Abstract
The power of brands in our daily lives is undeniable, shaping not only our choices but also our values and beliefs. As such, brands have become more than mere symbols and have evolved into motivators and agents of change in customer behaviour. This shift in emphasis from product-based to brand-based success has resulted in a new focus on character building, with brand generosity emerging as a crucial personality trait. Generosity has been extensively studied in literature, spanning various interdisciplinary domains such as interpersonal generosity, human generosity, corporate generosity, and cause-related marketing. However, the literature has widely ignored generosity as a brand personality. The literature review shows that there is not yet a universally accepted definition of brand generosity, and the definitions presented are overshadowed by theoretical metaphors and paradigms. Several studies have indicated a lack of literature providing a multi-item scale specifically designed to measure perceived brand generosity. Other studies have called for further research to identify a brand's generosity dimensions, approaches, consequences, and factors that differentiate between theories such as generosity and other overlapping theories such as corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. Finally, on a practical note, practitioners have called for further understanding of the gap between consumer perception, a brand's generous practices, and the desired outcomes from brands.
This thesis aims to address key gaps that have arisen in the literature. Specifically, the thesis aims to identify the meaning, nature, and the key dimensions of brand generosity, as well as the main consequences of brand generosity. Additionally, the thesis aims to develop a valid and reliable measurement scale for perceived brand generosity and to test the relationship between brand generosity and its consequences. This is achieved by adopting a pragmatic paradigm, an inductive-deductive approach, and an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. The qualitative study uses big data and 42 semi-structured interviews. Additionally, this study follows the scale development process suggested by Churchill (1979) and uses Rossiter's (2002, 2011) C-OAR-SE process as a guide to ensure the content validity of the overall survey items.
This thesis provides a new definition of brand generosity based on an interdisciplinary perspective, while confirming that brand generosity is a second-order, hierarchal, and multidimensional construct. The brand generosity dimensions newly developed in this thesis consist of 5 dimensions (activism, authenticity, consciousness, social responsibility, and marvellousness), and 33 items that fully capture the construct of brand generosity. The empirical findings show positive relationships between brand generosity and self-brand connection, word-of-mouth, purchase intentions, willingness to pay, brand familiarity, positive brand attitude, brand love, and perceived consumer scepticism.
This study contributes to theory by developing brand generosity as a human-like personality, which is a novel feature of this thesis. It also provides practical insights to brand managers and increases their understanding of the life cycle of generous brands. The conclusion of this thesis offers future directions for upcoming studies to explore further avenues within the brand generosity domain.