Factors Determining City Brand Equity—A Systematic Literature Review

Environmentally Specific Servant Leadership and Brand Citizenship Behavior: The Role of Green-Crafting Behavior and Employee-Perceived Meaningful Work

Sustainability and environmental concerns have become increasingly important in the business world, with organizations seeking to integrate sustainable practices and enhance their brand citizenship behavior. Servant leadership that is focused on the environment is a type of leadership approach that gives prominence to preserving and promoting environmental sustainability. This study aims to examine the impact of environmentally specific servant leadership on brand citizenship behavior, with a focus on the mediating roles of green-crafting behavior and employee-identified meaningful work. Drawing on data from a survey of 319 employees working in hotels, this study conducted partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test a dual-moderated mediation model to explore the direct and indirect effects of environmentally specific servant leadership on brand citizenship behavior. The results of this study reveal that environmentally specific servant leadership has a significant and positive impact on green-crafting behavior and employee meaningful work. Moreover, green-crafting behavior and employee-perceived meaningful work both mediate the link between environmentally specific servant leadership and brand citizenship behavior. Specifically, green-crafting behavior acts as a mediator between environmentally specific servant leadership and employee-perceived meaningful work, while employee-perceived meaningful work mediates the link between green-crafting behavior and brand citizenship behavior. These findings have important implications for managers and organizations that seek to enhance their sustainability and brand citizenship behavior. Specifically, this study highlights the critical role of environmentally specific servant leadership (ESSL) in promoting green-crafting behavior and employee-perceived meaningful work, which in turn influence brand citizenship behavior. Therefore, organizations can improve their brand citizenship performance by developing ESSL behaviors and practices that foster green-crafting behavior and employee-perceived meaningful work.

Consumer or Patient Determinants of Hospital Brand Equity-A Systematic Literature Review

The purpose of this study was to analyze consumer or patient determinants of hospital brand equity (HBE) based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) Statement. A search of six databases: Scopus, Web of Sciences, PubMed, Google Scholar, Ebsco, and Elsevier was conducted. A search for studies published up to January 2022 was performed between 15 February and 5 March 2022. Article type, peer-reviewed papers, and studies based on empirical research were used as inclusion criteria. Non-English language papers, dissertations, short reports, works in progress, conference publications, and book chapters were excluded. As a result, a final set of 32 studies were selected for the analysis. Three research questions were formulated on the main determinants of HBE, brand-related factors, and specific medical-related factors. The studies included in the systematic literature review were analyzed in three areas: study description, key findings, and practical recommendations. Among the traditional HBE factors, brand loyalty has been analyzed most often, and the following have also been studied: perceived quality, brand associations, brand awareness, and brand image. Patient satisfaction, service quality, perception of the treatment process, and the work of medical staff were found to be specific medical-related factors. Other factors related to the management process, brand, and patients were also identified. It was noted that the number and variety of medical and other determinants of HBE have increased in recent years. The results of this systematic literature review are relevant to the analysis of consumer/patient behavior in choosing a hospital or other health care facility as they provide a deeper understanding of the increasingly differentiated needs of patients and the way in which the quality of health care services is evaluated.

How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Influenced the Tourism Behaviour of International Students in Poland?

Nearly 20 years after the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic, we are facing another COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the aim of our study was to analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism behaviour of international students in Poland. We paid attention to the overall impact of the pandemic on life, travel, choice of tourist destination, tourism activity, ecotourism preference, and health and safety issues. We formulated two research questions: What areas of international student tourism behaviour were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? What differences in travel behaviour occurred between international students from Europe and Asia? Participants were recruited from universities located in Warsaw between June and September 2020. A total of 806 questionnaires were collected, 87 of which were eliminated due to non-response. The research sample consisted of 719 people. Six factors were identified in the survey results: tourism inclination, impact on tourist destination, hygiene and accommodation, impact on life, impact on tourism, and mode of tourism. Impact on life and impact on tourism were attributed to the general impact dimension; tourism inclination and mode of tourism can be summarized as attitude and preference. Food and accommodation were assigned to hygiene and safety dimensions. In almost all aspects, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s lives was greater for Asian respondents. Asian respondents were more likely to say that they would avoid COVID-19-affected areas when choosing tourist destinations in the future, and avoid travelling to crowded large cities after COVID-19 ended. European survey participants’ responses were more moderate.

Clustering Sustainable Destinations: Empirical Evidence from Selected Mediterranean Countries

Within the globalized tourism market, tourism destinations have the option to turn to sustainability as a conceptual and management framework for their unique branding and identity proposition. This research highlights the importance and utility of sustainability branding that stems from clustering tourism destinations based on the similarities of their tourism performance attributes. The study builds on secondary data from 11 coastal destinations in 8 Mediterranean countries. The analysis leads to the formulation of three main sets of evaluation indicators: (a) environmental footprint; (b) destination dependency on tourism; and (c) locals’ prosperity, incorporating elements of social and psychological carrying capacity. Findings identify three to four distinct destination clusters based mainly on the attributes of destinations’ cultural and natural attributes, seasonality of supply, typology of prevailing accommodation and tourist profile. From a theoretical perspective, the research identifies key clustering attributes of sustainable destinations that could inform management interventions around destination branding and competitive sustainability performance positioning.

The Value of Consistency: Portfolio Labeling Strategies and Impact on Winery Brand Equity

The reported research examines the impact of product portfolio labeling strategies on brand reputation and equity. A netnographic approach allowed to observe winery portfolio labeling approaches and create a typology of winery labeling strategies. Expert evaluation served to assess the dependent variable brand equity by deploying a regression analysis. For the observed wine industry, being part of the food industry, creating consistent and recognizable brands has a direct relevance for reducing (sustainability-related) food information overload and thereby building sustainable brand equity. The results uncover the relative importance of each of the six identified labeling strategies as well as their impact on reputation and brand equity creation. The results point to the need to establish a consistent, strategically founded product communication. Such an approach, with a positive effect on reputation building can serve to build sustainable brand equity. “Stuck in the middle”-type strategies apparently diminish winery brand equity exploitation. The findings contribute to the knowledge on food labels in product communication strategies and their impact on organizational brand equity, thereby having high relevance for the implementation of environmental certification initiatives in an organizational context. The article deploys a novel research approach in an under-researched area to provide new insights for further research as well as implications for practice.