The Mediating Role of Brand Advocacy: Investigating its Antecedents and Consequences in the Context of Smart Phone Users in Pakistan

Extant literature suggests that opinion leaders promote brand advocacy, an innovative tool for changing organizational culture. A few studies have explored the association between opinion leaders and brand advocacy but have not examined its antecedent and consequence in a single study. Given this gap and others discussed in the study, it has extended Two-Step Flow Model and developed a conceptual framework containing four direct, two mediating, and two moderating variables. The study has focused on the Facebook users of Pakistan as it is more popular than other social media. We non-randomly collected 431 samples based on a self-administered questionnaire adapted from past studies. The study used Smart PLS for data analysis, including reliability and validity analysis. We found opinion leadership and interpersonal influence are significant precursors of brand advocacy. And brand equity advocacy promotes brand equity and purchase intention. The result supports all mediating relationships except mediating effect of opinion leadership and purchase intention. The study also supports the moderating effect of brand ethicality on (i) brand association and brand equity and (ii) brand association and purchase intention.