Understanding the Mediating Effect of Brand Equity on Sustainability and Omnichannel Operation and Phygital Experience

Belma Kencebay () and Ahmet Ertugan ()
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Belma Kencebay: Business Administration Department, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Near East University, Nicosia 99150, Cyprus
Ahmet Ertugan: Marketing Department, Near East University, Nicosia 99150, Cyprus

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 5, 1-27

Abstract: As the complexity of modern-day retailing currently complicates businesses, a very key study area that has emerged is how sustainability initiatives can be complemented with brand equity and omnichannel operations. The specific purpose of this study is to investigate how brand equity mediates the relationship between sustainability practices and omnichannel operations—the focus being effective retail tactics in the current market. Sustainability, which includes social responsibility, environmental management, and moral business conduct, has become a key component of corporate strategy. In order to achieve operational efficiency and long-term profitability, businesses attempt to align with consumer values and address urgent societal issues through eco-friendly production methods, community participation, and sustainable sourcing. The study employs a quantitative research approach and uses the survey method to collect data from retail end users. This structured questionnaire was distributed to 474 adult consumers in Turkey and Cyprus, ensuring that the sample is representative at a 95% confidence level and a 5% margin of error. A simple mediation analysis was thus performed through ordinary least squares (OLS) path analysis to test the hypothesized mediating effect of brand equity. The result shows that brand equity partially mediates the relationship between sustainability and omnichannel performance, thus indicating that sustainability initiatives improve omnichannel effectiveness, both directly and indirectly, through strengthened brand perception. By demonstrating how multidimensional brand equity—which encompasses perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand associations—influences customer behavior, the study adds something special to the body of current work.

Keywords: social sustainability; environmental sustainability; multidimensional brand equity; overall brand equity; cross-channel integration; omnichannel operation; phygital experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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