A Qualitative Investigation of Antecedents, Mediators, Moderators, and Outcomes of Brand Equity

One of the most critical marketing topics which have been discussed extensively by both academicians and practitioners over the past decades is brand equity. This study aims to integrate previous literature and developing a comprehensive framework to identify the antecedents, mediators, moderators, and consequences of brand equity. In order to verify the appropriateness of the proposed research framework and research design based on literature review, this study first adopted a series of in-depth interviews to collect data from experts. The research framework was developed based on the comments of the experts. The results indicated that three major dimensions of variables, including cognitive factors, experiential factors, and marketing factors have significant influences on brand equity. Brand personality, brand trust, and brand loyalty have served as three of the mediators that can mediate the influences of cognitive, experiential, and marketing factors on brand equity. Furthermore, brand equity can be a significant indicator of brand preference, behavioral intention, and word of mouth toward the brand. Two major aspects of moderators, including relational moderators and psychological moderators, can amplify the influence of brand equity on brand preference, behavioral intention, and word of mouth. Eventually, 28 research propositions were developed to integrated the antecedents, mediators, moderators and outcomes of brand equity. Since most of the previous studies do not integrate into a more comprehensive framework of brand equity, the results of this study have provided as an important reference for academicians to conduct further empirical validations on the research of brand equity. The results are also very useful for professionals to identify their marketing and promotion strategies to enhance brand equity and the profitability of the firm.