This paper aims to identify the antecedent role of brand awareness in other dimensions of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) and its impact on purchase intention. It is a quantitative study based on a survey conducted with 622 smartphone users. The theoretical hypothesis test was performed by structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to analyze the mediation effect. The results demonstrate that brand awareness does not directly impact purchase intention. This effect is only observed when it is mediated by the three dimensions of CBBE - perceived quality, brand associations, and brand loyalty. This investigation makes two major contributions. First, it demonstrates that knowing a brand is not enough to generate consumers’ purchase intent. Second, it uses the mediating effect of the other dimensions of CBBE (associations, loyalty, and perceived quality) to demonstrate that brand awareness acts as a first step in building brand value for consumers.

Drawing on the signaling theory perspective, this study examines the effect of perceived country of origin on brand performance during economic contractions. The authors specify an econometric model linking brand market share to recession periods and analyze the interaction with brand origin perception. They test the model on four years of longitudinal data on consumer packaged goods brands combined with a self-administrated consumer questionnaire to infer consumers’ perceptions about brands’ origins. The authors find that economic contractions differentially affect brands with different country-of-origin perceptions. The results indicate that the market share of brands that customers most identify as domestic suffers more damage during contractions than brands they perceive as foreign. The main contribution of this article is in generating a better understanding of brands’ resistance to economic contractions based on their perceived country of origin. Moreover, the authors provide strategic recommendations to brands based on their origin perception and the country’s economic situation.

This study investigates the relationship between technology, content, responsiveness, usability, and outcomes of public corporate asynchronous e-learning. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data of 1097 valid questionnaires collected electronically. Results indicate that positive student perceptions on (1) technology can positively influence their perceptions about the constructs and on (2) content, responsiveness and usability can positively and directly impact the perception of results. These impacts may increase the willingness to reuse the system, thus helping to reduce evasion. The new model deepens the understanding of the factors linked to inefficiency and helps in pointing directions for improving e-learning courses and environments.

Current changes in the socioeconomic variables in which both public and private universities interact require them to manage their image to attract and satisfy their students. Added to this, new technologies are affecting education, increasing the supply and relevance of distance learning in the university structure. Given that, this research aimed to understand which individual factors cause significant differences in perceived university image. This study is a descriptive field research. We collected the data with a survey and analysed the results using factor analyses, t-tests, and linear regression. We found that gender, age, income, and length of interaction between the students and the organization do not influence the overall image. However, the exact sciences students presented a different perception of the researched institutions. Given the results, we concluded that perceived image can be seen as a momentary picture. The study indicates the image as a multidimensional construct. This construct is most expressively associated with intangible aspects.