Human Brands: Investigating Emotional Mechanism Of Attachments To Entrepreneurs

It is no doubt that the entrepreneur is considered as an important influencer ofcorporate brand except of the product brand and the corporate brand, Researches onthe entrepreneur brand (EB) is another important issue. For consumers, entrepreneurbrands play an different role, and entrepreneur brands can directly influence the mindsof consumers. With the help of social medias, entrepreneurs are no longer "mono lisa’smile", and are more than stars and interact with numerous consumer. Different frominterpersonal interactions, and interactions with entrepreneurs aren’t the face to face.The kind of interaction is named as parasocial interaction. Through social andparasocial interactions, consumer gradually formed r attachments to entrepreneurbrands. However, in terms of attachments to EB, neither rich practice can providedemonstration, nor related theories can give guidance.On the one hand, researches on brand-consumer relationship and brandcommunity refer to attachments. But the previous researches of attachments mainlydiscussed the causes and results of attachments from the point of view of cognitive.We concluded that as a kind of emotional connectedness, emotion is the fundamentalcause. On the other hand, to entrepreneur literatures are more focused on the identityof the entrepreneurs as operators, build brands through influencing employees andshareholders. And the focus of the research is mainly for the leadership traits,leadership style, leadership, etc. In recent years, the research of entrepreneurs starts toturn to external customer. However, literatures are mainly about the effects ofentrepreneurs’ behaviors on consumer, such as entrepreneur endorsement,entrepreneur charity, etc, have neglected the effects of consumer on the brand. Aboveall, from the point of the consumer, this paper discussed the effects of the fit betweenthe self and the brand personality on attachments to EB.On the bases of emotion theories, self theories and brand attachment theories,this study will integrate self congruity, emotional mediator, para-social interactioninvolvement and EB into a conceptual model. It is based on self concepts, self congruity will be divided into actual-self congruity self consistency and ideal-selfcongruity. The mediator variable is emotions (self-confidence/self-abased). At thesame time, the para-social interaction involvement moderates the effects ofindependent variable, mediator and dependent variable.Through the two studies, the author found that both actual-self congruity andideal-self congruity can strengthen attachments to EB. And actual-self congruity ismore effective in the condition of the higher para-social interaction involvement, andideal-self congruity is more effective in the condition of the lower para-socialinteraction involvement. Actual-self congruity significantly improves the level ofself-confidence, and ideal-self congruity can significantly improve the level ofinferiority. Complex of self-confidence and inferiority can induce attachments to EB,and the actual-self congruity strengthens attachments to EB mainly throughself-confidence. The ideal-self congruity is adverse.This study includes five parts: introduction, literature review, conceptualframework and assumptions, data analysis and total discussion. The introduction is thechapter1, mainly consists of the study problem of this paper, research motivation,significance of the topic, and innovation. The second chapter is the part of literaturereview, mainly includes the brand attachment theory, the self researches and therelated emotional theory. On the bases of chapter2, chapter3formed the conceptualframework and basic relationships of variables. The fourth chapter is for empiricalresearch part, through the two studies verifying model and hypotheses. Chapter5ispart of the general discussion, and points out the limitations and future research.The outline of each chapter is as follows:The first chapter describes mainly the study problem of this paper, researchmotivation, significance of the topic, and innovation. Because attachment to EB is thecognitive and emotional bond between self and EB, the self-congruity has importantinfluence on attachment to EB. The theoretical research about entrepreneursmainly focused on influencing the internal employees and shareholders to shapecorporate brand; however, few of studies discussed the influences on externalconsumers. Even though several studies analyses entrepreneur brands, those researches are mainly focused on the perspective of cognitive, and ignore the natureof attachment--the role of emotion. And during marketing practices, how to influenceentrepreneurs brand attachment, thus effectively improve EB and corporate brand isthe major problems. Therefore, this article puts forward the corresponding researchframework, thoughts and methods.Chapter2is about research framework and research assumptions. First of all, thereview of EB included attachment theory, brand attachment and human brandsattachments. The emotion literatures are consists of emotional concept, emotionalclassification, self and emotion. The third part is about self, including self structure,the nature of me, self-congruity, the motives of self-knowledge and the informationresources of self knowledge.Chapter3puts forward research framework and correspondent proposition. Theprocedure is as follows: main effects, mediator effects and moderator effects. Withreference to motivation theory, this paper discusses the main effects, and formedhypotheses H1-H3. Secondly, according Turner’s emotion theory, Wundt’assimilation theory and Swann’s social comparison theory, mediator effects discussedthe mechanism of emotion of attachments to EB, including Hypothesis H4-H7. Finally,this study applies parasocial interaction involvement for moderator variable.Chapter4is composed of data collection, data analysis and hypothesis testing.Chapter5is the general discussion, discussing the processes and mechanismsabout the effects of self-congruity on the attachment to EB. What’s more, authorpoints out the academic importance and managerial implication, put forward thelimitations and future directions.