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This paper investigated the impact of employee quality on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on data from China A-share-listed companies for the years 2012–2016 and using ordinary least squares, our empirical results show that the educational level of the workforce, as a proxy for employee quality, is positively associated with CSR, which suggests that higher education can promote CSR implementation. Additional analyses found that this positive relationship is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises in regions with lower marketisation processes, and firms with lower proportions of independent directors. This study extends the literature on human capital at the level of firms’ entire workforce and CSR by elaborating the positive effect of employee quality on CSR in the context of an emerging economy (China). The results suggest that it is necessary to consider the educational level of employees when analysing CSR, which is of strategic significance for corporate sustainable development.

Authors commonly agree that the identity of a brand is internally connected with staff and externally connected with the consumers and the rest of the stakeholders. Brand management studies are much focused on the external part, mainly on consumers. This research follows a different agenda exploring the brand identity dimensions by measuring the brand identity prism developed by Kapferer, both internally and externally. The measurement of brand identity is scarce in brand management literature. A reliable, valid and unique brand identity scale that empirically establishes the construct's dimensionality has yet to be developed in a highly consumer involvement context. This paper reports the findings of a research conducted at 235 engineering higher education students. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis. Findings reveal that the brand identity prism is moderated by brand culture. This research also gave important insights regarding the theory proposed by Kapferer regarding the external brand identity.

This paper aims to (1) compare consumers’ preferences between individual products and bundles as well as (2) investigate some of the factors involved in bundle characteristics that may affect consumer’s preferences. Those factors are complementarity, price level, and discount level. An online survey developed by means of questionnaires were collected from the Portuguese population. Student’s t-tests were used to test the hypothesis formulated and to analyze the consumers’ preferences. The findings corroborate that in a scenario where the bundle does not offer any discounts, preference of individual products is higher. When a 20% discount is assigned to bundles, the overall preference for individual products is still superior. By offering a discount level of 45%, the overall preference for bundles becomes higher. The positive effect of complementarity bundles valuation is confirmed. This is the first approach to evaluate the preferences between bundles and individual products in the Portuguese market. The findings contribute to clarify the customer map within a Business Model Canvas. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the bundle complementarity and discount level effects simultaneously.

The current literature focuses on the cocreation of brands in dynamic contexts, but the impact of the relationships among brands on branding is poorly documented. To address this gap a concept is proposed concerning the relationships between brands and a model is developed, showing the influence of the latter on the identity and reputation of brands. Therefore, the goal of this study is to develop a brand relationships concept and to build a framework relating it with corporate brand identity and reputation, in a higher consumer involvement context like higher education. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used for this purpose. In line with this, interviews, cooperatively developed by higher education lecturers and brand managers, were carried out with focus groups of higher education students, and questionnaires conducted, with 216 complete surveys obtained. Data are analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Results demonstrate that the concept of brand relationships comprises three dimensions: trust, commitment, and motivation. The structural model reveals robustness regarding the selected fit indicators, demonstrating that the relationships between brands influence brand identity and reputation. This suggests that managers must choose and promote brand relationships that gel with the identity and reputation of the primary brand they manage, to develop an integrated balanced product range.