The contextual changes of the present age have altered the former order of personal and social relations in such a way that the creation of a new order is accompanied by an epistemic crisis; the crisis of knowledge of new relationships has rendered past valuations inefficient and invalid. In this regard, Kotler considers authenticity as the most influential element in this era of achieving sustainable development and customer trust, and since the production of university knowledge is the key to sustainable development, today it is faced with quality issues. This study aimed to investigate the effect of two marketing strategies, namely, authentic marketing and pragmatic marketing, through paradigm shifts as a solution to the epistemic crisis of brand authenticity. The research method of this study is based on quantitative and descriptive survey. The case study consists of Iranian students of Islamic Azad Universities (IAUs) stratified random sampling and sample size based on Morgan table were 385 people. Data were collected and distributed by questionnaire. The structural equation modeling technique with partial least squares approach and SmartPLS2 software were used for data analysis. The findings indicate that both authentic marketing and pragmatic marketing are more effective on brand authenticity through paradigm shift.
In 1965, Kotler considered the transaction as a “social exchange” process in a paper that describes the concept of marketing as a social exchange process. Accordingly, the purely economic viewpoint of marketing is a mistake of proximity and it hinders the development of marketing science [
In a world full of complexity, customers are looking for companies that meet their deep needs for social, economic, and environmental justice in mission, vision, and values. Not only do they seek to meet their functional and emotional needs in the products and services they choose but also meeting spiritual needs is important for them. Third-age marketing moves the concept of marketing to ideals, values, and spiritualties and believes that consumers are perfect people and their needs and expectations should not be ignored. Therefore, third-age marketing combines “emotional” marketing with “spiritual” marketing [
In the book Evolution and Evaluation, Sheth and Sisodia [
How can companies create value in their business models? As a response to this fundamental question, Richard Barrett believes companies can look at levels of spirituality in their business models, like humans. He found that human level of spiritual motivation can be considered in the mission, vision, and value of companies [
Salehi Omran found that one of the most important reasons for faculty members’ migration is driving factors such as low income, feeling of discrimination and inequality in society, dissatisfaction resulted from injustice, and job insecurity and stressors which are the causes of depression [
In the realm of paradigms, scientific riddles are made or solved. Cowan says as long as the service paradigm is sufficient to solve the riddle, but when you can no longer serve and the methods, concepts, metaphysics, and tools, norms that constitute the paradigm lose their effectiveness; at this time, scientists are so unhappy with their scientific work that they envy the clowns, as the physicist Koven Wolfgang quotes. It is here that the paradigm is in crisis and the fields of paradigm rotation and the new scientific revolution are formed [
Given today’s customers’ need for authentic values and the inefficiencies of existing paradigms to gain customer trust and producing sustainable value, the inefficiency of the paradigm in the Iranian higher education system in producing the original brand of this study examines two original marketing strategies: first authentic marketing in order to construct and deepen concepts through dialectics in language based on social platforms and the latter with pragmatic marketing in order to achieve authenticity in practice through the experience of theoretical reason in social or dialectical practice, which is examined by the mediating variable of paradigm shifts (from object-based ontology to phenomenology of existence) to their effect on the original brand.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, authentic means “original and without a copy; genuine” [
The brand’s position alone is not enough. Completion of this process requires a distinction between authenticity for the human soul, which creates a sustainable value in the economy, society, and environment; hence, it is the only element that affects third age of honesty, authenticity, and credibility marketing [
The marketing and consumer research literature acknowledges that attempts to consume credibility are due to the loss of traditional sources of meaning and personal identity linked to postmodernity [
This interest in “interconnectivity” requires that we, by choosing interpretive methods, understand human behavior. Human science should not be a model of natural science but should find ways to understand and interpret human communication. These paths must be “hermeneutics “or” interpretational “(more like a conversation) [
Postmodern society is, namely, characterized by fragmentation, confusion, emptiness, alienation, and by a crisis of morality and identity. Hence, people have become more concerned with identity, meaning, and values [
Sen and his colleagues [
Authentic marketing is a strategy for organizations to validate their business goals in a credible action [
In this study, authentic marketing will be surveyed in four dimensions: authentic marketing paradigm, authentic value, social platform development, and authentic marketing mix.
Companies may derive their promised legitimacy from the interests of parties in conversational relations; this is the concept of rhetoric in Heidegger’s view [
Because of the interference of the interpretive mentality with the use of dialectics, truth may not be derived from method in philosophical hermeneutics, that is, through questionable answering to the issue at hand [
It is also possible to understand the meaning of interpretive approach through recognition of conceptual approach and phenomenology that are considered as interpretative approaches. The conceptual method of interpretive approach is an attempt to reveal meaning; there is no real starting point for achieving meaning, since each understanding contains the previous understanding (hermeneutic period) [
Authentic values are the opposite of Maslow’s pyramid. In fact, creative people have a strong belief in Maslow’s reverse pyramid. Spirituality’s valuable aspects are immaterial life, enduring realities in creative communities, and businesses that respond to their spiritual needs. The future value proposition of marketing is the supply of spirituality. Value-added business modeling is the new infrastructure of third-age marketing [
One way for collective value creation appropriate to customer creativity is a business platform. Platforms create value through interaction; they create and shape interaction between external producers and external consumers. An important part of the role of the platform is to create the infrastructure for the formation of interactions and to determine the framework and rules governing these interactions [
The word “pragmatism” in Farsi has been translated into “religion of originality of practice,” “practical expediency,” “pragmatism,” “correction,” “expediency,” and “scientific aptitude.” The word is derived from the Greek root Prassein meaning to do. Pragmatism is a method of solving or evaluating rational problems, as well as a theory of the kinds of identifications we are prone to acquire. Called pragmatism, or principle of action, this school considers the truth is in practice which has benefit and, in other words, the meaning that which is in our mind must have better results in action [
Pragmatic marketing is examined in this research with four dimensions: pragmatics, problem-based, evolutionary product, and strategic management and pragmatic marketing. “Pragmatic-oriented” has a conceptual footprint: we provide practical and meaningful solutions to the problems that product managers face [
Pragmatic marketing is a product development process based on experience planning adaptability, retesting, and readaptability as long as the final result, both theoretically and practically, has evolved as a better product. The first step in pragmatic marketing is to discover what the customer wants to buy. Pragmatic marketing involves understanding market problems by conducting interviews with customers as well as potential customers to understand their critical issues. This measure is also important to understand why potential customers and clients have evaluated a product in a particular way, and it also includes an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of competition [
The strategic management process of pragmatic marketing is a framework; this pragmatic marketing framework improves a standard language for one’s entire product team and provides an outline of the key activities needed for profitability and marketability of problem-oriented products, which includes the following steps: market, focus, business, planning, empowerment, and support [
The shift in paradigm is reminiscent of Thomas Cowan and his famous book the Structure of the Scientific Revolution [
Inspired by the historiography of science, Jules Arthur Barker proposed a paradigm shift. With the paradigm shifting, the return to the zero point is happening and all competitors have to start the game off. Newcomers can seize opportunities to compete with industry players and win. The decline of Swiss watchmaking and the emergence of Japanese watchmaking is an example of this type of change [
In today’s age, when word-of-mouth advertising has become a new medium and consumers trust strangers in their community more than corporations, brands without authenticity have no chance of survival. There are also lies and deception on social media, but due to the collective wisdom of consumers, it will quickly be exposed [
For over 60 decades, marketing concepts have been vertical. In order to regain trust, a consumer trust system must be designed and implemented. The new system of gaining consumer confidence is horizontal. The time has come for the end of the divide between marketers and consumers [
“Creating originality in marketing” is partly seen as a paradox, and “all human economic entities are cognitively fraudulent—meaning within themselves without credibility—and yet its output can be phenomenologically real, that is, it is perceived as valid by the people who buy it” [
The existential phenomenological paradigm has a contextual (context-centered) perspective in which experiences emerge as a pattern out of context. Ontologically, the experience and the world can be understood as a coherent unit that underlies the burden of social, empirical, and interpersonal issues with the individuals or groups who see it. Epistemologically, it has a subjective negotiating position. That is, it is assumed that the researcher and the subject are interacting in such a way that the findings are interpolated and interpreted in the course of the research. In this active and passive approach, cognition is one and knowledge is produced and reproduced in an interactive, relational, and contingent process. The knowledge generated in the interaction process has been evaluated and rethought, and as a collaborative product, it has helped to explain and understand the social world of the subjects. The logic of the research is explanation, interpretation, and rethinking, meaning that the researcher seeks to extract and understand the pattern that emerges from the context. It is a holistic research strategy that relates the relevant descriptions of everyone’s experiences to the overall context of the world of life [
The existo and existee verb in Latin means leaving from appearing. The term is also common to being and ontology, but it refers to being aware of a reality in the philosophies of existentialism; in other words, existence refers to the particular way of human existence and from existentialism to the authenticity of existence. Kant’s and Habermas’s knowledge entails adopting a “dialectical approach” that emphasizes the unity and plurality of rational knowledge. In Kant's view, any human knowledge, whether theoretical or practical, requires rational justification and a passage of critique. And he deduced the principles of theoretical and practical reason in a transcendental way from within human experience and cognition. These principles are in fact the general, necessary, and prior conditions of any possible experience [
The new ecology of learning, in the face of its technological and technological practices, reveals profound paradigm shifts that have broad dimensions of thought, communication, behavior, and culture. Previous conventional training has been subject-oriented and cognitive-based, while new paradigms are process-oriented and communication-based. Closed, elitist, and one-way teaching patterns (one-way and vertical transfer of information from professor to student) are transitioning to open, inclusive, two-way, and horizontal interactive patterns of free information exchange. 84.2% of the respondents perceive corporate culture as a threat to academic authenticity [
The conceptual model derived from qualitative research is data-based that overlaps with in-depth interviews with marketing experts and those in other fields (economics, philosophy, sociology, and psychology), concepts, coding, and analysis of modern day articles and theories. The research model is shown in Figure
The authentic and pragmatic marketing process model [
There are three views on the concept of originality: objective, constructive, and existentialist. Objective perspective refers to authenticity as an objectively measurable quality of an entity that is evaluated by experts. According to the constructivist view, credibility is a prediction of consumer beliefs, expectations, and perspectives on an entity [
Authentic marketing has a significant influence on the paradigm shift. Pragmatic marketing has a significant influence on the paradigm shift. The paradigm shift has a significant influence on the original brand. Original marketing has a significant influence on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. Pragmatic marketing has a significant influence on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift.
The present study is a quantitative research in terms of approach, in which the researcher collects data with predetermined tools that result in the statistical data, and is of a descriptive type. In descriptive research, the researcher seeks out how and what he wants to know about the phenomenon or variable. In other words, this study examines the status quo and systematically describes its current status, explores its features and traits, and examines the relationship between variables if necessary [
Surveying is a way to obtain data about the views, beliefs, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of a group of members of a statistical community through research. More formally, Ross, Wright, and Anderson define surveying as follows: “Surveying is a set of standardized methods used to gather information about individuals, families, or larger collections. Data are collected by asking people who are regularly selected and grouped into sample groups” [
Descriptive statistics specify the general characteristics of the population under study and its general characteristics for other researchers. In addition, this knowledge can be used to generalize the results to other communities or to design future research questions for other communities. The descriptive statistics of the research are described in Tables
Frequency distribution by age category.
Age range | Frequency | Percentage |
---|---|---|
18–28 years | 337 | 54.5 |
28–38 years | 159 | 25.7 |
38–48 years | 102 | 16.5 |
48 years and more | 20 | 3.2 |
Total | 618 | 100 |
Frequency distribution by education level.
Education | Frequency | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Bachelor’s degree | 197 | 31.9 |
Master’s degree | 351 | 56.8 |
Doctorate | 70 | 11.3 |
Total | 618 | 100 |
Are the questions for measuring variables properly selected? Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used for this purpose such that the factor loading of each marker with its construct has a significant
Factor loading and significance of questions (first-order analysis).
Variable | Question | Factor loading | Significance |
---|---|---|---|
Authentic marketing | AA1 | 0.5 | 13.49 |
AA2 | 0.54 | 14.92 | |
AA3 | 0.62 | 17.46 | |
AB1 | 0.76 | 39.49 | |
AB3 | 0.51 | 11.94 | |
AC1 | 0.80 | 45.69 | |
AC2 | 0.86 | 66.21 | |
AC3 | 0.85 | 66.48 | |
AD1 | 0.88 | 93.13 | |
AD2 | 0.76 | 37.11 | |
AD3 | 0.73 | 33.22 | |
Pragmatic marketing | BA1 | 0.66 | 25.38 |
BA2 | 0.78 | 45.24 | |
BB1 | 0.83 | 56.39 | |
BB2 | 0.83 | 53.59 | |
BB3 | 0.84 | 56.25 | |
BC1 | 0.87 | 40.21 | |
BC2 | 0.78 | 39.47 | |
BC3 | 0.61 | 18.39 | |
BD1 | 0.83 | 56.16 | |
BD2 | 0.82 | 49.15 | |
BD3 | 0.85 | 59.72 | |
Paradigm shift | CA1 | 0.65 | 22.56 |
CA2 | 0.58 | 16.89 | |
CB1 | 0.74 | 31.63 | |
CB2 | 0.72 | 28.76 | |
CB3 | 0.72 | 30.01 | |
CC1 | 0.79 | 51.00 | |
CC2 | 0.75 | 38.53 | |
CC3 | 0.76 | 48.10 | |
CD1 | 0.79 | 47.48 | |
CD2 | 0.83 | 67.33 | |
CD3 | 0.76 | 34.55 | |
Original brand | D1 | 0.89 | 111.84 |
D2 | 0.90 | 96.34 | |
D3 | 0.74 | 28.13 |
Factor loading and significance of questions (second-order analysis).
Variable | Question | Factor loading | Significance |
---|---|---|---|
Authentic marketing paradigm | AA1 | 0.82 | 39.88 |
AA2 | 0.84 | 49.95 | |
AA3 | 0.84 | 40.51 | |
Making social platforms | AB1 | 0.81 | 40.22 |
AB2 | 0.73 | 19.68 | |
AB3 | 0.81 | 37.29 | |
Authentic marketing mix | AC1 | 0.88 | 80.91 |
AC2 | 0.93 | 139.68 | |
AC3 | 0.87 | 50.75 | |
Authentic values | AD1 | 0.91 | 113.12 |
AD2 | 0.85 | 49.09 | |
AD3 | 0.83 | 42.49 | |
Pragmatism | BA1 | 0.85 | 44.82 |
BA2 | 0.92 | 131.40 | |
Problem-oriented | BB1 | 0.93 | 125.46 |
BB2 | 0.91 | 84.94 | |
BB3 | 0.92 | 104.45 | |
Evolutionary product | BC1 | 0.89 | 78.74 |
BC2 | 0.89 | 68.85 | |
BC3 | 0.76 | 31.59 | |
The process of strategic formulation of pragmatic marketing | BD1 | 0.88 | 78.98 |
BD2 | 0.92 | 102.04 | |
BD3 | 0.93 | 108.89 | |
Epistemological change | CA1 | 0.91 | 89.58 |
CA2 | 0.88 | 56.23 | |
Ontological change | CB1 | 0.88 | 58.40 |
CB2 | 0.93 | 100.97 | |
CB3 | 0.94 | 104.96 | |
Consumer growth | CC1 | 0.86 | 76.88 |
CC2 | 0.84 | 51.63 | |
CC3 | 0.90 | 97.78 | |
Out-of-structure changes | CD1 | 0.83 | 49.37 |
CD2 | 0.90 | 118.03 | |
CD3 | 0.85 | 59.01 |
The measurement model of the research variables is presented in two levels of significance and standard coefficients in Figures
The external model of first-order hypothesis in the general standard state.
The external model of first-order hypotheses in general significance state.
The external model of second-order hypotheses in the general standard state.
The external model of second-order hypotheses in the general significance state.
An intrinsic model (structural model) describes the relationships between latent variables and determines how much of the variance of a latent variable is explained by other latent variables. Regular indices for testing are used to evaluate the model, including
The internal model of first-order hypotheses in the general standard state.
The internal model of first-order assumptions in general significance state.
The internal model of second-order hypotheses in the general standard case.
The internal model of second-order hypotheses in the general significance state.
Wetzels et al. [
Calculation of internal model fitting (first-order analysis).
Variable | Communality | |
---|---|---|
Authentic marketing | 0.52 | 0.00 |
Pragmatic marketing | 0.62 | 0.00 |
Paradigm shift | 0.55 | 0.55 |
Original brand | 0.72 | 0.59 |
Goodness of fit index | 0.59 |
Calculation of the fit of the internal model of second-order hypotheses.
Variable | Communality | |
---|---|---|
Authentic marketing variable | 0.69 | 0.00 |
Building social platforms | 0.62 | 0.00 |
Authentic marketing mix | 0.80 | 0.00 |
Authentic values | 0.75 | 0.00 |
Pragmatism | 0.79 | 0.00 |
Problem-oriented | 0.85 | 0.00 |
Evolutionary product | 0.72 | 0.00 |
The process of strategic formulation of pragmatic marketing | 0.83 | 0.00 |
Epistemological change | 0.81 | 0.17 |
Ontological change | 0.84 | 0.53 |
Consumer growth | 0.75 | 0.43 |
Out-of-structure changes | 0.74 | 0.50 |
Original brand | 0.72 | 0.66 |
Goodness of fit index | 0.59 |
It can be observed that the goodness of fit index for all the hypotheses is in the strong range. That is, the internal model is robust enough to test hypotheses and the test results can be statistically reliable.
Based on the internal model obtained from the research hypothesis test, the validation or rejection of the research hypothesis will be examined. To confirm or reject the hypotheses, a significant coefficient (
Results of partial least squares analysis for first-order research hypotheses.
Number of hypothesis | Hypotheses | Path coefficients | Significance value | Test result | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
H1 | Authentic marketing has a significant effect on the paradigm shift. | 0.15 | 3.40 | Confirmed | |
H2 | Pragmatic marketing has a significant effect on the paradigm shift. | 0.63 | 15.35 | Confirmed | |
H3 | The paradigm shift has a significant effect on the original brand. | 0.77 | 46.92 | Confirmed | |
H4 | Original marketing has a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. | 0.11 | Confirmed | ||
H5 | Pragmatic marketing has a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. | 0.48 | Confirmed |
Partial least squares analysis results for second-order research hypotheses.
Number of hypothesis | Hypotheses | Path coefficient | Significance value | Test result |
---|---|---|---|---|
H6 | The authentic marketing paradigm has an impact on the ontological change | −0.12 | 2.48 | Accepted |
H7 | Building social platforms has an impact on ontological change | 0.10 | 1.76 | Rejected |
H8 | The original marketing mix has an impact on the ontological change | 0.02 | 0.27 | Rejected |
H9 | Authentic values has an effect on epistemological change | 0.06 | 0.80 | Rejected |
H10 | Pragmatism has an effect on the epistemological change | −0.13 | 2.07 | Accepted |
H11 | Problem-centeredness has an effect on epistemological change | 0.25 | 3.73 | Accepted |
H12 | The evolutionary product has an impact on epistemological change | 0.16 | 2.43 | Accepted |
H13 | The process of strategic formulation of pragmatic marketing has an impact on epistemological change | 0.06 | 0.68 | Rejected |
H14 | The original marketing paradigm has an impact on ontology change | 0.10 | 2.48 | Accepted |
H15 | Building social platforms has an impact on ontological change | 0.06 | 1.72 | Rejected |
H16 | The authentic marketing mix has an impact on ontological change | 0.01 | 0.14 | Rejected |
H17 | Authentic values have an impact on ontological change | 0.02 | 0.36 | Rejected |
H18 | Pragmatism has an effect on ontological change | −0.07 | 1.52 | Rejected |
H19 | Problem-centeredness has an effect on ontological change | 0.13 | 2.37 | Accepted |
H20 | The evolutionary product has an effect on ontological change | 0.19 | 3.40 | Accepted |
H21 | The process of strategic formulation of pragmatic marketing has an effect on ontological change | 0.41 | 5.77 | Accepted |
H22 | The original marketing paradigm has an impact on consumer growth | −0.14 | 3.51 | Accepted |
H23 | Building social platforms has an impact on consumer growth | 0.07 | 1.61 | Rejected |
H24 | Authentic marketing mix has an impact on consumer growth | 0.18 | 2.87 | Accepted |
H25 | Authentic values have an effect on consumer growth | −0.03 | 0.59 | Rejected |
H26 | Pragmatism has an impact on consumer growth | 0.16 | 3.22 | Accepted |
H27 | Problem-centeredness has an impact on consumer growth | 0.12 | 2.19 | Accepted |
H28 | The evolutionary product has an impact on consumer growth | 0.08 | 1.76 | Rejected |
H29 | The process of strategic formulation of pragmatic marketing has an impact on consumer growth | 0.27 | 4.22 | Accepted |
H30 | The authentic marketing paradigm has an effect on out-of-structure changes | −0.10 | 2.75 | Accepted |
H31 | Building social platforms has an effect on out-of-structure changes | 0.04 | 0.81 | Rejected |
H32 | Authentic marketing mix has an effect on out-of-structure changes | 0.05 | 0.89 | Rejected |
H33 | Authentic values has an effect on out-of-structure changes | 0.13 | 2.15 | Accepted |
H34 | Pragmatism has an effect on out-of-structure changes | 0.05 | 1.00 | Rejected |
H35 | Problem-centeredness has an effect on out-of-structure changes | 0.14 | 2.56 | Accepted |
H36 | Evolutionary product has an effect on out-of-structure changes | 0.09 | 1.98 | Accepted |
H37 | The process of strategic formulation of pragmatic marketing has an effect on out-of-structure changes | 0.38 | 6.14 | Accepted |
H38 | Epistemological change has an effect on the authentic brand | −0.02 | 0.86 | Rejected |
H39 | Ontology change has an effect on the authentic brand | −0.02 | 0.56 | Rejected |
H40 | Consumer growth has an effect on the authentic brand | 0.39 | 9.47 | Accepted |
H41 | Out-of-structure changes have an effect on the authentic brand | 0.49 | 11.58 | Accepted |
Commentary: the significance of hypotheses 6, 14, 22, 24, 35, and 30 is consistent with Beverland’s research [
Commentary: disapproval of hypotheses 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 23, 25, 31, 32, 38, 39, with Parker et al.’s research. [
Original marketing has a significant effect on paradigm shift. H0: original marketing has no significant effect on paradigm shift. H1: original marketing has a significant effect on the paradigm shift.
The path coefficient of the authentic marketing effect on the paradigm shift is 0.15 and has a
The significant impact of authentic marketing on paradigm shifts is consistent with the results of Kotler [
Pragmatic marketing has a significant effect on the paradigm shift. H0: pragmatic marketing has no significant effect on the paradigm shift. H1: pragmatic marketing has a significant impact on the paradigm shift.
The path coefficient of the effect of pragmatic marketing on the paradigm shift is 0.63 and has a
The significant effect of pragmatic marketing on the paradigm shifts is consistent with the research results of Bell and Brown [
The paradigm shift has a significant effect on the original brand. H0: the paradigm shift has no significant effect on the original brand. H1: the paradigm shift has a significant impact on the original brand.
The path coefficient of the effect of paradigm shift on the original brand is 0.77 and has a
Significance of paradigm shift’s effect on original brand is consistent with research results of Ferasatkhah [
Authentic marketing has a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. H0: original marketing does not have a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. H1: original marketing has a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift.
Given the confirmation of the first path, i.e., the effect of original marketing on the paradigm shift, as well as the confirmation of the second path, i.e., the effect of the paradigm shift on the original brand, all paths related to this hypothesis have been confirmed; therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected with 95% confidence. That is, authentic marketing has a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. Therefore, the paradigm shift variable plays a mediating role here. Moreover, the effect of original marketing with the mediating role of paradigm shift on the original brand is 0.11.
The significant impact of authentic marketing by shift paradigm on original brand is consistent with the research results of Gharabagh [
Pragmatic marketing has a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. H0: pragmatic marketing does not have a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. H1: pragmatic marketing has a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift.
Given the confirmation of the first path, i.e., the impact of pragmatic marketing on the paradigm shift, and the second path confirmation, i.e., the effect of the paradigm shift on the original brand, all paths related to this hypothesis have been confirmed, so the null hypothesis is rejected with 95% confidence. That is, pragmatic marketing has a significant impact on the original brand with the mediating role of paradigm shift. Therefore, the paradigm shift variable plays a mediating role here. Therefore, the effect of pragmatic marketing with the mediating role of paradigm shift on the original brand is 0.48. Significance of pragmatic marketing through paradigm shift of the original brand is consistent with the research results of Heidari [
Significance of hypotheses 10, 11, 12, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 29, 37, 36, and 35 is consistent with research results obtained by Hatami Nejad et al. [
The hypotheses 13, 18, 28, and 34 are not consistent with the results of Anderson [
The significance of hypotheses 40 and 41 is consistent with research results of Sarokhani and Abdolmaleki [
Since the customer trust in brands has diminished and the validity of the value presented by the brand has been decreased, achieving brand authenticity is essential to producing sustainable value. Given that in the new technology era, vertical communication has transformed marketers and customers into horizontal communications and that their creators and marketers have been competing with them, engaging more customers in the value chain of the company and adding brand authenticity have led the organizations to produce goods of sustainable value.
Marketing with phenomenological ontology is a kind of postmodern marketing, and its methodology is a combination of structured and semistructured methods.
On the other hand, by reducing the quality, increasing the orientation of the universities and the degree of community orientation that results in the decrease of the level of culture and the growth of the society, the purpose of this research is to show that in the age of globalization, new generation technology and communication rationality, universities To achieve brand authenticity, what can produce sustainable value requires paradigm shifts in ontology and epistemology in their view of students, and to be phenomenological rather than object and commodity, and seek through sustained interaction with them to gain their inner creativity and experience so that they can generate value and culture in the community which can creat a sustainable growth.
Elements of paradigm shift, namely, consumer growth and out-of-structure changes, affect brand authenticity, so universities can create the atmosphere of emergence and emergence of students’ talent and their ongoing engagement with themselves, with industry, society, and culture until they can manage the out-of-structure changes and guide it towards social, cultural, and spiritual alternatives.
The goal of changing ontological view in university is to avoid considering the customer as an instrument; getting internal experience, creativity, and sustained customer interaction are key to sustainable knowledge development. Sustainable value production is not separate from economic growth, but it sustains growth, and this paradigm shift, while developing the knowledge economy, affects the quality of university-produced product, making it a prominent and authentic cultural institution, because brand originality has content in social interaction.
This research studied the students of the selected Islamic Azad universities, because it is the first study on the interaction of the main and pragmatic marketing in the country and because of the researcher's limitation to study all social groups in Iran
No data were used to support this study.
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.