I WANT THAT SMARTPHONE! SOURCES OF BRAND EQUITY

This research aims (i) to explore the influence of an individual's attitude towards advertising, brand origin and country of manufacture on brand equity creation; and (ii) to analyse brand typicality as moderating the effect of brand origin macro image on perceived quality. A conceptual model is proposed and applied to a sample of 305 Portuguese consumers of Smartphones. The proposed model was tested considering Apple, Nokia and Samsung. The results show that individuals' attitudes towards advertisements has a positive impact on brand equity creation, whereas country of manufacture does not influence significantly and brand origin has only a partial influence. Brand typicality exerts a significant direct effect on brand equity dimensions but does not have a significant moderating effect.