Is Brand Activism The New Normal?

Authors

Nuket Serin, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Business Administration

First Advisor's Name

Jayati Sinha

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Kimberly A. Taylor

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Third Advisor's Name

William Humphrey

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Fourth Advisor's Name

William Newburry

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Fifth Advisor's Name

George M. Marakas

Fifth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

brand activism, scale development, consumer-brand relationship, branding

Date of Defense

5-26-2022

Abstract

In recent years, brands have begun “taking a stand” on sociopolitical issues to influence societal change. As such, brand activism is a newly evolved form of brand communication. Consumer expectations of brands have been evolving rapidly, as brands are expected to profess a more purposeful ethos to society now more than ever before. In the modern marketplace, it has become an increasingly popular trend to see brands promote social movements and fight for issues happening worldwide. Although this emerging phenomenon has caught the attention of marketing literature in recent years, the effects of brand activism on consumer brand perceptions still remain a largely unexplored research area. Understanding such effects is critically important because consumer responses to brand activism are diverse and wide-ranging in scope. Additionally, the literature lacks a reliable psychometric instrument to measure the construct of brand activism. Therefore, the first purpose of this dissertation is to conceptualize and define brand activism from a consumer’s point-of-view. The second purpose of this dissertation is to identify a set of discrete characteristics that are shared among activist brands to develop a brand activism scale. Utilizing a multi-method approach, eight studies (Studies 1, 2A, 2B, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) were conducted to create and test the scale’s validity and reliability. The third purpose of this dissertation is to explore the scale’s applicability in different brand-consumer relationship contexts. Four additional studies (Studies 8A, 8B, 9, 10) were conducted to examine the effects of brand activism on consumer-brand relationships such as brand attitude, willingness to pay a price premium, and intention to click-through as well as to test the downstream consequences of those effects. The present dissertation contributes to the marketing and branding literature by presenting novel findings and discussing their associated managerial implications. Moreover, brand managers may derive benefit from this research as it will help advance their understanding of brand activism and thus foster more satisfactory consumer-brand relationships.

Identifier

FIDC010813

Recommended Citation

Serin, Nuket, "Is Brand Activism The New Normal?" (2022). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5126.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/5126