Brand Defence: Consumers’ Word-of-Mouth Behaviour Towards a Loved Brand
type: CreativeWork
description: The aim of this doctoral research was to ‘critically explore brand love and brand defence in consumer-brand relationships by considering the question: can consumers go beyond positive word-of-mouth, and/or brand advocacy to defend their loved-brands against criticism?’ In achieving the research aim, the study involved exploring, conceptualising, and measuring a novel construct in branding, namely ‘brand defence’ through the empirical study of consumers’ word-of-mouth attributions towards a loved brand. Brand defence has been identified, proposed, and conceptualised as a superior form of consumers’ word-of-mouth behaviour attributed towards their loved brands, when their loved brands are faced with negative word-of-mouth. The conceptualisation of brand defence is developed from two theories: 1. The Fairness Theory of Folger and Cropanzano (1998, 2001), and 2. Social Capital perspective of Equity Theory (Adler, 2001; Adler and Kwon, 2002). Moreover, consumers’ brandfavourable WOM is explored in a hierarchy based on the assumptions of Means-End Theory (Guttman, 1982), which suggests brand defence is a superior WOM behaviour that supersedes brand advocacy and positive-WOM in supporting the brand against negative WOM. Though identifying and conceptualising brand defence, this study investigated the role of brand love in promoting brand-favourable positive word-of-mouth behaviour in response to any negative word-of-mouth about the loved brand. Therefore, this study involved incorporating two important research streams; 1. word-of-mouth, and 2. consumer-brand relationships. In order to extend understanding of the extent and nature of consumers’ brand-favourable word-ofmouth behaviour towards loved-brands, the study conceptualised and categorised the brandfavourable word-of-mouth in form of a hierarchy, building on the assumptions of Means-End Theory (Gutman, 1982; Wansink, 2003). The study assigned brand defence the top vertex of the hierarchy against negative word-of-mout…
abstract: The aim of this doctoral research was to ‘critically explore brand love and brand defence in consumer-brand relationships by considering the question: can consumers go beyond positive word-of-mouth, and/or brand advocacy to defend their loved-brands against criticism?’ In achieving the research aim, the study involved exploring, conceptualising, and measuring a novel construct in branding, namely ‘brand defence’ through the empirical study of consumers’ word-of-mouth attributions towards a loved brand. Brand defence has been identified, proposed, and conceptualised as a superior form of consumers’ word-of-mouth behaviour attributed towards their loved brands, when their loved brands are faced with negative word-of-mouth. The conceptualisation of brand defence is developed from two theories: 1. The Fairness Theory of Folger and Cropanzano (1998, 2001), and 2. Social Capital perspective of Equity Theory (Adler, 2001; Adler and Kwon, 2002). Moreover, consumers’ brandfavourable WOM is explored in a hierarchy based on the assumptions of Means-End Theory (Guttman, 1982), which suggests brand defence is a superior WOM behaviour that supersedes brand advocacy and positive-WOM in supporting the brand against negative WOM. Though identifying and conceptualising brand defence, this study investigated the role of brand love in promoting brand-favourable positive word-of-mouth behaviour in response to any negative word-of-mouth about the loved brand. Therefore, this study involved incorporating two important research streams; 1. word-of-mouth, and 2. consumer-brand relationships. In order to extend understanding of the extent and nature of consumers’ brand-favourable word-ofmouth behaviour towards loved-brands, the study conceptualised and categorised the brandfavourable word-of-mouth in form of a hierarchy, building on the assumptions of Means-End Theory (Gutman, 1982; Wansink, 2003). The study assigned brand defence the top vertex of the hierarchy against negative word-of-mout…
author: Javed, Mansoor
language: en
date published: 2017
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:43:31Z
provider: Oxford Brookes University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Oxford Brookes University

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.24384/sb8q-xf38