A social identity theory perspective on sustainable brand recommendation: The case of professional service providers

Michael Stoica and Thomas M. Hickman
Additional contact information
Michael Stoica: Washburn University, USA
Thomas M. Hickman: School of Business Washburn University, USA

Journal of Brand Strategy, 2023, vol. 12, issue 3, 300-318

Abstract: The purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, the paper calls attention to a unique subset of professional service providers (PSPs) who have obvious product expertise related to their profession yet are only minimally involved in the sales process. Despite this, they are considerably influential in regard to their clients’ brand decision-making process. Examples of these include veterinarians recommending a given pet food brand and dentists recommending a brand of dental floss. Secondly, since environmental sustainability is an important facet of corporate social responsibility, we considered factors that help predict PSPs’ propensity to recommend environmentally friendly brands to their clientele. The conceptual model argues that PSPs’ degree of identification with their profession, self-assessed knowledge in environmental concerns and expectation that sustainable brands will engage in eco-based marketing are all positive influences on PSPs’ likelihood to recommend sustainable brands and generate positive word of mouth. Responses from 467 veterinarians, representing this unique class of PSPs were analysed, and structural equation modelling determined that identification with the profession was a motivating factor in learning more about sustainability. In turn, self-assessed expertise in environmental issues was shown to increase the likelihood that PSPs would recommend sustainable brands.

Keywords: brand recommendation; word of mouth; sustainability; professional service provider; corporate social responsibility; social identity theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hstalks.com/article/8128/download/ (application/pdf)
https://hstalks.com/article/8128/ (text/html)
Requires a paid subscription for full access.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aza:jbs000:y:2023:v:12:i:3:p:300-318

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Brand Strategy from Henry Stewart Publications
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Henry Stewart Talks ().