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Oppositional brand loyalty (OBL) has become widespread and has thus received growing scholarly attention in recent years. Although opposition behaviors have distinct manifestations, their differential antecedents remain underexplored. Drawing from the identity-based motivation model, this article aims to examine the impact of brand identification and brand disidentification on the two distinct dimensions of OBL (i.e. brand avoidance and trash talk) according to their different intensity and activation levels (passive or active). In addition, article aims to examine the moderating role of perceived inter-group rivalry.

The authors collected survey data and obtained 392 valid questionnaires from smartphone users. Structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing.

The results show that brand identification has a significant positive effect on avoidance of rival brands, but not on trash talk; brand disidentification has a significant positive effect on both avoidance and trash talk of rival brands; and perceived inter-group rivalry positively moderates the relationship between brand disidentification and trash talk, but does not alter the relationship between brand disidentification and brand avoidance.

This study extends the literature on OBL by investigating differential antecedents of two distinct dimensions of brand opposition. It provides more complete understanding of the formation of OBL by examining the role of users’ relationship with a focal brand, its competing brand and inter-group relationship.

The rampant toxic gaming environment in most major esports games has become a challenge in maintaining gamers’ loyalty to the game. Guided by the theory of stress and coping, this study aims to investigate how and under what condition esports gamers’ perceived risk of toxicity may affect game brand loyalty through the moderated mediation effects of game brand identification, self-efficacy, and perceived support from game brand.

The moderated mediation model was tested using the conditional process analysis (N = 311). The moderating effects of game brand identification on the mediated processes were tested in the model.

The authors found that self-efficacy and perceived support from game brand were critical mediators between the perceived risk of toxicity and game brand loyalty. However, these mediating effects varied depending on the level of game brand identification.

This study took the step forward by theorizing and empirically examining the relationship between perceived risk of toxicity and consumption outcome by considering both internal and social coping resources and game brand identification, among Generation Z and Millennial gamers in the esports context.

This paper aims to explore whether or not and how brand community supportive climates (information- versus emotion-supportive climates) have an impact on consumer-to-consumer helping behavior.

A survey of users of cell phone brand communities was conducted, and data from 413 participants were used to validate the hypotheses of this study.

Results indicated that emotion- and information-supportive climates enhance consumer-to-consumer helping behavior through consumer–community relationships (i.e. brand community identification and brand community commitment).

To enhance the external validity of this research, future studies could investigate other settings (e.g. social media-based brand communities and brands of other product types) in countries with different religious beliefs.

Marketers should create an environment where consumers feel informationally and emotionally supported within the brand community, thereby enabling the former to enhance their relationships with their brand communities and ultimately increase consumers' helping behavior.

By dividing the supportive climate into two parts, the current study enriched the literature on community climate. Moreover, the authors complemented and expanded the literature on consumer helping behavior.

Despite the negative effects of toxicity on various aspects of esports communities, gamers continue to enthusiastically show their pride and engage with the game. Based on the stress and coping theory, the current study aims to shed light on how esports gamers cope with toxicity to develop toxicity tolerance by the mediation effect of positive reappraisal coping strategy.

A total of 456 gamers were included in the analysis. Structural equation modeling was performed to evaluate the hypothesized model. Gender differences in the toxicity-coping process were investigated using multi-group analysis.

The findings revealed the full mediation effect of positive reappraisal on the relationship between toxicity and toxicity tolerance, especially for male gamers. The empirical evidence of this study contributes to theorizing the transformative role of positive reappraisal in developing positive consumption outcomes when esports gamers experience toxicity in the game. The multi-group analysis provided further insights into differentiating the applicability and effectiveness of positive reappraisal based on gender.

The findings contributed to sport management and communication literature by allowing researchers and practitioners to move beyond a preventive coping mindset by facilitating a positive coping environment that encourages gamers to interpret the conversation and messages in a more positive manner.

This research aims to examine the role of consumers' brand trust and attachment on advocacy intention before and after the occurrence of brand misconduct in retail banking. In addition, the influence of brand attachment on consumers' willingness to switch, advocate for and forgive brands is examined in a post-misconduct scenario.

Data were collected through a self-administered online survey questionnaire. A total of 304 valid and usable responses from Australian participants were analysed using IBM SPSS 27.0.

The findings reveal that brand attachment mediates the positive relationship between trust and advocacy intention. Furthermore, brand attachment (1) dilutes consumers' switching intention and (2) strengthens their willingness to forgive the bank after misconduct.

Results suggest that retail banks should create strong brand attachments with their consumers. In addition to brand trust, brand attachment will generate greater advocacy intention among consumers. Moreover, practitioners in retail banking can leverage brand attachment to mitigate the negative impact of brand misconduct.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to examine the impact of brand attachment on the consumer–bank relationship within the context of brand misconduct. The study is also unique in its analysis of the mediating role of brand attachment between brand trust and advocacy. This research further adds to the current literature by suggesting that strong and positive customer connections to the brand facilitate communication and marketing efforts after brand misconduct and that these are effective in maintaining consumer-bank relationship.

Brand hate as a distinct phenomenon of consumer negativity has attracted considerable research attention in recent years. However, scant attention has been paid to explain the underlying mechanism of brand hate. Therefore, the present study aims to unveil how brand hate stirs in embarrassing situations and what repercussions it ignites that deteriorate the consumer–brand relationship.

The present study follows a mixed-method research design by conducting in-depth interviews with 16 consumers and then collecting three waves of time-lagged data from 217 respondents of two different countries. The reliability and validity have been established through confirmatory factor analysis, and hypotheses were analyzed using structural equation modeling and moderated-mediated models.

The results of both qualitative and quantitative investigations reveal that brand embarrassment instigates brand hate, and brand hate leads to brand detachment. Brand hate also mediates the relationship between brand embarrassment and brand detachment. Consumer vanity enhances the strength of brand embarrassment's effects on brand hate. This relationship further depicts the moderated mediation pattern as consumers with high vanity traits express extreme emotions of hate and detachment from the embarrassing brands. In addition, the findings demonstrate that the moderating role of consumer vanity is more pronounced among young consumers.

The study marks an initial attempt to explain the whole process of brand hate by incorporating brand embarrassment, brand detachment, consumer vanity and age in an integrated moderated mediation model. The study enhances brand managers' understanding of the severity of the consequences of embarrassing situations and devising preventive strategies.

The data used to present this case was collected from secondary data sources. These sources included media reports associated with Michael Jordan and his trajectory since entering the sport, as well as specific information published about his time at the Chicago Bulls. Another key source of information is the ESPN documentary conducted specifically on Jordan’s relationship with his National Basketball Association (NBA) team.

The case follows the story of Michael Jordan, who took his team, the Chicago Bulls, to fame in a rather controversial manner. To do so, Michael Jordan had to alter his leadership style over the years to be respected as a leader and motivate his team to win one NBA championship after another. On 20th April 2020, ESPN’s “The Last Dance”, a 10-part documentary about Michael Jordan and his time playing for the Chicago Bulls was released to much acclaim. The documentary became highly noted as Jordan himself, both directed and starred in the documentary. Jordan’s great achievements stood out, but so did the conflicts that the basketball star had with The Bulls’ management team and mainly, his teammates. Relationships between teammates were far from harmonious, which led to questions around whether Michael Jordan was as good a leader, as he was a star player. Cultural change within the organisation was primarily linked to the often-contested leadership of Jordan.

The case can be used at UG, MSc and MBA levels. It works for in-person teaching and for online teaching. It is most suitable in leadership, strategy and strategy in practice courses. However, it is critical to note that the case can shed light on the dynamics that leaders and teammates have within their teams. Therefore, this case may be valuable to students studying courses where they themselves must work in groups and oftentimes encounter challenges in managing their team. These challenges can arise at all levels of experience. As such, the case provides particularly useful reflection for decision makers who may be beginning to develop their leadership skill (UG), those who have already experienced working in teams (MSc) or leading teams themselves (MBA, Executive MBA). The case addresses the challenges associated with achieving high team motivation and performance. It also sheds light on the challenges associated with leading a cultural change within a team and the approaches of different actors involved. It may be best to introduce the case in the context of a (1.5–2 h) workshop once students understand the basic frameworks and tools used to analyse leadership styles and their characteristics.

Recognizing that hate crimes and antisemitic attacks are increasing, the purpose of this article is to discuss ways The Assignment by Liza Wiemer, a contemporary young adult novel that depicts curriculum violence and its effects on students, acts as a “disruptor” in young adult literature. The authors present a rationale for using young adult literature on The Holocaust in high school classrooms to challenge the status quo and identify ways to become upstanders in the face of hate.

Through a content analysis using a critical literacy framework, the authors analyzed The Assignment for pedagogical ways to use the novel to challenge educators and students to examine and rethink how they feel about hate, bias and antisemitism.

Four ways the novel can be used as a disrupter were identified: text structure and language, pedagogical practices and curriculum violence, the student/peer/authority figure power dynamic and challenging accepted beliefs that can lead to bias, hate and antisemitism.

Although all individuals can be impacted by hate and antisemitism, this article focuses on young adults as they are the novel’s target audience. However, the authors believe people of all ages have the potential to disrupt societal practices and become upstanders and suggest ideas in this article be applied broadly to other novels and teaching situations.

A focus is on the ways the novel can build a community of allies and upstanders – students as agents of change rather than complacent bystanders. As bias, hate and antisemitism are on the rise, this article presents a unique way to combat it through literature and critical discussion.

With gaining popularity, online communities are increasing. It is leading to the data and information overflow. So, there are some challenges like cyber frauds, cyberbullying, etc. while engaging with online communities. Not only this, anonymity of the participants, stress and racism are also big challenges in online communities' interaction. Online harassers' attack tactics have changed over time. In addition, there are challenges like quality of discussion, inequality in participation of the users, etc. may scale online communities towards incitement and activism. Therefore, this study will try to analyse these challenges for overall benefit of the society.

The underlying fuzzy set theory is employed to handle the fuzziness of users' perceptions since the attributes are expressed in linguistic preferences. Through exhaustive literature review, the authors have identified 15 challenges. These challenges are further categorised as cause and effect by using DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) approach.

Lack of strategic planning and uninspired discussions between users has emerged as a major challenge in cause category. This study further demonstrates how individual challenge can be managed and developed to navigate the online communities to maintain a healthy environment in society.

Results are based on limited dataset. Therefore, findings cannot be generalised for all online communities.

The research findings offer a suitable direction to policymakers to formulate and design policies, laws and regulations to increase user engagement in the online community. The study is beneficial to firms and researchers in understanding the factors influencing effective management of online communities.

Research into the dark side of online brand-managed communities (OBCs) and, specifically, consumer-to-consumer (C2C) conflicts within this context are scarce. This paper aims to explore the different forms of C2C conflicts in OBCs, measure their direct impact on observing consumers and brands and investigate their appropriate moderation by exclusively focusing on two actors: brands versus consumers.

This research adopts a sequential exploratory approach. First, the authors capture different forms of C2C conflict via netnographic observations of five brand-managed communities. Second, the identified forms of C2C conflict are used in an online experiment to examine their impact on OBCs’ social and commercial outcomes. Third, further two online experiments were used to assess how brand versus consumer conflict moderators impact perceived credibility and conflict de-escalation.

The authors uncover three prominent forms of C2C conflict based on whether conflict occurs between supporters, non-supporters or outsiders of the OBC. The authors further show that these affect consumers’ engagement behaviours and emotional responses, while brands suffer from diminished credibility and could be targets of unfavourable electronic word-of-mouth. Finally, for managing C2C conflict, the findings confirm that brands are perceived as more suitable, while under certain conditions consumers can also be viewed as appropriate moderators.

This research used a range of participant self-selected brands and is limited to brand-managed (as opposed to consumer-managed) communities on Facebook. While beyond the scope of this paper, the dynamics for consumer-managed communities may differ.

This article offers guidance to marketing practitioners on the different nuances of undesirable consumer interactions in brand-managed communities on social media, their impact on customer engagement and brand perceptions and when/whether brands or consumers may be suited to moderating these.

This paper makes novel contributions to the literature on consumer (mis)behaviours and OBC management. The findings are among the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to examine the direct social and commercial consequences of C2C conflicts and to provide comparative insights into the appropriateness of two different moderators in OBCs.