Mediation Effect of Cultural Features on Brand Equity Within Customer Brand Engagement: A Research on the Service Sector

Today, the concept of customer brand engagement has become a very important element within the scope of creating brand value of businesses. In addition, strong brand equity understanding contributes to increasing the level of brand engagement of customers. The purpose of this study is to determine the mediating effect of cultural characteristics on brand equity within the scope of customer brand involvement. In this study, it is aimed to determine the effect of cultural characteristics on the brand equity of Generation Z Turkish and African participants living in Ankara. The data obtained in the study were analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 26 and IBM SPSS AMOS 23 programmes. It was determined that cultural characteristics have a mediating effect on brand equity formation within the scope of customer brand involvement. It has been concluded that the level of customer brand involvement is higher in African participants, cultural characteristics are effective in social identity and ethnocentrism dimensions in brand value formation, Turkish participants are less affected by cultural characteristics in brand value formation, service quality and price-performance perception are more effective in brand value formation. It is thought that the related research will make a significant contribution to the literature by examining cultural characteristics within the scope of customer brand involvement and measuring the mediating effect of cultural characteristics on brand value creation and the effect of cultural characteristics on brand value creation has not been examined before.