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Research on social media advertising reactance (SMAR) is in the early stages. This paper intends to present a full picture of SMAR studies, introduce a comprehensive theoretical model (the social media advertising reactance model, SMARM) and provide insights into research and practice.

This review adopts the concept-driven systematic review approach, identifying 92 articles from four primary academic databases – EBSCO, Elsevier, Web of Science and Google Scholar.

First, this review offers overviews of five topics: publication trends, the journals publishing research, research methodology, targeted platform and the main theories. Second, based on the framework of psychological reactance, this study proposes the SMARM, identifying and elaborating on four components of the nomological relationship to SMAR: related concepts, antecedents, moderators and consequences.

This research has implications for advertisers, social media platform operators and policymakers by providing a whole picture of SMAR. Moreover, the SMARM could guide the stakeholders to adopt a user-friendly advertising design for the sustainable development of social media advertising (SMA).

By presenting an up-to-date review of SMAR-related research, this paper contributes to the literature of social media, advertising and marketing. Through a comparison with traditional advertising, this paper makes the characteristics of SMA clear. Meanwhile, the SMARM is developed to systematically elaborate on all related elements of SMAR and explain their underlying causal relationships. Future research directions are proposed.

COVID-19 pandemic-related Government restrictions on the movement of people resulted in consumers moving away from retail outlets. However, sporadic instances of an unexpected surge in retail buying happened across the world immediately after the lifting of such restrictions. This uncommon phenomenon, termed revenge buying, offered an opportunity to revive retail businesses. This paper applies Reactance Theory (RCT) and Self-determination Theory (SDT) to model consumers' revenge buying intentions.

Data was collected from 384 respondents in India using validated scales. The study used structural equation modelling for model testing.

COVID-19 restrictions resulted in autonomy need frustration in consumers, which induced psychological reactance and perceived stress. Psychological reactance positively impacted, while perceived stress negatively impacted revenge buying intentions. Thus, revenge buying was observed only when the psychological reactance was more than perceived stress.

This study, conducted in only one country with a limited convenience sample, limits the generalizability of findings.

This research model the psychological consequences of need frustration to explain the sporadic incidences of revenge buying in retail outlets. Further, it proposes sales recovery strategies for retailers in the immediate post-pandemic market scenarios. Retailers' strategies should focus on alleviating stress and anxiety because of health concerns, highlighting the retail buying experience to stimulate the need to visit the outlet and positioning retail buying as a potential reactance response by consumers.

This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) skepticism on dual types of attitudinal factors (i.e. positive attitude and reactance) and examine the impact of attitudinal factors on customers' behavioral intention.

This study applies mixed-method research to examine the link between CSR skepticism, positive attitude, reactance and behavioral intention based on attitude-behavior-context theory.

As predicted, CSR skepticism weakens a favorable attitude toward CSR, whereas it increases the level of reactance. Also, CSR skepticism negatively influences behavioral intention, while positive attitude and reactance positively influence behavioral intention.

Understanding customers' skepticism toward CSR has become increasingly important because of its negative consequences. Despite existing studies on CSR skepticism, few have focused on why and how CSR skepticism leads to negative behavioral outcomes. Thus, this research contributes to existing tourism literature by examining the role of CSR skepticism on their attitude and behavior. Findings will help researchers and practitioners understand how CSR skepticism impacts customers' behavioral intention and develops CSR strategies to enhance the behavioral intention to patronize.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ responses to unsolicited cross-selling of supplementary paid-for services made during delivery of a core service, and the contextual and personal variables moderating those responses.

Three formal experiments test the effect on participants’ responses of the perceived relevance of the supplementary service to the core service, personal psychological reactance, in the case of a high-relevance supplementary service, and self-monitoring, in scenarios in which a low-relevance supplementary service is proposed either in public or privately.

The experiments found that participants’ satisfaction ratings were reduced in response to cross-selling of a supplementary service that was of low relevance to the core service, and that satisfaction ratings if it was perceived to be of high relevance compared were not reduced despite the unsolicited attempt at cross-selling. However, the non-negative response to a high-relevance offer was limited to participants with a lower tendency to reactance. Furthermore, a high predisposition to self-monitoring evoked more positive judgments if a low-relevance supplementary service was proposed in public rather than privately. That of low self-monitors was no different in either case.

This paper examines the trade-off faced by a service provider between customer satisfaction and extra revenue from supplementary services, and explores conditions under which a provider can propose unsolicited supplementary services without offending customers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of timing and framing of hotel’s upselling message on consumer attitudes toward the message. The mediating role of reactance between the timing of upselling message and consumer attitudes is also explored.

A 2 (timing: immediately after the booking vs one week prior to arrival) by 2 (framing: concrete vs abstract) experimental design was used. A total of 250 Chinese consumers were recruited and were randomly exposed to a hotel online upselling scenario. The consumer attitudes and reactance were measured.

When the framing of upselling message involves specific room attributes, consumers show more favorable attitudes when receiving the promotion one week prior to arrival (vs immediately after the booking). However, when the framing of upselling message involves price, consumer attitudes do not differ across the time of receiving the promotion. Reactance mediates the effect of message timing on consumer attitudes when the message framing involves specific room attributes.

This research suggests that hotel managers should offer concrete message framing that includes specific room attributes at the time proximal to consumers’ arrival to increase acceptance of online room upselling. In addition, it is important for hotel managers to take consumers’ reactance into consideration when developing an online upselling strategy.

Research on online hotel room upselling is scant. This study adds to the upselling literature by examining the joint influence of timing and framing of upselling promotions on consumer attitudes toward such messages. Furthermore, this study extends our understanding of the role of reactance in the online upselling process.

Corporations are confronted with growing demands to take a stand on socio-political issues, i.e. corporate social advocacy (CSA), which affects their reputation in the public. Companies use different CSA message strategies, including calling the public to support and act on the issue they advocate. Using reactance theory, the authors investigate the impact of CSA messages with a call to action on corporate reputation in the case of a company's gender equality initiative.

A one-factorial (CSA message with or without a call to action) between-subjects experiment was conducted by surveying 172 individuals living in Switzerland. The CSA messages were created in the context of gender equality.

The authors' study indicates that CSA messages with a call to action compared to those without overall harmed corporate reputation due to individuals' reactance, which is higher for CSA messages with a call to action, negatively affecting corporate reputation. The impact of the CSA message strategy with a call to action on corporate reputation remains significant after controlling for issue alignment and political leaning.

Communicating about socio-political issues, especially taking a stand, is a significant challenge for corporations in an increasingly polarized society and has often led to backlash, boycotts and damage to corporate reputation. This study shows that the possible adverse effects of advocating for socio-political issues can be related to reactance. It emphasizes that companies advocating for contested issues must be more cautious about the message strategy than the issue itself.

This study aims to investigate the psychological process of intertemporal choices between larger-later and smaller-sooner monetary options. Prior research showed consumer impatience – a tendency to prefer a smaller-sooner option over a larger-later option. This research identifies an individual difference that predicts patience and mediators that explain the underlying mechanism.

Two studies are conducted. Study 1 examines whether the implicit theory of intelligence consumers endorse (i.e. entity theory vs incremental theory) constitutes an antecedent of patience and whether their thoughts regarding anticipated purchase with the chosen monetary option (i.e. hedonic versus utilitarian purchase) mediate the relationship. Study 2 analyzes whether psychological reactance toward larger-later options is a mediator in this relationship using a perceived threat to freedom and affect as reactance indicators.

Entity-oriented consumers exhibited less patience than incremental-oriented consumers, especially when anticipating a hedonic purchase. Moreover, entity-oriented consumers perceived a threat to freedom from larger-later options more strongly – this enhanced perception influenced patience through two routes. One route is that the perceived threat to freedom leads to more consideration of a hedonic purchase rather than a utilitarian purchase, thereby decreasing patience. The other route is that the perceived threat to freedom elicits a stronger negative affect, resulting in lower patience.

Findings of this research shed light on the understanding of patience. They demonstrate that consumers’ implicit theory orientation is a crucial individual difference that can explain patience. Also, demonstrating the mediating roles of anticipated purchase using the hedonic/utilitarian classification and psychological reactance expanded literature by showing how they internally interact.

Celebrity endorsements are common, especially sports celebrities. Understanding the impact such celebrities' social activism statements have on the brands the celebrities are affiliated with is particularly important. This study aims to examine how consumers respond to social statements made by both companies and sports celebrities and how those reactions influence consumer perceptions of associated brands.

A pre-test/post-test experimental design was utilized to gather responses to pro-social messages from both athletes associated with a brand and messages directly from the brands.

Messages from celebrities were evaluated as being more important than similar messages directly from the company. Parasocial relationships between the consumer and the celebrity endorser were found to increase brand support and favorable message evaluation. While parasocial relationships did not directly influence feelings of reactance, the effects on message evaluation did lead to a decrease in reactance to pro-social messages.

Findings in this paper provide guidance for brands as the brands navigate pro-social messaging and determine the brands' response to endorsers making such statements. Similarly, those advocating for social causes can benefit from the authors' findings by understanding how social messages directly from celebrities are received more favorably than messages directly from the brands.

To investigate customer satisfaction with service encounters characterized by an over‐attentive level of service, and the contextual and individual factors moderating the resulting satisfaction scores.

The first of three formal experiments tests the prediction that consumer reactions vary with the margin between actual and expected levels of service. The second examines the influence of the tendency to psychological reactance on participants’ responses to excessive service. The third assesses the effect of a predisposition to suspiciousness on satisfaction scores, in scenarios which, respectively, specify that extremely over‐attentive service or “normal” service are directed at participants personally or is offered to all customers unselectively.

The first experiment found moderately excessive service to be acceptable to most participants but unexpectedly over‐attentive service to affect satisfaction negatively. The second found the negative impact of extremely over‐attentive service to be limited to participants with a greater tendency to psychological reactance. The third found that a high predisposition to suspicion resulted in lower satisfaction levels whether the scenario specified extremely over‐attentive service that was personal or on offer to all, whereas the satisfaction scores of participants with a lower predisposition to suspicion were not affected in those scenarios.

Whereas the relevant literature has focussed on customer reactions to service that falls below expectations, this paper studies service encounters in which it surpasses them. It hypothesizes a counterproductive effect on customer satisfaction and identifies contextual and individual factors that explain and predict that outcome.

This study aims to examine how religiosity influences brand loyalty toward religiously positioned brands (Chick-fil-A, Forever 21, etc.) when these brands engage in morally controversial actions.

Study 1 investigates how religiosity affects brand loyalty when religiously positioned brands engage in religiousness-related vs nonreligiousness-related morally controversial actions. Study 2 examines several psychological processes (reactance, forgiveness and moral decoupling) as mediators of the effects of intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity on brand loyalty for controversial religious brands.

Study 1 demonstrates that religiosity leads to positive brand loyalty for religiously positioned brands in the case of both religiousness-related and nonreligiousness-related controversies. Study 2 reveals that intrinsic religiosity (extrinsic religiosity) leads to brand loyalty through moral decoupling and forgiveness, but not through reactance, when religious brands engage in religiousness-related (nonreligiousness-related) controversies.

This research focuses on the effects of religiosity on brand loyalty for morally controversial religious brands but does not examine the effects of religious affiliation (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc.). The samples include only US residents.

Religious positioning of brands can engender brand loyalty for consumers with high levels of intrinsic religiosity and/or extrinsic religiosity, even when these brands engage in morally controversial actions.

This research shows that religiosity affects brand loyalty for morally controversial religious brands and demonstrates that psychological processes used by consumers to justify support for morally controversial religious brands depend on type of religiosity (intrinsic vs extrinsic) and type of controversy (religiousness-related and nonreligiousness-related).