Moral licensing is a non-conscious effect that provides a moral boost in the self-concept, which increases the preference for a relative immoral action by dampening the negative self-attributions associated with such behavior. Applied to a marketing context, moral licensing explains why a purchase of a green product (a positive moral act) is likely to increase the likelihood of subsequently purchasing a luxury good (a negative moral act). This study addresses the question how big this effect typically is and which factors influence its size by conducting a Meta-Analysis and a Meta-Regression. Based on a random effects model, the point estimate for the generalized effect size Cohen’s d is 0.365 (SE=0.047; p=0.000). Results of a Meta-Regression indicate, for the first time, that the three moderators cultural background, type of decision and type of comparison explain a substantial amount of the total variation of moral licensing effect’s size.

This research was conducted in order to examine the reverse effect of brand loyalty on the emotional attachment to the place-of-origin. Results indicate that consumers that are highly loyal to a brand tend to be more emotionally attached to the place-of-origin; the effect is mediated by affective place image. Affective place image also partially mediates the brand loyalty–place attachment relationship in cases when the brand is authentic in the place. Human beings tend to extend their affect towards one object based on another object related to the first one. Building on this notion researchers have been trying to understand two related concepts—a place, and a brand originating from that place. In this endeavor, one literature stream has been focusing on place-based branding from the perspective of international marketing, including work on country-of-origin (COO) or product-country image (Baldauf et al., 2009; Hong & Wyer Jr, 1989). Another stream focusing on place branding adapts traditional marketing theory to market a place (Kotler 2002), and focuses on destination image (Bramwell & Rawding, 1996; Lee & Lockshin, 2012; Qu, Kim & Im, 2011), and place attachment (Gross & Brown 2006). Notwithstanding the above, there is a dearth of research combining these two aforementioned streams. One of few exceptions is Lee and Lockshin (2014), who explored the reverse COO effect of product perceptions on destination image. However, they focused on consumers’ cognitive beliefs and, thus, the underlying mechanism of the relationship is yet to be examined. Hence, the current research aims to answer the following questions: can brand loyalty be leveraged to consumers’ relationship with the place-of-origin as a tourism destination? And, if so, what is the mechanism underlying the effect? We present a global survey with consumers of place-based wine brands as a means to understand whether consumers’ loyalty to a brand will influence their emotional attachment to the place where the wine brand origins. A moderated mediation model is proposed. Affective destination image mediates the positive effect of brand loyalty on place attachment, which is positively moderated by authenticity of the brand-place associations. The study contributes to the tourisms marketing field by identifying the emotional linkage between brand loyalty and place attachment. It serves as a starting point for further investigation of how company or product branding could benefit place marketing and branding theory. Affective components are suggested to play a vital role in the relationships between a place and a brand. It further enriches understanding of the role of brand authenticity. Place marketers need to understand the role of brand loyalty in the decision-making process of tourism consumption.

This paper draws on the concept of transculturality, shifting our attention beyond religion as a stable belief system toward religion as a field of transcultural practices. Our conceptualization of religion as a field of transcultural practices is empirically grounded in a hermeneutic analysis of depth interviews with 24 Southeast Asian immigrant consumers living in Auckland, New Zealand. The findings reveal two interrelated sets of transcultural practices through which religion shapes multicultural marketplaces. The first set of practices facilitates entry into multicultural marketplaces, by easing the process of border crossing and enabling social capital development. The second set of practices facilitates mutual entanglement within multicultural marketplaces, by fostering intercultural competency development, sharing of cultural consumption rituals, and enabling the flows of material resources. This paper helps to advance the growing literature on religion and marketing in two ways. First, a transcultural approach moves religion beyond a view of each religious tradition as a bounded system. Instead, religion emerges as an open and dynamic system which is deeply contextualized and whose function morphs to meet the character of the cultural context in which it is embedded. Second, in addition to the present focus on how religion produces differences in marketplace behaviors, this paper also sheds light on the transcultural properties of religion which are held in common across diverse religious traditions. Rather than becoming a dividing force in contemporary multicultural marketplaces, religious fields are also revealed to be hybridized and hybridizing fields of transcultural flows. Overall, in the context of multicultural marketplaces, religion emerges as a key site for the performance of practices which fuel transcultural dynamics.