Purpose This paper aims to examine a chain of relationships running from self-congruity with a brand – that can stem from the actual, ideal or social self – to brand attachment and from there to consumer engagement on social networking sites (SNS), specifically liking, sharing and commenting. It further advances self-extension tendency (SET) as a moderator affecting the self-congruity -> brand attachment link. Design/methodology/approach Two studies were conducted to test four hypotheses. Study 1 (n = 282) engaged a self-administered survey with students at a large Australian university. Study 2 (n = 342) was conducted amongst the members of an Australian online panel and thus, enhances generalizability. Findings Activated self-congruity orientations are brand-specific. Both studies reveal that two of the three self-congruity orientations affect brand attachment, which, in turn, influences consumers’ proclivity to like, share and comment on Facebook. Moreover, the self-congruity -> brand attachment relationship is moderated by SET. When SET is high, it strengthens the relationship between a self-congruity orientation and brand attachment. Research limitations/implications Accepted methodological approaches were used to improve the veracity of the findings. Nevertheless, further research should consider a wider area of focal brands (e.g. store brands, mundane brands, luxury brands) and other SNS. Practical implications SNS are widely acknowledged as a key marketing channel affecting both pre- and post-purchasing behaviours. Discussed here are means to trigger pro-brand advocacy behaviours. Originality/value These findings extend existing theory in three ways as follows: they show social self-congruity affects brand attachment in online contexts, brand attachment is a mediating variable affecting pro-brand social networking behaviours and SET moderates the self-congruity -> brand attachment relationship. SNS are widely acknowledged as a key marketing channel affecting both pre- and post-purchase behaviours; hence, these insights have theoretical and practical relevance.

Purpose – This study aims to propose and test a parsimonious framework for self-congruity, albeit in the context of luxury branding. This paper is the first to propose an integrated model focusing on the drivers and consequences of self-congruity. The model is further applied to explain how self-congruity may motivate future experiences with the luxury brand, mainly by influencing self-perception. Although a substantive marketing literature on self-congruity currently exists, there is a lack of an integrated framework, a gap that the current work addresses. Design/methodology/approach – A paper and pencil survey was conducted among female subjects only, and structural path relationships were tested using AMOS. Findings – Consumers’ self-congruity with a luxury brand (non-luxury brand) is positively (negatively) influenced by its antecedents: social desirability, need for uniqueness and status consumption. Self-congruity with a luxury (non-luxury) brand is found to enhance (undermine) consumers’ self-perceptions. This, in turn, is found to have a stronger (weaker) positive impact on consumers’ motivation to re-use a shopping bag from luxury brand (non-luxury brand) for hedonic purpose. Mediation analyses show that self-congruity has a positive (negative) indirect effect on hedonic use via self-perception for luxury (non-luxury) brand. Research limitations/implications – Future studies may involve actual shoppers, causal design and additional variables like “utilitarian usage “of shopping bags to extend the proposed framework. Practical implications – A better understanding of the findings has implications for brand positioning, advertising and packaging. Originality/value – Till date, no research has examined a parsimonious model for self-congruity complete with its antecedents and consequences and tested it in the context of a luxury versus non-luxury brand.

Purpose-This paper investigates the direct and indirect effects of social visibility (private vs. public), purchase motivation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic vs. altruistic) and external reference price (absent vs. present) on consumers' pricing decisions in pay-what-you-want (PWYW) context. Design/methodology/approach-Two empirical studies with a fitness gym as the research setting were used to test all the hypotheses; first, a lab experiment with undergraduate student participants and the second, an online experiment with a consumer panel. Findings-Both studies show that consumers allocate a higher share (RATIO) of their internal reference prices (IRP) to the prices to be paid (PTP) in PWYW context, in private under intrinsic purchase motivation and in public under extrinsic or altruistic motivation; and this effect is more pronounced in the absence of external reference price (ERP). Research limitations/implications-Future research may validate and extend our findings with other product or service categories, different manipulations for the key variables, other research methods such as field experiments and expand our model by including other relevant variables. Practical implications-Our findings will help managers understand how individual customers' purchase motivation and the social visibility in the PWYW setting affect their pricing decisions and how providing external pricing cues may moderate these effects. Originality/value-Prior research on PWYW shows mixed findings about the direct effects of many variables on consumers' pricing decisions but it ignores the differences in consumers' purchase motivations and offers mixed evidence about the influence of social visibility and external reference prices on payment decisions. We address all these gaps in this paper.

Purpose -This paper aims to investigate the effects of customer equity drivers on customer loyalty via customer trust in a B2B context. Design/methodology/approach -A self-administered online survey was conducted to collect data from the organizational customers of an on-hold service company in Australia. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. Findings -The study reveals that in a B2B context, value equity and relationship equity have significant influence on customer loyalty through the mediating effect of customer trust. On the other hand, brand equity is found to have no effect on customer trust and loyalty. Practical implications -In order to obtain business customers' loyalty, managers should focus more on value and relationship equity than brand equity. Originality/value -While most of the previous studies on "customer equity" focused on the B2C context, this study focuses on a B2B context. It demonstrates the impact of customer equity drivers on business customers' loyalty.

Purpose – Employees in community pharmacies play a far significant and distinct role compared to the employees in traditional retail stores. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of employee performance (EP) on customer loyalty of pharmacy services. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through a self-administered survey filled in by the customers of 25 community pharmacies. A total of 679 completely filled-in questionnaires were analysed. The proposed model was tested through structural equation modelling using AMOS 22. Findings – EP positively affects pharmacy customers’ perceived value (PV), trust and loyalty. PV and trust fully mediates the relationships between EP and customers’ attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Unlike short-term customers, the long-term relational customers’ PV was found to have significant impact on their trust and behavioural loyalty. Research limitations/implications – This study is based on the Australian community pharmacy industries; hence, caution must be exercised in the generalization of the results to other countries. The study has considered only PV and trust in examining the link between the EP and customer loyalty. Other variables such as commitment could possibly influence the link, which has not been considered in this study. Originality/value – The study contributes to the existing literature by focusing on how EP affects both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty of pharmacy customers. It shows empirical evidence that EP influences customers’ PV and trust en-route to influencing their loyalty. The study measures EP based on both empathy and service provider performance covering a broader spectrum of the construct.