دانشگاه شاهد نشریه علمی راهبردهای بازرگانی 2345-220X 22 25 2025 08 23 The Effect of Ethical Marketing on Brand Self-Expression and Consumer Willingness to Pay: The Mediating Roles of Value Co-Creation and Brand Trust بررسی تأثیر بازاریابی اخلاقی بر خودبیانگری برند و تمایل به پرداخت مصرف‌کننده با نقش میانجی خلق ارزش مشترک و اعتماد به برند 121 143 5141 10.22070/cs.2026.21699.1483 FA مهران الیاسی الموتی دانشجوی کارشناسی ارشد مدیریت بازرگانی دانشگاه شاهد، تهران، ایران. 0009-0004-6750-389X ابراهیم زارع پور عضو هیئت‌علمی گروه مدیریت بازرگانی دانشگاه شاهد، تهران، ایران. 0000-0002-0205-9757 Journal Article 2025 04 21 Introduction and Purpose: In today's intensely competitive environment, creating a favorable brand image in customers' minds has become essential. Brand self-expression, defined as the alignment between personal identity and a brand, plays a key role in shaping consumers' willingness to pay. Willingness to pay, defined as the maximum amount a consumer is willing to spend for a service, serves as a valid indicator for measuring brand value and customer loyalty. Technological advancements and changing consumer priorities have increasingly directed customers toward organizations committed to ethical practices. Consumers are becoming more aware of unethical corporate behaviors, and ethical considerations significantly influence their purchasing decisions.In this context, sharing economy platforms such as Snap and Tapsi, as relatively emerging phenomena in Iran, seek to adopt ethical marketing strategies based on honesty, fairness, and accountability to build consumer trust and create value beyond mere economic exchanges. Value co-creation is a process in which customers and companies actively interact and collaborate to create mutual value. This collaborative value creation not only enhances brand trust but also provides a foundation for developing a shared identity, thereby strengthening brand self-expression. Brand trust refers to consumers' confidence that a brand will perform as expected and develops when consumers perceive the brand as reliable and consistently capable of meeting their expectations. Brand self-expression reflects the connection between customers and brands; the more consumers identify with a brand, the greater significance the brand gains in their lives. Humans inherently seek connection, and sharing economy companies facilitate such relationships. Brand self-expression develops through a three-stage process: first, customers process brand-related messages to understand their meanings and benefits; second, they reflect on their actual and ideal selves; and finally, they integrate these two stages by evaluating how the brand corresponds with who they are and who they aspire to become. Willingness to pay is inherently personal and primarily influenced by consumers' financial conditions; however, social and ethical considerations may also affect their willingness to pay. According to the value-based pricing literature, companies determine prices based on customers' perceived value of products or services. This perspective is closely associated with value co-creation. Willingness to pay is a fundamental component of marketing strategies and guides critical pricing decisions.A significant research gap exists regarding how ethical marketing affects key behavioral variables in Iran's sharing economy platforms, particularly considering the mediating roles of value co-creation and brand trust. Therefore, this study applies the S-O-R framework to investigate how perceptions of ethical marketing (stimulus), through value co-creation and brand trust (organism), influence brand self-expression and willingness to pay (response) among Snap and Tapsi users. Based on theoretical foundations, nine hypotheses were developed. Methodology: This applied research employs a descriptive-survey method with a correlational approach. The statistical population consisted of all Snap and Tapsi users in Tehran Province. The sample size was determined as 384 respondents based on Cochran's formula for infinite populations. A two-stage cluster sampling method was applied: Tehran's 22 districts were divided into four clusters (North, South, East, and West), and 96 individuals were randomly selected from each cluster. Data were collected using a standard questionnaire adapted from Nadeem et al. (2023) and Wallace et al. (2022), measured on a five-point Likert scale. Content validity was confirmed by experts, and construct validity was verified through convergent validity (AVE values above 0.50) and discriminant validity (Fornell-Larcker criterion). Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability, with all values exceeding 0.70. Therefore, PLS-SEM was employed using SPSS and SmartPLS 3 to test the research hypotheses. Findings: A total of 384 valid responses were collected. Among the respondents, 182 were male and 202 were female. Moreover, 207 participants selected Snap as their preferred platform, while 177 selected Tapsi. This demographic distribution indicates an appropriate balance regarding gender and platform representation within the sample. The GOF index, which simultaneously evaluates the fit of both the measurement and structural models, was 0.628 for the proposed model. Since this value exceeds 0.36, it indicates a strong and acceptable overall model fit. The hypothesis testing results confirmed all nine hypotheses, as all t-statistics exceeded the critical value of 1.96 at the 95% confidence level. The strongest relationship was observed between ethical marketing and value co-creation. Subsequently, value co-creation demonstrated the strongest effect on brand self-expression. Other significant path relationships included the effects of value co-creation on brand trust and willingness to pay; ethical marketing on willingness to pay and brand self-expression; brand trust on brand self-expression and willingness to pay; and brand self-expression on willingness to pay. The indirect effects also confirmed the full mediating roles of value co-creation and brand trust in the relationship between ethical marketing and the dependent variables. Discussion and Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that ethical marketing influences brand self-expression and willingness to pay on Snap and Tapsi platforms through two key mechanisms: value co-creation and brand trust. All nine research hypotheses were supported, and the proposed model showed strong fit. The strongest effect was related to the influence of ethical marketing on value co-creation. Consumers participate more actively in value creation processes when they perceive that a brand is committed to ethical principles. Furthermore, ethical marketing affects brand self-expression and willingness to pay both directly and indirectly through value co-creation and brand trust. Consumers perceive ethical brands as more consistent with their personal identities and demonstrate greater willingness to pay for their services. Value co-creation, by fostering emotional and identity-based connections, enhances brand trust, brand self-expression, and willingness to pay. Brand trust, as a fundamental element of the brand–customer relationship, facilitates deeper consumer engagement with the brand and increases willingness to pay. Finally, brand self-expression, as the final link in the causal chain, increases willingness to pay when consumers perceive the brand as part of their identity. این پژوهش باهدف بررسی تأثیر بازاریابی اخلاقی بر خودبیانگری برند و تمایل ‌به پرداخت مصرف‌کننده با نقش میانجی خلق ارزش مشترک و اعتماد به برند انجام‌شده است. پژوهش حاضر ازنظر هدف، کاربردی و ازنظر شیوۀ اجرا، توصیفی-‌پیمایشی با رویکرد همبستگی است. جامعۀ آماری را مصرف‌کنندگان پلتفرم‌های اقتصاد اشتراکی اسنپ و تپسی در شهر تهران تشکیل داده‌اند. با توجه به نامحدود بودن جامعۀ آماری، بر اساس جدول مورگان، 384 داده با استفاده از روش نمونه‌گیری خوشه‌ای جمع‌آوری شد. ابزار گردآوری داده‌ها، پرسشنامه استاندارد بود. اطلاعات جمع‌آوری‌شده با استفاده از نرم‌افزارهای SPSS و Smart PLS تجزیه‌وتحلیل شدند. نتایج به‌دست‌آمده نشان داد که بازاریابی اخلاقی تأثیر مثبت و معناداری بر خلق‌ ارزش مشترک، خودبیانگری ‌برند و تمایل به پرداخت مصرف‌کننده دارد. همچنین، اثر خلق ارزش مشترک بر اعتماد به برند، خودبیانگری برند و تمایل به پرداخت مصرف‌کننده در پلتفرم‌های اقتصاد اشتراکی نیز مستقیم و معنادار بود. افزون بر این، اعتماد به برند نیز تأثیر مثبت و معنادار بر خودبیانگری برند و تمایل به پرداخت مصرف‌کننده در پلتفرم‌های اقتصاد اشتراکی دارد. همچنین، خودبیانگری برند به‌صورت مستقیم بر تمایل به‌ پرداخت مصرف‌کننده در پلتفرم‌های اقتصاد اشتراکی تأثیر می‌گذارد. به‌طورکلی، پلتفرم‌های اقتصاد اشتراکی، نظیر اسنپ و تپسی، با رقابت بسیار شدیدی مواجه هستند و نوع بازاریابی، کیفیت خدمات و محصولات ازجمله مهم‌ترین عوامل جذب و حفظ مشتریان به شمار می‌روند. این عوامل نه‌تنها بر خودبیانگری برند و تمایل به پرداخت مصرف‌کنندگان فعلی تأثیرگذارند، بلکه بر جذب و رفتار مشتریان بالقوه نیز اثر قابل‌توجهی خواهند داشت.

https://cs.shahed.ac.ir/article_5141_130ea938864f051b9a40c85b6a713306.pdf