical consumers' views represent new insights into understanding brand avoidance.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of inputs from consumers' past experiences of a company on their current image-construction processes, in the context of non-food retailing. Design/methodology/approach -Research data were collected by a multi-method combination of several different qualitative research methods from individuals selected by the theoretical sampling procedure. Analysis and interpretation conformed to a classic grounded theory approach. Findings -It was found that consumer images generated by relevant past experience are a direct and influential input into real-time corporate image formation. Two new theoretical concepts were identified, "image heritage" and "image-in-use", respectively, distinguishing consumers' past-based images from those they construct in real time. Image heritage is moderated by three principal variables: timespan of awareness, content of earlier experiences, and key temporal focus. Research limitations/implications -This study focused on the corporate image of non-food retailers. Future research should broaden the context, to enhance understanding of image heritage and image-in-use, and yield useful conceptual generalisations. Practical implications -Given that the consumer's view of the company's past plays an important role in their interpretation of its present corporate brand, branding strategy should be informed by a systematic effort to identify the probable components of that historical perception. Originality/value -This study is the first to focus on the influence of the past on consumers' current corporate images. The constructs identified and the terminology novel, offering a radically new dimension to corporate image research.

is an associate professor at Oslo School of Management, Norway. He holds a Dr Oecon (PhD) at Norwegian School of Management BI. He has a background as an entrepreneur and from management and board positions within telecommunication industry. His research agenda consists of various subjects within inter-fi rm relationships, such as: governance of foreign collaborative partners, co-ordination and cooperation, relationship management, relationship quality and relationship climate. Anders Billstr ö mis a doctoral student at Halmstad University, Sweden. His research interest include business-to-business relationships. ABSTRACT This article develops a conceptual foundation for Conscientious Corporate Brands (CCBs) by exploring the role that (i) environmental and (ii) climate change issues, and that (iii) internal and (iv) external corporate codes of ethics play as dimensions of CCBs. The article ' s aim is to extend previous research in ethical branding by proposing an empirically grounded conceptual foundation of ' the conscientious dimension ' of a corporate brand. The empirical context is based onNordic business-to-business relationships.

No abstract

No abstract