Presentation given at the 3rd International Consumer Brand Relationships Conference, www.consumer-brand-relationships.org Copyright by Sreejesh, S. IBS Hyderabad, India Subhadip Roy, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, India

1. A GROUNDED THEORY APPROACH TO
INVESTIGATE CONSUMER-BRAND
RELATIONSHIPS IN INDIA
Sreejesh S
(IBS Hyderabad, India)
Dr. Subhadip Roy
(IIM Udaipur, India)

2. INTRODUCTION
●Brand-based differentiation is the most influential approach
for the development and maintenance of competitive
advantage.
●Literature focused on brand equity, brand personality, and
brand extensions.
●Basic premise of Consumer Brand Relationship (CBR):
Brand as an individual entity (Fournier,1998)
●Understanding the process by which consumers use
attitudinal and behavioral components in relationship
building is important
●Differentiation and comp adv based on CBR

3. LITERATURE REVIEW
oThere has been considerable research in CBR
(beginning from Fournier, 1998 to Park et al., 2013) in
the last fifteen years
oFournier (1998) used several interpersonal theories and
introduced a conceptual model of consumer-brand
relationships, called Brand Relationship Quality Model (BRQ).
oPark et al., (2013) proposed and empirically tested a new
model of consumer-brand relationships, called Attachment-
aversion (AA) Model.

4. CBR RESEARCH
●CBR influences consumer experience (Kaltcheva
and Weitz, 1999)
●Brand attachment and CBR (Thomson and Johnson,
2002)
●Brand Relationship Quality Scale (Kim et al., 2005)
●Individual or group level connections of CBR
(Swaminathan et al., 2007)
●Relationship quality and consumer brand
identification (Papista and Dimitriadis, 2012)

5. RESEARCH GAPS
●Models in CBR failed to give a consensus on the exact
dimensions of consumer-brand relationships (Aaker et al., 2004;
Chang and Chieng, 2006; Kressmann et al., 2006; Smit et al.,
2007).
●Use of interpersonal theories in CBR are questionable
(Bengtsson 2003).
●Failure to provide clear plan for model specification and
subsequent empirical testing (Breivik and Thorbjørnsen, 2008).
●Lack of studies for the measurement and operationalization of
CBR, that integrates attitudinal and behavioral constructs (Kim et
al., 2008).

6. STUDY OBJECTIVES
●To establish a new theoretical model for understanding
consumer-brand relationships following a non-metaphoric,
non-interpersonal approach.
●In course, the study would generate and integrate attitudinal
and behavioral dimensions of CBR.
●A more practical model of CBR grounded in data and
testable from the empirical point of view.

7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
● Methodological Paradigm: Qualitative
● Grounded Theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1994).
● 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews
● Theoretical Sampling.
● Open, Axial and Selective Coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1994).
● Flint et al., (2002) procedure for trustworthiness of qualitative data.

8. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
●Stage 1: Discovering Concepts and Categories
●14 semi-structured interviews were undertaken using 14
consumers of the study sample.
●68 unique concepts or codes were generated.
●68 concepts were grouped through constant comparison of
concepts, to reduce the number of concepts.
●The result of this phase led to the generation of four core
categories, seven categories and 68 sub-categories.

10. ●Stage 2: Provisional Hypotheses Formulation
Four analytical steps were applied simultaneously as follows:
1. Relating subcategories to a category using statements which denote
the relationships between themselves and the phenomenon;
2. Verification of these hypotheses against actual data;
3. Identification of properties of categories and its subcategories;
4. Linking categories at the dimensional level.

11. ●Stage 3: Hypotheses Testing and Theoretical Model
Development
●This stage of selective coding phase involved 12 semi-structured in-
depth interviews.
●Interview questions primarily developed from stage 2 results and
provisional hypotheses.
●Patterns identified and the data grouped to achieve theoretical
specificity.
●Helped in model specification and creating action diagram

13. DISCUSSION
●The theoretical model adds value to the existing literature in
consumer-brand relationships:
●First, it provides more comprehensive, detailed and integrated
understanding of how consumers actually form relationships with
brands than the previous study of individual constructs.
●Second, the theoretical model of CBR demonstrates how
relationship formation changes with changes in relationships and
helps to identify the most useful pathway through which consumers
might develop relationships with the brand.

14. IMPLICATIONS
●The study would help marketers to understand and
implement the strategic management of CBR
●Relationship establishment drivers
●Findings would assist managers for investing monetary
and non-monetary resources for relationship maintenance
and marketing communications.
●For academicians, a testable model of CBR

15. Thank
You