The Portuguese tourism sector has grown steadily in recent years and will continue to generate a series of opportunities and challenges for which answers will be needed to ensure a structured growth path for the sector. Research on CSR in tourism is still sparse (Dwyer and Sheldon, 2007). In an attempt to address this issue, this study analyses whether the CSR consumer perceptions and consumer engagement are significant variables supporting the success of a long-term relationship in the tourism sector as a brand love. Knowing the role of the perceived community, environmental and consumer’s aspects of CRS image, the levels of personal involvement in tourism play an important role in the relationship between the social concerns of tourists, their responsible behaviour and the relationship that they establish with the place. A quantitative methodology was employed for this research. It was used a survey to measure relationships between constructs on a theoretical model. The questionnaires were administered to tourists (nationals and internationals) in the main tourist’s points in the Porto city during the month of October 2017. A sample of tourists produced 958 useable questionnaires. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using maximum likelihood estimation and bootstrapping method was conducted to test the validity of the model and the formulated hypotheses. The results obtained in the estimation of the proposed conceptual model show that in respect to the corporate social responsibility image all the variables considered to explain that image are statistically significant. The tourists CSR image of the city of Porto leads to an increase of brand love and the consumer engagement with the city of Porto leads to an increase of brand love too. This is the first time that this evaluation has been carried out for the Porto city and it proves to be necessary information for the various stakeholders who work in the sector, including local organizations, companies and industry leaders, among others.

In recent years brands have come under the spotlight for delivering unique and authentic brand experiences. Consumers find themselves looking for brands that add experiential value to their daily life, from a sensory, behavioral, intellectual and relational perspective (Brakus et al., 2009). Moreover, there is a growing demand for brands that are able to deliver their brand promise authentically (Morhart et al., 2015; Schallehn et al., 2014). On this background, our research was conducted in order to examine the role of brand experience and brand authenticity in generating brand love. In addressing this issue, the present study attempts to perform a test on research hypotheses by empirically validating the proposed conceptual model in a cross-country context (Japan and Portugal) for the brands Apple and Samsung. Additionally, it analyses the moderating effect of self-authenticity in relation to brand experience and brand authenticity. Data collection was done using a structured questionnaire to final consumers, who are owners of Apple and Samsung devices. A total of 574 valid questionnaires were collected regarding Apple brand (Japan = 300; Portugal = 274). Following the testing of the structural equation model, results demonstrate the correlation between brand authenticity and brand experience and show that the greater the self-authenticity, the higher is the effect of brand authenticity on brand love. It is worth noting however that the direct and moderating effects are different for Apple and Samsung in Japan and Portugal. This accounts for the cultural differences in how consumers perceive the experiential and authentic brand value propositions and how they relate emotionally to brands. Our study also provides important managerial implications by helping brand managers to understand how to drive passionate and intense feelings towards brands and to target consumers who are looking for compelling, meaningful and authentic brand experiences.

We evaluate the loyalty of a tourist destination considering tangible and intangible factors using the city of Porto as a case study. We observed that the main dimensions that the tourists associate with the visit and consequently with the city, in order of importance, were: i) engagement with the city of Porto, ii) identification with city of Porto, iii) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the city of Porto, iv) experiences in the city of Porto, and v) having visited visiting the city of Porto. Direct interviews were administered in the main tourist’s points in the city during the month of October 2017. The survey was only applied to the respondents who pursued tourism in the city of Porto, with 958 valid questionnaires. The questionnaire included the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents, the evaluation of level of importance of the eleven factors related to the trip, the level of agreement with the eight statements on the engagement with Porto developed by Sprott et al. (2009) – applied for the first time to a destination - and, in the final part, the evaluation of the intention to return to city of Porto. The eleven statements related to the importance of various factors associated to the trip and the eight statements that evaluate the engagement with the city were subjected to a principal components analysis with varimax rotation in order to identify the main dimensions. A logistic regression was used to explore the determinants of the likelihood to return to Porto considering the respondents’ sociodemographic variables and the main dimensions obtained in the factorial analysis (related to the important factors on the trip and the engagement with the city). Regarding the intention to return, which is the proxy of tourists’ loyalty to the destination, we observed that it is positively influenced by the engagement with the city, the tourist’s perception of CSR, the good experience in the city and having visited the city. These results connect the political, economic and marketing objectives in the tourism sector. The goals need to be aligned and the stakeholders(visitors, local residents and business, public bodies and government) must work together to maintain a solid and unified destination image. Considering that the city of Porto has been in the spotlight at an international level as one of the top cities’ destinations, this kind of information is fundamental for Porto to continue to be an attractive city tourism destination.

Investigation concerning the presence of customer-brand relationships in online communities is recent and scarce and might offer potential (Moraes et al., 2014; Huber et al., 2015; Vernuccio et al., 2015). The purpose of this investigation is to understand and analyse how brand love can influence brand loyalty among millennials generation, considering engagement constructs and social networks. It bridges an academia gap in the context of the consumer brand relationship literature. This research aims to answer the following questions: (1) Is brand love effective in building true brand loyalty? (2) Does interactive engagement with brands and brand love contribute to build brand loyalty? and (3) Does interactive engagement on social networks reflect millennials love of brands? To collect data we conducted two online surveys, covering two different brand categories: Fashion and Electronics/Technology. We have in total 1278 inquiries. The analyses of data and hypotheses test were made by using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) and a multi-group factor analysis. The proposed structural equation model was validated and all hypothesis were accepted. So, consumers’ Brand Related Social Media Content was proved to have a direct impact on Social Interactive Brands and Brand Loyalty. Social Interactive Brands were proved to have a direct impact on Emotional Attachment and Self Expressive Brands which also proved direct impact on Brand Love. Brand Love for instance was proved has been directly connected with Brand Loyalty and Word of Mouth and Brand Loyalty also, directly impacts Word of Mouth. The model behave well in the previous research so we wanted to test it with a smaller sample and different brand categories the results would maintain. The results of the multi-group factor analysis showed that we have configural and metric invariance in both different studies, covering Fashion and Technological brands. As though for management purposes it might be of no disagreement to state that marketing alone is no longer enough to influence purchase motivation and intention for consumers. This investigation advance and valid a new theoretical framework in the consumer brand love approach

Technology has turned the consumer into a non-stop generator of traditional, structured, transactional data as well as more contemporary, unstructured, behavioural data. The study of consumer analytics turns on the junction of Big Data and consumer behaviour. This paper intends to test empirically the conceptual model proposed by Erevelles, Fukawa and Swayne (2016) for FB, in Portugal. A qualitative methodology is being performed, namely conducting twenty-five in-deep interviews with the current managers of FB, with the average duration of one hour. Once the 25 interviews are all carried out, they will be subsequently transcribed in full. Then, a content analysis will be held by two researchers and resorted to software NVivo, which is considered a good tool to help in theory building (Azevedo, 1998). Since the study is still at the moment of data collection through in-deep interviews, it is not yet possible to present consistent results. However, the first interviews leads to the idea that FB in Portugal do not have a structure particularly dedicated to identifying business opportunities that favor the implementation of an organized Big Data management system. It was also recognize the option of a more centralized management strategy, in anticipation the changes in the environment that can predict trends in the consumer market. Finally, it was verify that the definition of a particular profile of skills and knowledge associated with the agents involved in the collection and treatment of the inputs given by the consumers through the analysis of the Big Data, is not yet defined.