Journal Article

Refining the conceptualization of Brand Authenticity

Akbar, Mohammad Muzahid, Wymer, Walter

2017

Overview

A theoretical understanding of Brand Authenticity (BA) could not reach its full potential because of a disjointed body of research that has produced a wide variety of conceptualizations, which this study seeks to address. In order to help scholars converge on a unified understanding of BA, we conducted a thorough literature review which identified forty purported dimensions of BA. Our critical analysis resulted in a two-dimensional (i.e., originality and genuineness) conceptualization of the construct. Brand authenticity is defined as the extent to which a brand is considered unique, legitimate, truthful to its claims, and lacking falsity. This study conceptualizes BA as a second-order reflective–formative construct. A new scale for BA was proposed and then tested on data collected about Goodwill using Mechanical Turk. SmartPLS (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data using the two-stage approach. This study found that BA formatively comprises two theorized dimensions, and the proposed BA scale is valid and reliable. The major contribution of this study will be in improving the conceptualization of BA by unifying the fragmented literature and also presenting a scale developed and tested for the further study of BA.

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Subject: Authenticity / Brands