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Considering the ongoing discourse on diversity, equity and inclusion, brands aim to develop marketing campaigns that demonstrate respect for all individuals. Despite these intentions, many advertisements still provoke strong negative reactions from consumers due to brand transgressions in social media marketing campaigns that violate these values. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the repercussions that such social media marketing campaigns have on brands, categorizing these campaigns as brand transgressions in social media advertising.

This research uses a mixed-method design that includes semi-structured interviews (Study 1), a content analysis (Study 2) and an online experiment (Study 3).

This paper clarifies the elements that qualify as brand transgressions in advertising within the diversity, equity and inclusion discourse. The negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) associated with brand transgressions in advertising comprises negative emotions (e.g. anger, contempt, disgust and hate) and behavioural intentions to penalize the brand (e.g. negative word-of-mouth, brand avoidance and protest behaviours). The negative e-WOM stemming from these transgressions amplifies the adverse consequences for consumer–brand relationships by negatively influencing other consumers through sympathy towards the offended parties.

This paper offers brand managers guidelines for preventing and managing negative consumer reactions towards brands based on their responses to marketing campaigns that contradict the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion.

This paper contributes to the literature on brand transgressions related to diversity, equity and inclusion values by exploring their impact on consumer–brand relationships and highlighting the pivotal role of sympathy in perpetuating negative consequences.

This paper aims to provide scholars and practitioners with an innovative method of analyzing luxury brand associations in social media (i.e. Twitter). To do so, authors investigated the alignment between luxury brand identity and luxury brand image in online communication, taking into consideration firm- and user-generated content (UGC) in the form of bloggers’ contents. This paper introduces new tools that luxury brand managers could use to manage and adapt the way they communicate and interact with their customers.

The study adopts a qualitative approach based on a content analysis of Twitter posts of six luxury fashion brands (1,334 posts) and the related Twitter electronic word-of-mouth of fashion bloggers (329 tweets).

The results show a match between luxury brand identity and luxury brand image on Twitter. Specifically, the findings indicate that both brands and bloggers stress the same dimensions of luxury (aesthetic, desirable, symbolic, restricted accessibility and hedonistic experience) confirming that the ways they communicate luxury brands to consumers are aligned. Moreover, the results suggest that luxury brands could reinforce their brand value by making more use of words that are semantically related to luxury.

This study approaches the relationship between social media and luxury brands in a novel way and provides scholars and managers with a tool for monitoring the gap between desired and perceived brand associations.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of wine by the glass (WBG) consumption as a new growing trend in wine consumption. To this end, the roles of risk perception, wine involvement and variety seeking are investigated in determining WBG purchase intentions.

Two studies based on a scenario-based survey have been conducted. In Study 1 (n=248), the relationship between WBG risk perception and WBG purchase intention mediated by variety seeking is tested. In Study 2 (n=200), the relationship between wine involvement and WBG purchase intention with the mediating role of variety seeking is analysed.

Results show that variety seeking plays a key role in determining WBG purchase intentions considering both WBG perceived risk and wine involvement as independent variables.

The study advances the literature on WBG consumption by enclosing the psychological mechanism (i.e. variety seeking) behind consumers’ WBG purchase intentions. The main limitation of this study lies in it being conducted in a single country (i.e. Italy).

This paper provides useful guidelines for wine managers. Specifically, variety seeking can attract consumers in new wine-consuming places based on a rich assortment. Moreover, it can present a challenge to wine producers in creating brand loyalty.

Although WBG is a growing trend in wine consumption, empirical studies are still scant and a deeper comprehension of its antecedents and consequences is needed. By showing variety seeking as the mechanism behind WBG consumption, this study offers a new theoretical explanation of this phenomenon.

The study aims to shed light on cross-country comparisons of brand engagement in self-concept (BESC) among consumers from European countries and to link presumed differences with country-level economic growth and materialism. This study contributes to the literature on the customer–brand relationship and provides implications for international branding strategies.

This observation study explored levels of BESC in three European countries. Questionnaire data were collected from consumers of Austria (N = 302), Italy (N = 431) and Poland (N = 410) with the purpose to make cross-country comparisons of BESC among consumers.

The results provide evidence for partial scalar invariance of the BESC scale. Cross-country comparisons of latent means reveal that Polish consumers score higher on BESC than consumers from Austria and Italy. Moreover, Austrian consumers score higher on BESC than Italian consumers.

Culture as a contextual factor of BESC should be studied further. The findings should be replicated with non-convenience samples in additional cultural contexts to improve the generalizability of data. Structural equation modeling could be used to investigate psychological drivers of BESC differences.

The findings coming from the cross-country comparisons of BESC are of practical relevance to marketing managers: they should tailor their branding and communication strategies accordingly.

So far, the understanding of cross-cultural and cross-country differences in consumer–brand relationships has remained limited. This study adopts a rigorous approach to cross-cultural research enriching the literature on BESC from a cross-country perspective.

This study aims to investigate how stakeholders perceive the company's nonfinancial disclosure after a scandal has occurred. More specifically, the authors examine whether and how sustainability reporting practices in the aftermath of a scandal can influence the perceptions of stakeholders in terms of hypocrisy and legitimacy.

The present research represents a companion paper to another study in this issue that investigates the adaptation of companies' reporting behaviors after a scandal. The results of the initial qualitative study informed the subsequent quantitative study developed in this article. The authors build on the evidence of the main paper and perform a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment to examine how stakeholders perceive the actions of companies that aim to restore their eroded legitimacy through social, environmental and sustainability (SES) reporting.

The results suggest that when companies take responsibility and develop remedial, socially responsible corporate activities are perceived as less hypocritical and more legitimate. Moreover, we show an interaction effect between taking responsibility and developing remedial socially responsible actions on hypocrisy and legitimacy perception.

The present research takes advantage of an experimental design to investigate the effects of the adaptation of SES reporting from the perspective of stakeholders. The study provides insightful theoretical and practical implications for managers regarding how to handle a reputational loss and avoid perceptions of hypocrisy.

The purpose of this paper is to draw upon Johnson's “Circle of Culture” to develop a cultural approach for studying place marketing's internal audience. A research project on the small Italian Renaissance city of Urbino explores how a number of marketing events dedicated to the painter Raphael, who was born there, have been produced and then received among different urban “populations” (dwellers, commuters, students, etc.). The second part of the paper conceptualizes events as both “inward” and “outward” forces and compares the Raphaellian events with some of Urbino's traditional festivities.

This is a qualitative study that applies discourse analysis to media texts, official documents and 42 in‐depth interviews held with both local officials and internal place consumers.

The inquiry reveals a predominance of discourses in support of the events: civic pride, identification, and economic benefits. What is more striking is that some participants not only appreciated the marketing events but “went beyond” by producing discourses in support of a more intensive exploitation of Urbino's cultural and heritage resources.

Quantitative research is recommended to generalize evidence stemming from ethnographic inquiry and to measure “the magnitude” of the different discourses produced by the people.

This paper contributes to overcoming the materialist perspective which underpins a consistent part of literature by showing a new (counter)example of the “non‐oppositional voices” of place marketing. Moreover, it sheds more light on how “tertiary communication” takes place and how it can be properly investigated.

The present research expands the debate on environmental sustainability in the wine industry. Since the literature on sustainability and wine is relatively recent, current results do not cover all the practices that can be implemented along the wine supply chain. Thus, the paper presents a classification of environmental practices specific for the wine industry, according to the increased attention that has been paid to this topic in recent years. Moreover, it investigates the adoption level of these practices with reference to Italian wine producers.

The research presents a systematic literature review including papers published in academic journals during the past 30 years and in Italian specialised magazines. This methodology is useful to provide a clear overview of sustainable practices that can be adopted along the wine supply chain. Therefore, an empirical study based on the results of an online survey shows how wineries approach environmental sustainability.

The literature review provides a definition and classification of environmental practices in the wine industry, as well as identification of those that require further attention in the literature, suggesting future research paths. The results of the online survey give an overview of the adoption level of environmental practices and highlight widespread attention to all the listed environmental practices, including those not adopted.

From a theoretical point of view, this paper fills a literature gap in terms of the definition and classification of environmental practices that cover all wine supply chain processes, also providing a useful instrument for wine companies' managers. Moreover, the results of the empirical research give an overview of the adoption level of environmental practices in one of the most relevant countries in terms of wine production and highlight widespread attention to all the listed environmental practices, including those not adopted.