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Users frequently target rival brands through direct criticism or indirect customer insults, yet the impact of such attacks on brand advocacy remains unexplored. The purpose of this study is to classify online attacks into brand-targeted attacks and consumer-targeted attacks and further investigate their differential impacts on brand advocacy and the underlying mechanism and a boundary condition of those impacts.

Three experimental studies using different types of brands (electronics, universities and sports footwear) are conducted to examine the effects of brand-related attack targets on brand advocacy.

This research shows that consumer-targeted attacks trigger higher brand advocacy through increasing perceived identity threat than brand-targeted attacks. Moreover, the effect of consumer-targeted attacks (versus brand-targeted attacks) on brand advocacy is mediated by perceived identity threat and mitigated when consumers’ identification with the attacked brand is strong.

The study’s findings yield practical applications for marketers and brand managers, assisting them in understanding consumers’ reactions to brand attacks. This study serves as a reference for firms to consider leveraging the association between brand identification and brand-related attack targets and uniting with loyal brand fans to manage online brand conflicts.

The present study extends prior literature on customer-brand relationships in the context of online attacks. Through investigating the impacts of brand-targeted and consumer-targeted attacks on brand advocacy, this research offers theoretical insights into consumers’ responses to online attacks with different targets.

Oppositional brand loyalty poses a challenge to the management of virtual communities. This study aims to categorize these loyalty behaviors into positive (willingness to pay a price premium and brand evangelism) and negative (schadenfreude and anti-brand actions) dimensions. It then explores how customer engagement and moral identity influence these dimensions in the context of brand competition.

Structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze the main and moderating effects, using survey data obtained from 498 valid responses out of a total of 636 responses from Xiaomi's virtual communities.

The results indicate that customer engagement significantly influences all four dimensions of oppositional brand loyalty. The relationship between customer engagement and brand evangelism is notably stronger among customers with a strong moral identity. Conversely, the effects of customer engagement on schadenfreude and anti-brand actions are attenuated for these customers.

Anchored in theories of brand tribalism, social identity and brand polarization, this study bifurcates oppositional brand loyalty into directions of preference and antagonism, empirically showcasing moral identity's moderating effect. It contributes to the literature on antagonistic loyalty and moral identity, offering strategic insights for companies to navigate schadenfreude and anti-brand actions in online communities.

Though current literature has started to recognize the significant role that online faith-holders play in the context of brand reputation crises, extant research lacks a theoretical framework to explain the process in which online faith-holders endure the harm in brand reputation while collectively rebuilding the reputation. We propose and test a dual-challenge model for a more systematic understanding of faith-holder communities in brand reputation crises.

Focusing on collective-level communication activities, we quantitatively compared the volume, valence and variance of a faith-holder community’s communication (441,611 posts by 3,228 fans over 14 days) before and after a brand reputation crisis.

Our longitudinal data demonstrated that the crisis was a significant threat to group sentiment and cohesion. Nevertheless, the community was highly resilient and adaptive. Their emotions quickly recovered, and they promptly restored group cohesion and coordinated crisis response efforts after the crisis.

This study challenges the traditional assumption that online users are independent, static and reactive during brand crises. Instead, it conceptualizes online faith-holder community as a connected, proactive and dynamically adaptive group in crisis situations. This dual-challenge model highlights the importance of internally fostering collective resilience while externally coordinating crisis responses in a faith-holder community.

The e-services market is expected to reach nearly $500bn globally by 2028. As this marketplace grows, customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) occurring through virtual channels will likely increase. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to examine how the context in which CCI’s occur (i.e. virtual vs in-person) and the frequency of their occurrence affects customer identification, leading to increased customer engagement and more favorable purchase behaviors.

Two studies were conducted to test the proposed models and hypotheses. The sample for Study 1 is comprised of college students taking in-person or online classes (n = 290). In Study 2, members of an online brand community (n = 125) were surveyed. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Overall, results support a mediation effect such that CCI context (virtual vs in-person) affects customer engagement and purchase behaviors via customer identification. Specifically, Study 1 finds that customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) are greater for in-person CCIs due to the frequency of interactions and heightened identification between customers. Study 2 further examines the CCI frequency-identification link and finds that customer-firm identification is the only form of identification that affects CEBs and purchase behaviors.

Limited customer engagement research has examined the effects of CCIs on CEBs, and research has rarely compared in-person to virtual CCI contexts. This paper addresses these shortcomings by testing the effects of in-person and virtual CCIs on CCI frequency, identification and CEBs. This research fills another important gap in the literature by considering the unique effects of specific dimensions of customer identification on CEBs and purchase behaviors.

Conspicuously absent from the branding literature is research on the brand-to-brand (Br2Br) interface enabled by social media. The author proposes how networked brands-as-actors integrate their resources as Br2Br interactions that co-create consumer–brand value. As a secondary contribution, the author provides an empirical baseline exploration of the value co-creating impact of Br2Br interactions on consumer–brand evaluations and social media engagement.

Three streams of research aid in conceptualizing the value co-creating process of Br2Br interactions. A follow-up exploratory study uses a controlled Br2Br interaction stimulus in a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design, where brand familiarity and product category complementarity are manipulated, and interaction spillover effects are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The author finds Br2Br interactions positively affect consumer–brand evaluations and social media engagement likelihood. Spillover effects of these interactions are symmetric for consumer–brand evaluations for both brands. However, brand familiarity moderates the effects of Br2Br interactions on consumer–brand evaluations.

The author lays the groundwork for future research on the complexities of Br2Br interactions – including brand personality conflict, interaction duration and paratextual language – and the boundary conditions for Br2Br and brand-to-consumer relationships.

The study examined the mediating and moderating roles of engagement and trust in the relationship between digital marketing and purchase intentions in the banking industry.

The study was quantitative and cross-sectional and used a sample of 462 respondents drawn through a combination of purposive and convenience sampling techniques. The main method of data analysis was the covariance-based structural equation modeling used to assess the paths relationships, using the Amos v.23 software. Prior to that, a confirmatory factor analysis was done to assess the reliability and validity of the instrument.

The empirical findings support the hypothesized relationship between digital marketing and purchase intention of banks’ services. Consumer engagement partially was found to mediate the association between digital marketing and purchase intentions. Finally, consumer trust moderates the relationship between digital marketing and consumer engagement.

Given digital marketing is evolving with new tools and channels coming up by the day, we recommend that future studies should explore others such as search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, content marketing, display advertisement etc. These will help give a broader perspective to the digital marketing strategy and its effect on consumers’ purchase intentions of banks’ services.

The study makes a strong case for the use of multi-channel and/or integrative approach, improving digital infrastructure and systems, adopting new and emerging digital tools/channels such as artificial intelligence, chatbots among others to facilitate digital marketing strategy implementation while ensuring active consumer engagement. It further underscores the need for managers to build trust and regularly engage consumers through their digital marketing channels.

The integration of the variables in the study provides new empirical understanding and extends knowledge in digital marketing theory. It also serves as a foundation for future studies to explore other areas in the digital marketing, especially from a developing digital economies perspective.

This paper aims to examine how content relevancy influences consumers’ preference to receive and share fake news. Further, it investigates how these receivers perceive the social image of the people who share fake news. Finally, this study examines how brand strength and valence and credibility of fake content influence consumer’s word-of-mouth recommendations, purchase intentions and attitude toward the brand.

Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. The data was analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance and PROCESS techniques.

Findings indicate that people prefer to receive and share relevant content, even if it is fake. Sharing fake news conveys the sender’s sociability but also creates a negative perception of narcissism. Individuals are more likely to recommend a brand if the fake news is perceived as credible and positive (vs negative). Finally, brand-strength can help brands to negate the harmful effects of fake news.

Future research can explore the role of group dynamics, tie-strength and media richness (text, image and videos) in the dispersion of fake news and its impact on brands.

Marketers should communicate and educate consumers that sharing fake content can harm their social image, which can reduce information dispersion. Marketers should also improve brand-strength that can protect the brand against the adverse impact of fake news.

This study contributes to the emerging literature on fake news by studying the impact of fake news on consumer intentions and attitudes toward the brand, which are critical for the success of any brand.

This study attempts to encapsulate the idea of influencer marketing in the food sector and the vital role played by food influencers in shaping the dietary preferences, tastes and decisions of their social media followers and turning them into brand advocates.

An online survey of 383 social media users, utilizing a self-administered questionnaire, was undertaken to validate the proposed research design. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) methodology was used to analyze the data and test the relationships between the constructs.

The results confirm the validity and reliability of the research model. The research revealed the positive influence of influencer–follower demographics and attitude congruence on followers’ food choices, which in turn leads to followers’ delight and significantly impacts their brand advocacy. It also depicts how followers’ perceived trust in an influencer mediates the relationship between their similarity with the influencers, their food choices and brand advocacy.

The study proposes a new theoretical framework and empirically tests the effectiveness of influencer marketing in influencing social media users’ food choice behavior and brand advocacy through the medium of followers’ congruence with social media influencers. The findings offer noteworthy theoretical and managerial implications for academicians as well as marketing practitioners.

The study aims to identify the factors that influence young consumers’ compulsive buying, particularly Gen Z consumers who exhibit fandom qualities such as sharing the same interests and being willing to collaborate with others. This study investigates the direct and indirect impact of brand love and brand addiction on the relationship between social media addiction and compulsive buying.

The study collected data from 338 Gen Z fandoms. The snowball sampling approach is used to determine and collect data from the sample. To test for hypotheses, the study used the PROCESS macro with bootstrapping techniques to explore the direct and indirect relationships, as well as the moderated serial mediation model in this study.

The study found that social media addiction influences compulsive buying via the hierarchical linkages between brand love and brand addiction. Trash talking functions as a stimulant, amplifying the effect of brand addiction on compulsive buying.

The data were collected from young Thai consumers; thus, the generalizability aspect of the research is limited and needs to be tested in different countries and cultures.

This research provides several key contributions to the understanding of compulsive buying behavior among Gen Z, particularly within the context of a developing country. By integrating the stimulus-organism-response framework and psychological theories, this study offers a nuanced understanding of how social media addiction influences emotional and behavioral outcomes. Previous studies have primarily focused on these variables in isolation. The study fills this gap by demonstrating the sequential pathway through which social media addiction translates into compulsive buying behavior via brand love and brand addiction.

Brand reputation (BR) is one of the most important factors that affect the consumer–brand relationship and give businesses a competitive advantage. Businesses with a strong BR can increase their market shares and product market prices, in addition to gaining a competitive advantage. In order for businesses to have these advantages, they need to know and analyze their consumers. This study aimed to develop an alternative analysis method by using classification algorithms and regression analysis to measure and evaluate the effect of consumers' BR perceptions on their willingness to pay premium prices (WPP).

The research data were collected from 483 participants by the online survey method due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were first analyzed with regression analysis, and the effect of BR on WPP was found to be significant. Then, using artificial intelligence (AI) methods that were not used in previous studies, consumers' perceptions of BR and WPP were clustered and classified.

The results revealed the highest and lowest customer groups with BR and WPP and empirically demonstrated that highly accurate practical classification models can be applied to determine strategies in line with these findings.

The model proposed in this study offers an integrated approach by using AI and regression analysis together and tries to fill the gap in the literature in this field. Therefore, the novelty of this study is to quantitatively reveal and evaluate the relationship between BR and WPP by using AI classification algorithms and regression analysis together.