This research aims to identify the process by which students form images of universities, the extent to which students’ favourable evaluations of image attractiveness lead to student-university identification, and the extent to which perceived image attractiveness and student-university identification determine planned behaviour, i.e., supportive intentions, including student choice of institution. Full-service international branch campuses offering complete degree programmes are a fairly new phenomenon on the higher education landscape and potential students have limited knowledge about them and the institutions that own them. It is interesting therefore to discover whether these students do in fact hold images of international branch campuses. The research was conducted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the country that hosts more international branch campuses than any other worldwide. The study adopted a deductive, quantitative method, which involved a survey questionnaire completed by potential university students (year 12 and 13 high school students). This research stands out from earlier work on organisational identification, as earlier studies focused on existing consumers or employees while this study considers potential consumers (students). The research included a pilot study that involved individual interviews with members of the target population, which ensured research design validity. Data were analysed using a variety of techniques including exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression and structural equation modelling. The findings of this study provide support for the proposition that individuals can identify with universities in the absence of formal membership – with no or minimal previous interaction between the individual and the university – and that student-university identification can lead to supportive intentions among prospective students. These findings suggest that institutions would benefit from articulating and communicating their identities clearly, coherently and in a persuasive manner, and emphasising those aspects of the university’s identity that prospective students will perceive as prestigious, distinctive and similar to their own identities.

In recent years, it is not hard to tell that in the retail market of flaming competition in Taiwan, and quality of service is worth of being paid attention. The study tries to investigate the relationships between buyer reactions to ethical behaviors of salespeople and customer-company identification. Several hypotheses are developed and tested to find out whether interactions with salespeople generates customers¡¦ ethical perceptions and impacts on customer-company identification. Moreover, the study intends to explore the consequences of customer-company identification (extra- or in- role behaviors). The study adopts structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the path estimates among constructs. The study adopts convenience sample and the valid return of survey is 296. Results indicate that the significant and positive effects of both moral equity and relativism on customer-company identification and repurchase intention and positive word-of-mouth followed up. At last, the managerial implications of this study may help retailers with professional ethics of salespeople and create loyal customers.

For companies, the cost of acquiring a new customer is several times the cost of retaining an existing customer. Furthermore, the purchasing power of an existing customer is usually more predominant than a new one. Therefore, more and more companies attempt to establish long-term relationships with customers in order to make them patronize again or do other useful behaviors. The concept of consumer-company identification (C-C identification) has been used to qualify the deep, meaningful, and long-term relationships between consumers and companies. This research analyzes the antecedents and consequences of C-C identification. We suggest that high identity distinctiveness and identity prestige may lead to high C-C identification. Also, high C-C identification should enhance consumers¡¦ repurchase intention and word-of-mouth (WOM). Our survey with questionnaire conducted to investigate and collect data is sent to the consumers who have shopping experience recently in department stores of Taiwan. The valid sample with questionnaire returned is 294. We analyze the results by using structural equation modeling (SEM) and find that identity distinctiveness and identity prestige have a positive relationship with C-C identification separately. Moreover, C-C identification also has a positive effect to repurchase intention and WOM. Eventually, the managerial implications of this study may help corporate managers to ponder their marketing strategies or even improve their firms¡¦ performance.

Channel relationships, market knowledge, strategic partnerships and brand equity are examples of marketing resources which firms can possess. Marketing resources are especially valuable when they are properly leveraged by agents of the firm (Srivastava, Fahey, and Christensen 2001). This dissertation examines how one marketing resource - corporate sponsorships - can be leveraged by companies to enhance financial performance. Based on the tenets of social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1985), two conceptual models are developed which propose corporate sponsorship can develop the attractiveness of a company's identity and thus enhance levels of company identification among salespeople (Study 1) and customers (Study 2). It is further proposed that through this strengthening of company identification, these stakeholders will become motivated to perform supportive behaviors on behalf of the company which will lead to the firm's enhanced performance. To empirically test the conceptual models, data were collected from the sales force and a sample of customers of a Fortune 1000 company which actively engages in a single national corporate sponsorship. The data set used in Study 1 includes survey responses from 490 sales representatives (21.7% response rate) which are combined with objective sales data gathered from company records. The data were analyzed utilizing linear regression and Hierarchical Linear Modeling. The conceptual model developed in Study 2 was tested utilizing structural equation modeling of survey data collected from 246 active customers. The two studies contained in this dissertation make several important theoretical and substantive contributions to both marketing theory and practice. First, evidence is provided that company identity can be influenced by a company and its marketers. By affiliating with a prestigious entity through a corporate sponsorship, a firm can enhance the attractiveness of its identity which in turn, influences levels of identification among salespeople and customers. The studies also provide additional evidence highlighting the power of identification in terms of predicting firm-directed supportive behaviors. The analysis in Study 1 shows that company identification influences salesperson sales growth and Study 2 confirms that customer-company identification leads to customer sales and positive word-of-mouth communications. Implications of these findings are provided.

A identificação do consumidor com a empresa é um assunto relativamente novo dentro da academia de Marketing. Preocupados com os relacionamentos de alto nível mantidos entre empresas e clientes e fundamentados na teoria da Identidade Social, Bhattacharya e Sen (2003) estabelecem a identificação consumidor-empresa como o primeiro substrato psicológico que resulta em relações profundas, comprometidas e significativas entre os clientes e as organizações. Aproveitando as sugestões dos autores e procurando oferecer um instrumento que auxilie a academia a encontrar subsídio empírico que sustente o modelo conceitual sugerido por Bhattacharya e Sen (2003), a presente dissertação teve como objetivo desenvolver uma escala que mensure o componente cognitivo da identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Para tanto, primeiramente foi realizada uma etapa exploratória, que lançou mão de entrevistas em profundidade e de técnicas projetivas para gerar uma amostra de 21 itens. Esta amostra, então, foi submetida a uma purificação por meio da Análise Fatorial Exploratória. A análise, realizada em uma base de dados, obtida por meio de uma survey aplicada a 226 estudantes de graduação, resultou em uma escala final composta por 8 itens, distribuídos em 4 dimensões, que, explicaram 69,43% da variância. As dimensões compreenderam adequadamente os atributos do objeto sendo mensurado e apresentaram significância estatística, embora tenham desempenhado apenas moderadamente quanto à consistência interna. / The Consumer-Company Identification is a relatively new issue among the marketing academy. Bhattacharya and Sen (2003), dove into the Social Identity theory and observing the relationship-gold struck by some companies, established Consumer- Company Identification as the primary psychological substrate for the kind of deep, committed, and meaningful relationships among the organization and its customers. Exploiting the suggestions of the authors and aiming a contribution to the academy, through an instrument that permits the empirical verification of the conceptual model proposed by Bhattacharya and Sen (2003), this thesis had as goal the development of a scale to measure the cognitive component of the Consumer-Company identification. Therefore, first an exploratory research was developed, stepped on in-depth interviews and projective technique, generating a sample of 21 items. Afterwards, a purification stage was carried on, using the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The EFA, applied on the data base obtained from a survey with 226 undergraduate students, resulted in a final scale composed by 8 items, distributed in 4 dimensions, which, explained 69,43% of the variance. The dimensions covered satisfactorily the attributes of the object mesured and presented high statistical significance, although they performed only an average internal consistency.

A comunicação boca a boca está fortalecendo-se e popularizando-se, principalmente a partir do advento das mídias sociais. A cultura da população em buscar informações referentes a produtos e serviços está cada vez mais forte, uma vez que a dose de incerteza na compra é grande, em especial em serviços ou serviços aplicados a produtos, por sua intangibilidade. Dessa forma, a comunicação boca a boca tradicional ou via mídias sociais tem se intensificado, tanto na busca quanto na emissão de opiniões. Neste contexto de mercado, uma das formas de uma empresa se tornar competitiva no mercado é criando um relacionamento a longo prazo com seus clientes, facilitando a existência de uma identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Partindo do cenário de serviços, este estudo tem o objetivo de avaliar as relações simultâneas entre três conceitos: experiência do consumidor com o serviço, identificação do consumidor com a empresa e o comportamento de recomendação deste consumidor. Este estudo teve por propósito avaliar estas relações, e, para isso, validou escalas para mensuração destes conceitos no contexto brasileiro. Foi aplicado um questionário online com 500 respondentes, sendo que o pré-requisito era que o respondente escolhesse um estabelecimento (bar ou restaurante) com o qual se identificasse. A análise de dados incluiu uma análise fatorial exploratória e uma confirmatória, dando seguimento à modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE por meio do software LISREL) para analisar a relação entre os três conceitos. Como resultados, encontrouse que tanto a identificação do consumidor com a empresa quanto a experiência do consumidor com o serviço possuem impacto no comportamento de recomendação, neste estudo, representado pelas dimensões de frequência e motivação para recomendar. Entretanto, ambos possuem maior impacto na motivação de recomendação do que na frequência. Ao comparar a identificação do consumidor com a empresa e a experiência do consumidor com o serviço, o primeiro possui uma maior influência nos constructos de recomendação, indicando que ainda que ambos tenham impacto no comportamento de recomendação, a criação de um relacionamento forte e embasado na identificação do consumidor com a empresa se torna um diferencial para a mesma. Com relação à validação das escalas utilizadas no estudo, tem-se que uma das escalas utilizadas para mensurar o constructo de identificação não possuiu validade convergente nem divergente, indicando sua fragilidade para seu uso na academia. / Word of mouth communication is becoming stronger and more popular mainly from the advent of social media. The consume culture of seeking for information about products and services has become very popular, especially when it is about services or services applied to products. The main characteristic of the services is its intangibility, which leads to a higher amount of uncertainty prior to purchasing. Thus, word of mouth communication via traditional or social media has been growing significantly both in pursuit and in issuing opinions. In this context, in order to gain competition, companies should focus on creating and developing a long term relationship with their clients, facilitating the identification of the consumer with the company. Based on the service scenario, this study aims to assess the simultaneous relationships among three different concepts: customer experience with the service, consumer-company identification and the consumer recommendation behavior. Therefore, validating the scales to measure these concepts in the Brazilian context was necessary to achieve the goals of this study. 500 people participated in an online survey about those three concepts. In the beginning of the survey, the respondent had to choose an establishment (a bar or a restaurant) with which he/she identified. Data analysis included an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, followed by the structural equation modeling (SEM using the LISREL software) in order to analyze the relationship between those three concepts. As a result, it was found that both concepts (consumer-company identification and consumer experience with the service) have a positive impact on the recommendation behavior of the consumer, represented on this study by the dimensions of frequency and motivation to recommend. However, both concepts had a greater impact on the motivation for recommending than on the frequency of recommendation. By comparing the performance of those two antecedents, consumer-company identification showed a greater influence on the dimensions of the recommendation behavior, indicating that although both concepts have an impact on this behavior, developing a strong relationship with the consumer becomes a differential for the establishment. Regarding the validation of the scales, one of the scales used to measure the construct of consumer-company identification did not possess convergent nor divergent validity, indicating its weakness to use it in other academic studies.

A comunicação boca a boca está fortalecendo-se e popularizando-se, principalmente a partir do advento das mídias sociais. A cultura da população em buscar informações referentes a produtos e serviços está cada vez mais forte, uma vez que a dose de incerteza na compra é grande, em especial em serviços ou serviços aplicados a produtos, por sua intangibilidade. Dessa forma, a comunicação boca a boca tradicional ou via mídias sociais tem se intensificado, tanto na busca quanto na emissão de opiniões. Neste contexto de mercado, uma das formas de uma empresa se tornar competitiva no mercado é criando um relacionamento a longo prazo com seus clientes, facilitando a existência de uma identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Partindo do cenário de serviços, este estudo tem o objetivo de avaliar as relações simultâneas entre três conceitos: experiência do consumidor com o serviço, identificação do consumidor com a empresa e o comportamento de recomendação deste consumidor. Este estudo teve por propósito avaliar estas relações, e, para isso, validou escalas para mensuração destes conceitos no contexto brasileiro. Foi aplicado um questionário online com 500 respondentes, sendo que o pré-requisito era que o respondente escolhesse um estabelecimento (bar ou restaurante) com o qual se identificasse. A análise de dados incluiu uma análise fatorial exploratória e uma confirmatória, dando seguimento à modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE por meio do software LISREL) para analisar a relação entre os três conceitos. Como resultados, encontrouse que tanto a identificação do consumidor com a empresa quanto a experiência do consumidor com o serviço possuem impacto no comportamento de recomendação, neste estudo, representado pelas dimensões de frequência e motivação para recomendar. Entretanto, ambos possuem maior impacto na motivação de recomendação do que na frequência. Ao comparar a identificação do consumidor com a empresa e a experiência do consumidor com o serviço, o primeiro possui uma maior influência nos constructos de recomendação, indicando que ainda que ambos tenham impacto no comportamento de recomendação, a criação de um relacionamento forte e embasado na identificação do consumidor com a empresa se torna um diferencial para a mesma. Com relação à validação das escalas utilizadas no estudo, tem-se que uma das escalas utilizadas para mensurar o constructo de identificação não possuiu validade convergente nem divergente, indicando sua fragilidade para seu uso na academia. / Word of mouth communication is becoming stronger and more popular mainly from the advent of social media. The consume culture of seeking for information about products and services has become very popular, especially when it is about services or services applied to products. The main characteristic of the services is its intangibility, which leads to a higher amount of uncertainty prior to purchasing. Thus, word of mouth communication via traditional or social media has been growing significantly both in pursuit and in issuing opinions. In this context, in order to gain competition, companies should focus on creating and developing a long term relationship with their clients, facilitating the identification of the consumer with the company. Based on the service scenario, this study aims to assess the simultaneous relationships among three different concepts: customer experience with the service, consumer-company identification and the consumer recommendation behavior. Therefore, validating the scales to measure these concepts in the Brazilian context was necessary to achieve the goals of this study. 500 people participated in an online survey about those three concepts. In the beginning of the survey, the respondent had to choose an establishment (a bar or a restaurant) with which he/she identified. Data analysis included an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, followed by the structural equation modeling (SEM using the LISREL software) in order to analyze the relationship between those three concepts. As a result, it was found that both concepts (consumer-company identification and consumer experience with the service) have a positive impact on the recommendation behavior of the consumer, represented on this study by the dimensions of frequency and motivation to recommend. However, both concepts had a greater impact on the motivation for recommending than on the frequency of recommendation. By comparing the performance of those two antecedents, consumer-company identification showed a greater influence on the dimensions of the recommendation behavior, indicating that although both concepts have an impact on this behavior, developing a strong relationship with the consumer becomes a differential for the establishment. Regarding the validation of the scales, one of the scales used to measure the construct of consumer-company identification did not possess convergent nor divergent validity, indicating its weakness to use it in other academic studies.

A identificação do consumidor com a empresa é um assunto relativamente novo dentro da academia de Marketing. Preocupados com os relacionamentos de alto nível mantidos entre empresas e clientes e fundamentados na teoria da Identidade Social, Bhattacharya e Sen (2003) estabelecem a identificação consumidor-empresa como o primeiro substrato psicológico que resulta em relações profundas, comprometidas e significativas entre os clientes e as organizações. Aproveitando as sugestões dos autores e procurando oferecer um instrumento que auxilie a academia a encontrar subsídio empírico que sustente o modelo conceitual sugerido por Bhattacharya e Sen (2003), a presente dissertação teve como objetivo desenvolver uma escala que mensure o componente cognitivo da identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Para tanto, primeiramente foi realizada uma etapa exploratória, que lançou mão de entrevistas em profundidade e de técnicas projetivas para gerar uma amostra de 21 itens. Esta amostra, então, foi submetida a uma purificação por meio da Análise Fatorial Exploratória. A análise, realizada em uma base de dados, obtida por meio de uma survey aplicada a 226 estudantes de graduação, resultou em uma escala final composta por 8 itens, distribuídos em 4 dimensões, que, explicaram 69,43% da variância. As dimensões compreenderam adequadamente os atributos do objeto sendo mensurado e apresentaram significância estatística, embora tenham desempenhado apenas moderadamente quanto à consistência interna. / The Consumer-Company Identification is a relatively new issue among the marketing academy. Bhattacharya and Sen (2003), dove into the Social Identity theory and observing the relationship-gold struck by some companies, established Consumer- Company Identification as the primary psychological substrate for the kind of deep, committed, and meaningful relationships among the organization and its customers. Exploiting the suggestions of the authors and aiming a contribution to the academy, through an instrument that permits the empirical verification of the conceptual model proposed by Bhattacharya and Sen (2003), this thesis had as goal the development of a scale to measure the cognitive component of the Consumer-Company identification. Therefore, first an exploratory research was developed, stepped on in-depth interviews and projective technique, generating a sample of 21 items. Afterwards, a purification stage was carried on, using the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The EFA, applied on the data base obtained from a survey with 226 undergraduate students, resulted in a final scale composed by 8 items, distributed in 4 dimensions, which, explained 69,43% of the variance. The dimensions covered satisfactorily the attributes of the object mesured and presented high statistical significance, although they performed only an average internal consistency.

A identificação do consumidor com a empresa é um assunto relativamente novo dentro da academia de Marketing. Preocupados com os relacionamentos de alto nível mantidos entre empresas e clientes e fundamentados na teoria da Identidade Social, Bhattacharya e Sen (2003) estabelecem a identificação consumidor-empresa como o primeiro substrato psicológico que resulta em relações profundas, comprometidas e significativas entre os clientes e as organizações. Aproveitando as sugestões dos autores e procurando oferecer um instrumento que auxilie a academia a encontrar subsídio empírico que sustente o modelo conceitual sugerido por Bhattacharya e Sen (2003), a presente dissertação teve como objetivo desenvolver uma escala que mensure o componente cognitivo da identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Para tanto, primeiramente foi realizada uma etapa exploratória, que lançou mão de entrevistas em profundidade e de técnicas projetivas para gerar uma amostra de 21 itens. Esta amostra, então, foi submetida a uma purificação por meio da Análise Fatorial Exploratória. A análise, realizada em uma base de dados, obtida por meio de uma survey aplicada a 226 estudantes de graduação, resultou em uma escala final composta por 8 itens, distribuídos em 4 dimensões, que, explicaram 69,43% da variância. As dimensões compreenderam adequadamente os atributos do objeto sendo mensurado e apresentaram significância estatística, embora tenham desempenhado apenas moderadamente quanto à consistência interna. / The Consumer-Company Identification is a relatively new issue among the marketing academy. Bhattacharya and Sen (2003), dove into the Social Identity theory and observing the relationship-gold struck by some companies, established Consumer- Company Identification as the primary psychological substrate for the kind of deep, committed, and meaningful relationships among the organization and its customers. Exploiting the suggestions of the authors and aiming a contribution to the academy, through an instrument that permits the empirical verification of the conceptual model proposed by Bhattacharya and Sen (2003), this thesis had as goal the development of a scale to measure the cognitive component of the Consumer-Company identification. Therefore, first an exploratory research was developed, stepped on in-depth interviews and projective technique, generating a sample of 21 items. Afterwards, a purification stage was carried on, using the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The EFA, applied on the data base obtained from a survey with 226 undergraduate students, resulted in a final scale composed by 8 items, distributed in 4 dimensions, which, explained 69,43% of the variance. The dimensions covered satisfactorily the attributes of the object mesured and presented high statistical significance, although they performed only an average internal consistency.

A comunicação boca a boca está fortalecendo-se e popularizando-se, principalmente a partir do advento das mídias sociais. A cultura da população em buscar informações referentes a produtos e serviços está cada vez mais forte, uma vez que a dose de incerteza na compra é grande, em especial em serviços ou serviços aplicados a produtos, por sua intangibilidade. Dessa forma, a comunicação boca a boca tradicional ou via mídias sociais tem se intensificado, tanto na busca quanto na emissão de opiniões. Neste contexto de mercado, uma das formas de uma empresa se tornar competitiva no mercado é criando um relacionamento a longo prazo com seus clientes, facilitando a existência de uma identificação do consumidor com a empresa. Partindo do cenário de serviços, este estudo tem o objetivo de avaliar as relações simultâneas entre três conceitos: experiência do consumidor com o serviço, identificação do consumidor com a empresa e o comportamento de recomendação deste consumidor. Este estudo teve por propósito avaliar estas relações, e, para isso, validou escalas para mensuração destes conceitos no contexto brasileiro. Foi aplicado um questionário online com 500 respondentes, sendo que o pré-requisito era que o respondente escolhesse um estabelecimento (bar ou restaurante) com o qual se identificasse. A análise de dados incluiu uma análise fatorial exploratória e uma confirmatória, dando seguimento à modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE por meio do software LISREL) para analisar a relação entre os três conceitos. Como resultados, encontrouse que tanto a identificação do consumidor com a empresa quanto a experiência do consumidor com o serviço possuem impacto no comportamento de recomendação, neste estudo, representado pelas dimensões de frequência e motivação para recomendar. Entretanto, ambos possuem maior impacto na motivação de recomendação do que na frequência. Ao comparar a identificação do consumidor com a empresa e a experiência do consumidor com o serviço, o primeiro possui uma maior influência nos constructos de recomendação, indicando que ainda que ambos tenham impacto no comportamento de recomendação, a criação de um relacionamento forte e embasado na identificação do consumidor com a empresa se torna um diferencial para a mesma. Com relação à validação das escalas utilizadas no estudo, tem-se que uma das escalas utilizadas para mensurar o constructo de identificação não possuiu validade convergente nem divergente, indicando sua fragilidade para seu uso na academia. / Word of mouth communication is becoming stronger and more popular mainly from the advent of social media. The consume culture of seeking for information about products and services has become very popular, especially when it is about services or services applied to products. The main characteristic of the services is its intangibility, which leads to a higher amount of uncertainty prior to purchasing. Thus, word of mouth communication via traditional or social media has been growing significantly both in pursuit and in issuing opinions. In this context, in order to gain competition, companies should focus on creating and developing a long term relationship with their clients, facilitating the identification of the consumer with the company. Based on the service scenario, this study aims to assess the simultaneous relationships among three different concepts: customer experience with the service, consumer-company identification and the consumer recommendation behavior. Therefore, validating the scales to measure these concepts in the Brazilian context was necessary to achieve the goals of this study. 500 people participated in an online survey about those three concepts. In the beginning of the survey, the respondent had to choose an establishment (a bar or a restaurant) with which he/she identified. Data analysis included an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, followed by the structural equation modeling (SEM using the LISREL software) in order to analyze the relationship between those three concepts. As a result, it was found that both concepts (consumer-company identification and consumer experience with the service) have a positive impact on the recommendation behavior of the consumer, represented on this study by the dimensions of frequency and motivation to recommend. However, both concepts had a greater impact on the motivation for recommending than on the frequency of recommendation. By comparing the performance of those two antecedents, consumer-company identification showed a greater influence on the dimensions of the recommendation behavior, indicating that although both concepts have an impact on this behavior, developing a strong relationship with the consumer becomes a differential for the establishment. Regarding the validation of the scales, one of the scales used to measure the construct of consumer-company identification did not possess convergent nor divergent validity, indicating its weakness to use it in other academic studies.