THE MODERATING ROLE OF BRAND REPUTATION ON THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ATTRIBUTES AND BRAND AUTHENTICITY ON BRAND IMAGE, BRAND COMMITMENT AND BRAND EQUITY ON ONLINE SHOPPING PLATFORMS

The present study aims not only to determine the impact of technology attributes and brand authenticity on functional brand image and the impact of functional brand image on affective brand commitment and brand equity, but also to investigate the moderating role of brand reputation. This empirical study was conducted with a proposed model that was tested with surveys applied to a sample of 480 online shoppers in Turkey. Path analysis were conducted to test the research hypotheses. The study findings elicited the impact of online shoppers’ ease of use perception and brand authenticity on functional brand image, the impact of functional brand image on affective brand commitment and brand equity and the effect of affective brand commitment on brand equity. Furthermore, indicating the moderating role of brand reputation on correlations between brand authenticity, functional brand image, affective brand commitment and brand equity has brought originality to the study.