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Purpose: This literature review aims to synthesise the research on various sustainable product branding activities and their impact on consumer responses to sustainable products and brands.

Design/methodology/approach: This literature review is semi-systematic and can be classified as a domain-based review. The search strategy was systematic and well-defined.

Findings: The authors identified four themes: building brand equity, brand communication, product development and third-party labels and ratings, within the sustainable product branding activities that influence consumers' responses to sustainable products and brands. The study's findings revealed diverse, and not always favourable, types of behavioural and attitudinal responses from consumers. As for the positive consumer responses, the authors found positive attitudes towards brands, willingness to pay a premium price and positive word-of-mouth intentions. As for the negative consumer responses, the authors found perceived greenwashing, negative brand evaluations and resistance to sustainable products with unfamiliar third-party labels. Several future research propositions and implications for research and practice are discussed.

Originality/value: Despite the large number of studies that look at sustainable branding strategies, there is a gap in terms of synthesising the knowledge on consumer responses to sustainable product branding strategies. This paper intends to fill this gap.

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.

This chapter focuses on public sector branding from an internal, employee perspective. It shows that for public organizations to ensure desired outcomes, organizations should adopt a multi-level approach to their internal brand management. This entails considering factors on sectoral, organizational, and individual levels. Further, a central message of the chapter is that public sector organizations may need to reconsider some traditional brand knowledge to ensure the brand management is approached in a manner better suited for the sector.

This chapter focuses on public sector branding from an internal, employee perspective. It shows that for public organizations to ensure desired outcomes, organizations should adopt a multi-level approach to their internal brand management. This entails considering factors on sectoral, organizational, and individual levels. Further, a central message of the chapter is that public sector organizations may need to reconsider some traditional brand knowledge to ensure the brand management is approached in a manner better suited for the sector.

Branding has become an established means for many public sector organisations to support the desired perceptions of the organisation. While branding is often presented as useful and advantageous for the organisations, this study cautions against oversimplifying the issue. By focusing on the perspective of employees, this case study investigates contextual factors that influence the affective outcome of internal brand management, employee brand commitment, in the public sector. The findings reveal the critical importance of the identity and values of an organisation and its employees, and its leadership, in the form of political governance. These factors may have considerable influence on both the implementation and the key principles of public sector branding, not least its internal brand management.

Branding in the public sector is emerging as an interesting area of research, as diverse organisations find themselves using branding principles to promote a consistent, clear brand. However, very little is known how public organisations could, or should, manage their brands. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to explore brand management processes in the public sector, and its implication for brand architecture, from an employee perspective. With a qualitative approach, the study argues that branding is important not only for the organisation, but also for individual departments. Further, unlike branding in the private sector, public organisations may be more concerned with supporting a positive perception and organisational attractiveness rather than a unique and differentiated brand. This may have implications for brand architecture. By allowing individual departments to manage their brand with support from organisational structures that provide alignment and focus, organisations can form a brand architecture that supports a strong organisational brand and employee brand commitment.

The increased interest of public organizations in using corporate branding principles creates a need to understand how to implement such principles effectively. Although previous research investigates challenges related to branding in this context, the findings provide contradictory evidence and opposing recommendations. The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review of literature on branding in the public sector and to explore directions for future research. The results demonstrate that owing to the distinct differences between the private and public sectors, there is a need to adapt branding principles to meet the sector-specific challenges faced by public organizations. However, the extent of the required changes needs further research. This literature review presents a number of potential directions for future studies, which focus on diverse topics related to the internal and external aspects that are crucial to the successful branding of public organizations.

The increased use of branding within the public sector signifies an important area for academic research that currently lacks theory and empirical evidence; public sector branding. Extant literature paints a scattered picture. On one hand, some branding principles appear to be equally relevant in the public sector as they are in the private sphere. On the other hand, the public sector appears to require a somewhat distinct approach to branding as there are contextual differences that may affect branding principles, their implementation, and outcomes. Thus, the field lacks established relevant theoretical frameworks to guide public sector organizations in their branding efforts.

One particular area of interest is that of internal brand management. A strong organizational brand is dependent on the brand values being incorporated into the fabric of an organization and into the behaviors of its employees. How this outcome can be achieved in the public sector, however, is still unknown. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to investigate central factors affecting the implementation of internal brand management in the public sector, considering its specific nature.

Through a multi-method study, this dissertation presents the synthesized findings of four individual papers. The first paper, a literature review, explores extant research on public sector branding. The next two papers are based on a qualitative case study, which includes interviews, observations, and brandrelated documents. The fourth paper is based on a quantitative study. The three empirical papers investigate various factors that influence internal brand management in the public sector.

The synthesized findings demonstrate that organizations within the public sector need to approach branding in a manner that considers its distinct nature. From an internal brand management perspective this entails considering contextual, organizational, and individual factors. These factors have been found to affect branding principles and their implementation in public organizations and indicate the unique nature of public sector branding.