How to understand "salable fake goods" and "unsalable quality goods"? An insight from the view of quality responsibility and consumers' brand loyalty

A body of theoretical and practical research suggests technology innovation is the driving force for enterprise survival and development and that maintaining business ethics is an important guarantee in sustaining these enterprises developments. Fulfilling the "hard responsibility" of product quality based on technical standards and the "soft responsibility" of product quality based on business ethics is an important principle stimulating the benign interaction and continuous progress of technological innovation and business ethics, and realizing a balanced development of enterprises and society, which could promote positive brand and enterprise image to both stakeholders and consumers, helping consumers choose high-quality products in the market and social competition. However, the strange marketing phenomena of "salable fake goods" and "unsalable quality goods" shows that no systematic marketing strategies have been identified to date, that enterprises could adopt to effectively promote the recognition of consumers and turn them into a loyal customer group and have a stable market share. Based on customer buying behavior theory, cognitive consistency theory, signal theory, and social identity theory, this study explored the influencing mechanism of quality responsibility on brand loyalty of consumers and the mediating role of corporate reputation and brand identification, using 224 valid questionnaires from 16 communities (residents) in Shanxi and Henan provinces of China tested by SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 25.0. Results show that quality responsibility has a significant positive influence on brand behavior loyalty and brand attitude loyalty, and both corporate emotional reputation and brand identification play mediating roles in the relationship between quality responsibility and brand behavior loyalty, and quality responsibility and brand attitude loyalty. Additionally, corporate cognitive reputation only plays a mediating role in the relationship between quality responsibility and brand behavior loyalty. Obtained conclusions in the study provide references for enterprise managers and government decision-makers in exploring management strategies of expediting future technological development and next-generation upgrades & transformations, improving quality and technology benchmarks, optimizing product quality responsibility system and promoting sustainable social development.