Unveiling heterogeneous engagement-based loyalty in brand communities

Purpose Although recent research appreciates that consumers increasingly interact with brands in brand communities and that brand engagement is an important and complex phenomenon in brand communities, little is known about the nature of individuals’ brand engagement in brand communities. This study aims to identify brand community members’ segments in terms of their brand engagement within the community; help us understand if these segments use a different approach in the development of brand loyalty; and develop mechanisms that can be used to identify members of these segments. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a quantitative approach and uses a total of 970 responses from mem…

The Effect of Negative Electronic Word of Mouth on Switching Intentions: A Social Interaction Utility Approach

The aim of this chapter is to gain insight on negative eWom about brands from a sender perspective, taking into account individual and social factors. We develop and test a conceptual model using a sample of 302 Spanish active users of social networks who have complained online in 2013. This study provides several theoretical implications. Firstly, using the Social Interaction Utility framework, we analyse the influence of social motivations on negative eWom. Our results show that social motivations are the primary antecedents leading consumers to communicate their negative experiences to other consumers. Successful network sites should identify the effect of social motivations and manage t…

The Dual Nature of Spreading Negative eWOM for Branded Offers: Emotional Reaction or Social Response? – A Structured Abstract

The exchange of comments online about branded offers is defined in the literature as electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Most of the existing academic research on consumer behaviour focuses on positive emotions and behaviour about branded offers (Veloutsou and McAlonan 2012; Zarantonello et al. 2016). However, next to sharing positive comments, consumers are increasingly using online media to distribute unfavourable experiences and opinions about products and brands (Ullrich and Brunner 2015), and more research on the effects of the expression of negative comments online is needed. The negative electronic word of mouth (NeWOM) is defined in this study as negative statements made or distributed…

Information flow and WOM in social media and online communities

Brands as relationship builders in the virtual world: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract Given the growing role of brands as relationship partners and relationship facilitators and the pre-eminence of the online environment for consumers, this article contributes to the understanding of virtual brand-centric relationships by presenting the first bibliometric mapping analysis of the academic research into the topic from its conception until 2018. Using keyword co-occurrence, it examines 585 records and identifies the most productive countries, journals, influential authors and papers, and research clusters. With 96% of the published records appearing between 2010 and 2018, this analysis revealed that the field is emergent. The research primarily originates from authors …