The Importance of Ethics in Branding: Mediating Effects of Ethical Branding on Company Reputation and Brand Loyalty
研究了马来西亚电子办公设备工业买家中，产品、服务质量和感知价格如何通过伦理品牌影响公司声誉和品牌忠诚，发现伦理品牌是维持声誉的关键中介。
ABSTRACT: This study aims to develop an ethical branding framework that determines whether a corporate brand’s functional and emotional values, that is, product, service quality, and perceived price (antecedents), influence ethical branding and, consequently, company reputation and brand loyalty (consequences) among industrial buyers of electronic office equipment in Malaysia. Using structural equation modelling, the article demonstrates the effects of perceived price, quality of product and service on ethical branding, company reputation, and brand loyalty. The results reveal that product quality directly influences ethical brand perceptions and, consequently, company reputation. Perceived price and service quality do not directly affect company reputation; instead, they affect its identification through ethical branding. The findings thus demonstrate that product quality, perceived price, and service quality affect company reputation through the mediation of ethical branding. This highlights that an ethical brand is effective for companies to maintain their reputation among industrial buyers.