Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of brand equity (BE) on stock performance (i.e. stock return, volatility and beta), and compare the performance of a high brand equity stocks (HBES) portfolio with that of the overall market during market downturn, market upturn and total disturbance periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Design/methodology/approach Stock performance data and brand valuation estimates are obtained from various sources to assemble a portfolio of HBES and conduct the analyses. Econometric models are estimated to examine the impact of BE on stock performance and compare the HBES portfolio performance versus the overall market. Findings BE was positively associated with stock return and negatively associated with both types of risk (volatility and beta) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, during the market downturn period, BE was positively related to stock return and negatively related to stock volatility; during the market upturn period, BE was negatively associated with both types of risk; and during the total disturbance period, BE was positively associated with stock return and negatively associated with both types of risk. Finally, the HBES portfolio outperformed the market (S&P 500 index). Research limitations/implications The findings advance the extant research by providing evidence pertaining to brands' role in mitigating the impact of unpredictable market shocks and crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, on stock performance. While brands are mostly viewed as drivers of sustained competitive advantage and profitability, their protective role in crisis times is noteworthy. Practical implications The research findings potentially help marketing and brand managers to justify marketing spending and craft their strategies to enhance firm performance during crises similar to COVID-19. Originality/value The marketing–finance interface can benefit from insights offered by the COVID-19 pandemic, as such crises are becoming prevalent and are capable of damaging various stakeholders' outcomes (firms, investors and customers). The empirical examination is separately conducted on the market downturn, market upturn and total disturbance period attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

PurposeThis research (1) investigates value cocreation behavior and the underlying activities on social media; (2) examines the motivational values and psychological predictors of cocreation intention on social media via uses and gratification paradigm (U&G) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB); (3) investigates an underlying mechanism linking the motivational values to cocreation intention, via attitude.Design/methodology/approachStructural Equation Modeling (SEM) and the mediation analysis are used to test the data from 417 Facebook users.FindingsCocreation intention is (1) robustly influenced by extrinsic motivational values, such as purposive value; (2) indirectly affected, through attitude, by intrinsic motivational values such as entertainment and social enhancement; and (3) not associated with subjective norms, behavioral control and self-discovery. The latter is a likely result of this study's focus on explaining value cocreation rather than social media usage.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is one of the first to identify antecedents of cocreation intention on Facebook, using an integrative model of TPB and U&G. Attitude serves as a key construct, mediating the effects of motivational values on cocreation intention, with mediation being partial for some values and complete for others. The existence of direct and indirect effects of motivational values and the mediating role of attitude points to the illustrious yet contested value–attitude–behavior hierarchy and offers explanations as to why some of the motivational values were not linked to the cocreation behavior on Facebook (Pelletier et al., 2020).Practical implicationsFirms should strive to influence the attitude of their users toward cocreation intention as it links the influence of motivational values on value cocreation. Managers should strive to prepare an appropriate platform where customers can easily interact with one another and communicate different value propositions. The goal should be to enable customers to derive extrinsic values as they interact with corporate-sponsored social media content. More specifically, purposive value, followed by socializing value, should be emphasized during social media content design. For example, the content should feature concrete and convenient informational and instrumental benefits (purposive value) and provide customers with tools that enable them to create social support, friendship and intimacy (socializing value). In addition, entertainment value should not be dismissed.Originality/valueThis research builds upon the emerging social media literature and a robust decision-making model to investigate value cocreation, predictors and an underlying mechanism explaining the relationships.

Frontline employees (FLEs) often face customer incivility—rude or demeaning remarks, verbal aggression, or hostile gestures. Although incivility from customers is rising at an alarming rate, most organizations refuse to act decisively to protect their FLEs and stop customer incivility. This research asserts that an organizational policy of ignoring and accepting incivility from customers is neither a wise business strategy nor has positive outcomes. In contrast, customer incivility should be handled promptly and decisively. Specifically, the authors present FLE Constructive Resistance (FLE CR) as a strategy to confront customer incivility. The authors conduct interviews with FLEs, develop a Constructive Resistance (CR) scale to fit the context of FLE–customer encounters, and test a conceptual model to examine the impact of CR by FLEs. The results suggest that customers who observe incivility perpetrated by fellow customers respond positively to FLE CR, including greater future purchase intention, greater positive word-of-mouth intention, and reduced future misbehavior intention. These effects are mediated by the observer’s perceived fairness of the FLE’s CR. Finally, the indirect effects of FLE’s CR on observer outcomes are more likely to manifest in customers with higher moral identity as well as newer customers.

PurposeThis research aims to provide a theory-based means for firms to improve customers' likelihood to provide reviews and elicit reviews that are more accurate accounts of customers' consumption experience. The authors also examined the moderating impact of type of review (whether the reviews are anonymous or identified) on the effect of moral identity on the likelihood to provide reviews and accuracy of the reviews.Design/methodology/approachData were collected via two experiments (n = 524) in lab sessions. The authors used convenient samples comprised of college students and administrative staff. Study 1 was used to examine the impact of participants' naturally existing moral identity on the likelihood to provide reviews and the accuracy of the reviews provided. Study 2 was used to investigate whether moral identity can be artificially activated or not. Study 2 was also used to test the moderating impact of the type of review on the effect of moral identity (activated vs not activated/control) on likelihood to provide reviews and the accuracy of the reviews provided.FindingsThe authors found that moral identity positively impacts the likelihood that customers will agree to provide reviews and the accuracy of the reviews. Also, the type of review moderates the effect of moral identity for those whose moral identity was not activated (i.e. uninfluenced). However, the type of review did not moderate the effect of moral identity when participants' moral identity was activated or primed.Originality/valueStrategies currently used to elicit online reviews yield low conversion rates or elicit reviews that potential customers do not trust. This paper provides an empirically tested, theory-driven means for managers of digital platforms to improve customer engagement behaviors such as “liking”, tweeting, sharing and product reviews.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of incumbents’ defensive strategies, specifically price-cut and capacity expansion, on new entrants’ (NEs) exit decisions and examine the moderating role of incumbents’ relational market-based assets (RMBAs). Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon real options theory, an empirical study using logistic regression is conducted on a rich, multi-market data set of NE exits between 1997 and 2019 in the U.S. airline industry. Findings Contrary to intuitive expectation, the results show that cutting prices in response to entry reduces NEs’ likelihood of market exit. However, when incumbents possess strong RMBAs, using a price cut proves to be effective in pushing NEs out of a market. Moreover, an NEs’ exit likelihood is higher when incumbents expand capacities in response to entry. Research limitations/implications In this study, market exit is defined as a complete withdrawal from the market and operationalized as a binary variable. Future research could examine different degrees of downscaling by NEs while remaining in the market. Practical implications This research demonstrates the opposing effects of price-cut and capacity expansion and the crucial role of RMBAs and advises managers to be cautious and consider trade-offs when implementing their defensive strategies to push NEs out of their markets. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by examining the impact of incumbents’ defensive strategies, price-cut and capacity expansion, side by side and exploring the moderating role of RMBAs. Extant research has focused on antecedents of defensive strategies, whereas the consequences are the focus of this research.