Assessing the Role of Corporate Reputation on Brand Satisfaction: A Study of Chemical Industry

Despite the growing research on industrial branding, there is little focus on how strong corporate reputation and perceived value influence brand satisfaction. The study's purpose is to investigate the model with constituents of corporate reputations, perceived value, brand satisfaction, and switching costs (as a moderator). This empirical study employs the structural equation model (SEM) to examine the robustness of the model. The study demonstrates the role of brand associations of corporate reputation as a competitive advantage to get business sustainability through a direct effect on perceived value and indirect effect on brand satisfaction. Meanwhile, the perceived value has a relatively more substantial direct effect on brand satisfaction than corporate reputations. Switching costs play the role of pure moderator on the link of perceived value and brand satisfaction, which strengthens the relationship positively; on the contrary, switching costs weaken the link of corporate reputation and brand satisfaction. Therefore, this study is a base for mitigating the emotional factors of buyers' fear and anxiety towards opportunistic potency. The study provides a basis for practitioners to focus on the corporate reputation for value enhancement. The paper contributes to the industrial-branding theory about the positive moderating effect and the negative effect of switching costs on the model.