Exploring Human-Centric Attributes of Smartphone Set and Their Influence on Brand Advocacy by the Customers: Testing the Moderating Role of Gender Identity

Abstract

This paper investigates the impacts of human-centric brand attributes and their associated dimensions on advocacy by the consumers. This study also tests the moderating role of gender identity of the consumers on the above stated issue. The paper adopted a mixed mode approach where at first a primary list of attributes was purified based on the qualitative comments of academics and industry experts. Later on, authors collected 861 primary quantitative data from young consumers of a developing country and analyzed those through structural equation modeling. This study offers a 29-attribute eight-dimensional brand personality and WOM model for smartphone brands. Results revealed that quick problem solver, empathetic, professionalism, trustworthy, and competent are the preferred human-centric attributes among the young customers while choosing a smartphone brand. Results also found that gender identity plays a significantly differentiating role while spreading positive WOM for a smartphone brand. Young users with masculine identity emphasize on sociability and intellectuality dimensions and their associated human-attributes while promoting positive WOM regarding the smartphone brand. Users with feminine traits on the other hand share more about emotionality and physicality aspects of the brand during advocacy.