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Purpose The strategic importance of brand identity management has been emphasized in the brand management literature, but studies that examine brand identity sub-components effects on customer resilience to negative information are very few. In this regard, this study aims to examine the effect of brand distinctiveness and prestige as sub-components of identity on young customers’ loyalty and resilience to negative information through the mediating variable of brand attractiveness in the luxury electronics market. Design/methodology/approach Using a structured questionnaire, data were collected. Based on a five-point Likert scale were asked of consumers and owners of electronic products (mobile phone, tablet and laptop) to indicate their level of disagreement and agreement with series of statements. After an analytic process, 422 valid questionnaires were obtained. The hypotheses were tested by using structural equation modeling. Findings The results showed that brand prestige and distinctiveness have direct effect on brand attractiveness, which prestige had more influence than distinctiveness. The results indicated that brand loyalty was strongly affected by direct brand attractiveness, and that the effect of brand attractiveness on the resilience to negative information was not significant. Finally, the study results showed that resilience to negative information is affected by brand loyalty. Originality/value This study is significant because it is one of the few studies that examines the effect of brand identity on brand attractiveness and consumers’ extra-role behavior, which results in the development of branding literature in the field of luxury products.

The purpose of current research is to study the effect of knowledge sharing on the psychological empowerment of faculty members considering the intermediary (mediating) role of organizational memory in Semnan University. To study research variables, three standard questionnaires were distributed among 334 faculty members of the studied sample. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the hypotheses. Results show a meaningful effect between knowledge sharing and empowerment. They also show that organizational memory plays an intermediary role in affecting knowledge sharing over empowerment of faculty members. The important message for Semnan University is creation of strong cultural academic in accepting organizational memory and participating in the process of its creation and its implantation in forms of systems that facilitates the process of sharing knowledge by faculty members. Also, the empirical findings of this study will develop the literature on knowledge sharing, empowerment an...

Purpose – This paper aims to develop a framework for competitive advantage by systematic quantitative methodology based on resource-based view and dynamic capability theory. Strategic agility was used as a dynamic capability. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from a survey aimed at manufacturing companies from five manufacturing industry in Semnan, Iran. A total of 102 questionnaires were received from 13 companies using convenience sampling. Fuzzy two-stage data envelopment analysis model (DEA) was used to analyse the data collected. Findings – The results indicate that there is close internal relationship among firm resources, strategic agility and competitive advantage, and their inherent relationship makes constant returns to scale (CRS) scores closer to 1. In most of the companies, the second process which transforms strategic agility to competitive advantage is the main cause for unsatisfactory performance in gaining competitive advantage. Originality/value – The innovation of this paper is in its model and method. There is no research has been ever done on the relationship among firm resources, strategic agility and competitive advantage. Moreover, to obtain a competitive advantage structure, DEA technique was adopted which is a new approach in this area.