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Purpose: This study aims to examine the impact of cognitive and behavioral mechanisms on sustainability performance within the context of coopetition for sustainability. In particular, it investigates how coopetition importance, which underlies a coopetition-oriented mindset and coopetition intensity, which determines coopetitive behavior, influence sustainability performance, and what role a CSR policy plays in coopetition for sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative study was designed by applying a multi-actor perspective on coopetition for sustainability at the network level. Respondents included CEOs, managers and experts from organizations engaged in coopetitive practices within the housing sector in Poland. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Additionally, cluster analysis was applied to delineate distinctive groups of organizations involved in coopetition for sustainability.

Findings: The results demonstrate that coopetition importance and coopetition intensity positively affect sustainability performance, highlighting both cognitive and behavioral mechanisms in coopetition for sustainability. Furthermore, a CSR policy serves as a critical regulatory factor, moderating the effect of coopetition intensity on sustainability performance. From the post hoc cluster analysis, this study identifies three distinct clusters of organizations based on their engagement in coopetition for sustainability: coopetition champions, sustainability stewards and cautious operators.

Practical implications: The study informs managers about the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms in coopetitive interactions that are central to achieving high sustainability performance. Furthermore, the study provides actionable guidance for managers, i.e. highlights specific practices, such as leveraging CSR policies, fostering coopetition importance as a part of the coopetition-oriented mindset and balancing cooperative and competitive behaviors to regulate coopetition dynamics and maximize sustainability outcomes.

Originality/value: The study advances the understanding of coopetition for sustainability by providing insights into the potential links between coopetitive mindset, behavior and outcome in this complex phenomenon.

Despite the climate emergency, marketing managers in the automotive industry face challenges in stimulating demand for innovations that can decrease greenhouse gas emissions, such as electric vehicles (EVs). Applying the value-identity-personal norm model, this study investigates the influence of normative factors on eco-friendly brand experience and brand loyalty for electric vehicles. We use structural equation modelling to analyse survey data collected from owners of electric vehicles in Sweden. The results show that personal norms directly and positively impact eco-friendly brand experience but not brand loyalty. The impact of personal norms on brand loyalty is found to be fully mediated by eco-friendly brand experience. Based on the findings, we encourage future research to explore the interrelationships between norms and branding, and their potential to stimulate pro-environmental behaviour. 

Many marketing managers face challenges in building a strong brand capable of making a positive transformative impact on the society and environment. The emerging research stream on conscientious branding addresses these challenges by providing core insights on the nature of a brand with a conscience and conscientious brand management. However, the dark side of conscientious branding, where organizations commit to conscientious branding, but still conduct moral failures, is under-investigated in prior research. The main purpose of this study is to explore the interplay between conscientious branding, moral failures, and organizational resilience by examining violations in commercial advertising. The study focuses on violations related to environmental claims in marketing communications. By using content analysis, the study examines the decisions about cases, which received an upheld outcome by the Swedish Advertising Ombudsman (Reklamombudsmannen), signifying a violation in marketing ethics and indicating a moral failure. The study proposes the general categorization of organizations based on conscientious branding practices and organizational responses to a moral failure. The findings demonstrate that conscientious brand management can not only facilitate organizational moral development in the short term, but also reinforce persistent resilience in the long term.

Despite the fact that many organizations must manage frequently multiple paradoxes in their operations, extant paradox studies have under-researched the phenomenon of a knotted paradox that emerges when actors navigate in conditions of contradicting demands, which stem from several paradoxes simultaneously. In this study, we explore the knotted paradox of coopetition for sustainability, a process in which competitors cooperate to address sustainability challenges, and examine the interplay between its intensity, balance, and outcome. The findings of a quantitative study conducted among organizational actors in the housing sector demonstrate that coopetition intensity has a significant yet complex impact on sustainability outcomes. In the relationship characterized by an inverted U-shaped curve, an increase in coopetition intensity and balance leads to an increase in sustainability outcomes, but only until a specific limit, after which sustainability outcomes decrease with further intensification of coopetition. The findings indicate that coopetition balance and sustainability balance do not have a significant relationship. The study provides insights for managers on how coopetition in different conditions can contribute to corporate sustainability. The study demonstrates that coopetition and sustainability can be knotted successfully, although the intensity of competing demands and the balance between them need to be cautiously managed.

Contemporary corporate branding embraces the principles of conscientious brand management, which highlight the engagement of multiple stakeholders in the co-creation of a corporate brand with a transformative purpose. The chapter explores how conscientious corporate brands can be co-created inside-out through values-driven branding. The chapter provides insights about the opportunities and challenges related to establishing a conscientious organization and to implementing values-driven branding. The chapter explains how organizations can commit to internal branding with a conscience and build a conscientious corporate brand inside-out. The chapter introduces a novel categorization of corporate brands based on a conscience, which includes (1) a spiritual corporate brand, (2) a hypocritical corporate brand, (3) a toxic corporate brand, and (4) a destructive corporate brand. The chapter provides an illustrative practical case demonstrating how an organization can make a long-term commitment to building continuously its conscientious brand inside-out by engaging, inspiring, and empowering employees. The chapter calls for the increased efforts by practitioners and researchers that are needed for building conscientious corporate brands, which have the potential to increase the common good and to contribute to a sustainable future.

Challenged by demanding contextual conditions, public sector organizations struggle to succeed in internal branding. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of value congruence in internal communication and positive organizational practices on employees’ brand perceptions. The study examines the impact of PSM on these variables. The results of a survey demonstrate the importance of value congruence and positive organizational practices for facilitating employees’ brand identification, brand pride, and brand commitment. The findings show that PSM directly impacts employees’ opinions about value congruence and positive organizational practices, and indirectly influences their affective responses to the organizational brand.

The majority of studies on internal brand equity examine its various dimensions and relationships between them. While prior research specifies organizational practices relevant for successful internal branding, the insights about the impact of essential organizational factors on internal brand equity are still limited. This study focuses on organizational resilience that is vital for the existence of organizations not only during a crisis, but also during everyday operations. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of organizational resilience on internal brand equity considering the effects triggered by self-service technology (SST) in retailing. Since retailing had been significantly transformed by technological innovations over the past decade, we explore the effects of employees’ perceptions about performance of SST. The results of a survey conducted among retail employees in Sweden demonstrate that organizational resilience and employees’ perceptions about technological innovations are critical for enhancing internal brand equity, which includes brand orientation, internal brand knowledge, internal brand involvement, and internal brand commitment.