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The Importance of Ethics in Branding: Mediating Effects of Ethical Branding on Company Reputation and Brand Loyalty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2017

Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi ,
Sulaiman Muhammad Ali  and
Bang Nguyen
Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi
Affiliation:
Brunel University London
Sulaiman Muhammad Ali
Affiliation:
University of Syiah Kuala
Bang Nguyen
Affiliation:
East China University of Science and Technology
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Abstract:

This study aims to develop an ethical branding framework that determines whether a corporate brand’s functional and emotional values, that is, product, service quality, and perceived price (antecedents), influence ethical branding and, consequently, company reputation and brand loyalty (consequences) among industrial buyers of electronic office equipment in Malaysia. Using structural equation modelling, the article demonstrates the effects of perceived price, quality of product and service on ethical branding, company reputation, and brand loyalty. The results reveal that product quality directly influences ethical brand perceptions and, consequently, company reputation. Perceived price and service quality do not directly affect company reputation; instead, they affect its identification through ethical branding. The findings thus demonstrate that product quality, perceived price, and service quality affect company reputation through the mediation of ethical branding. This highlights that an ethical brand is effective for companies to maintain their reputation among industrial buyers.

Keywords

ethical brandingethical corporate marketingcorporate brandcorporate reputationelectronic office equipment
Type
Special Section
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , July 2017 , pp. 393 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2017 

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