Developing a Framework for Brand Citizenship Behavior

Brand is a strategic requirement for organizations as it creates sustainable competitive advantages and facilitates the creation of benefits for customers. Thus, the present research aims at developing a framework for brand citizenship behavior. This research is developmental based on its results and is regarded applied research in terms of its objective while it is descriptive given the method of data collection. Considering the type of data involved, the study also falls into the realm of qualitative research. The statistical population of this study consisted of twelve experts selected through snowball and purposive sampling. Their areas of expertise included marketing management, human resources and organizational behavior in universities located in Tehran province. The data was collected through profound and semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis and the network of themes in MAXQDA.  Based on research findings and analysis of themes, a total of twenty-five basic themes, eight organized themes and four comprehensive themes were proposed. Organizational factors coupled with occupational factors perceived by the staff, factors proposed by the company and factors associated with the company’s brand were identified during the study. Each was described in detail before being highlighted at the end of the conceptual framework of brand citizenship behavior. Among the identified themes, decentralized organizational structure and organizational justice were found to be the most significant factors with highest frequencies affecting brand citizenship behavior.