engleski

The Path to Authenticity is Paved With the Right Cues: A Decade of Research on Brand Authenticity

In the last decade, especially with the rise of the experience economy, authenticity has sparked both marketing academics' and practitioners' interest. Research efforts have increasingly focused on understanding the nature of authenticity, elucidating its causes, components and consequences, and its role in brand management. Despite the consensus on the importance of authenticity in branding from the perspective of companies, consumers, society and scholars, the literature on this topic is still diverse and fragmented. This paper reviews the authenticity construct in branding literature published in 2010‐2020 in academic journals. The purpose of the paper is twofold. It aims to reduce the fragmentation in the field of authenticity in branding by finding gaps in the existing academic literature and uncovering potential directions for future research. Furthermore, based on a review and analysis of studies published in peer-reviewed journals in the last ten years, the aim is to show the development of the area over time and offer a basis for reflection on new conceptual models and frameworks. The paper contributes to the marketing theory by offering a starting platform for new research on authenticity in branding for scholars interested in this particular topic. For practitioners (brand managers), it may serve as an up-to-date information source when looking for theoretically proven evidence for managerial decision making.

Brand authenticity, Brand relationships, Brand trust, Brand value, Brand purpose

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