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The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the online brand advocacy (OBA) and brand loyalty relationship through a social identity theory lens.

An online survey was used to obtain the needed data and the relationships of interest were examined using a partial least squares structural equation modelling approach.

Brand loyalty and consumer-brand identification were found to be predictors of OBA, while OBA impacted on purchase intent. In addition, a strong reciprocal relationship was found between OBA and brand loyalty, which has not been reported in prior studies.

This study highlighted OBA's complexity. It suggested OBA is not only an outcome of a consumer-brand relationship but also that OBA plays a key role in the development of such relationships. A consumer's identification with a brand fosters brand loyalty and purchase intent through the giving of OBA.

The more consumers vocalise their brand relationships through OBA, the more they strengthen their relationship with brands. The inclusion of OBA management in brand and marketing strategies should enable organisations to foster opportunities for online consumer-brand interactions that strengthen consumer-brand relationships.

First, unlike previous studies that have used makeshift scales to measure OBA, the authors used a recently developed OBA scale. Second, the important reciprocal relationship between OBA and brand loyalty, which has significant implications, has not been reported in prior research.

Despite an increasing interest in online brand advocacy (OBA) and the importance of online brand conversations, OBA’s conceptualization, dimensionality and measurement are unclear, which has created confusion. This paper aims to answer calls from researchers and practitioners for a better understanding and measurement of OBA. The development and validation of a parsimonious and practical OBA scale is outlined in this paper.

A multi-methods, multi-stage approach was followed to develop a parsimonious OBA scale. From an initial pool of 96 items obtained from qualitative research and from items used in prior general brand advocacy scales, a test-retest reliability study is followed. Academic judges were consulted to verify dimensionality, followed by two separate online surveys to further purify the scale and assess criterion-related validity. Programs including SPSS, AMOS and WarpPLS were used.

This research extends the knowledge of OBA by developing and testing a parsimonious and practical 16-item, four-dimensional OBA scale. Unlike previous attempts to measure OBA, this study suggested OBA as a multidimensional construct with four dimensions (i.e. brand defense, brand information sharing, brand positivity and virtual positive expression). Further, this study showed that OBA is conceptually different from consumer–brand engagement and electronic word-of-mouth.

Future research is encouraged to validate the OBA scale in various contexts and locations. Researchers can use the new OBA scale to examine potential brand-related antecedents and consequences of OBA.

This study provides brand and marketing practitioners with a better understanding of brand advocacy occurring online. The OBA scale offers clear markers or trademarks that will be useful in assessing any brand’s health online and to track and better manage online brand communications and performance.

This research provides the first empirical investigation of Wilk et al.’s (2018) exploratory insights into OBA. The resulting parsimonious scale has furthered OBA as a new area for academic enquiry and presented practitioners with a practical way of measuring OBA.

This study applied the herd mentality theory to explore local and global social media users’ responses to panic buying across the USA, UK and Australia during the COVID-19 crisis to understand the implications on operations and supply chains.

A total of 208,806 social media user-generated content (UGC) pieces were collected from Twitter in three countries – the USA, UK and Australia. The analysis of this big qualitative data was performed using machine learning–based software – Leximancer.

Positive and negative sentiment towards panic buying during the COVID-19 crisis was observed in the UGC. No significant differences in social media UGC sentiment between the three countries were found; however, differences did exist in key themes. This suggests that the focus, not the sentiment, of consumers’ responses to panic buying differed across countries. Social media users follow their location-based and topic-consonant social “herd”, rather than the global “herd”.

This study was the first to show that social media users’ herd mentality differs in a crisis. The herd mentality of social networks is dependent on factors such as the geographic location of the social network (herd), which can differ from the global herd’s reaction, specifically in terms of topics evident in UGC.

Operations and supply chain managers need to include social media UGC analysis in their strategies in crisis management responses. The topics, not the sentiment, of consumers’ responses to panic buying require managerial actions.

This is the first study to show that herd mentality during a crisis, such as COVID-19, is not unidimensional and varies according to the location of the social media network with profound implications for operations and supply chain managers.

This paper aims to explore the themes and nature of sentiment of Twitter content that discussed the Australian bushfire disaster 2019–2020 and its associated wildlife devastation, with considerations for the future of Australia’s tourism industry.

A large, qualitative data set consisting of all publicly available Twitter posts during the period of the Australian bushfires from December 2019 to March 2020 that mentioned the bushfires and wildlife are explored.

The devastation of wildlife through the Australian bushfire disaster elicited emotionally charged Twitter content from both Australian and overseas users. Positive sentiment focused on offering support to areas impacted by wildlife devastation. Negative sentiment concentrated on linking the Australian bushfires disaster to global discussions surrounding the climate emergency, and a perceived lack of political action.

Despite the intensity of media attention directed towards the Australian bushfires disaster 2019–2020, there has been little scholarly research exploring social media content specifically focused on the wildlife devastation and its association with, and implications for, the tourism industry.

This paper aims to offer insights into the ways two computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) applications (QSR NVivo and Leximancer) can be used to analyze big, text-based, online data taken from consumer-to-consumer (C2C) social media communication.

This study used QSR NVivo and Leximancer, to explore 200 discussion threads containing 1,796 posts from forums on an online open community and an online brand community that involved online brand advocacy (OBA). The functionality, in particular, the strengths and weaknesses of both programs are discussed. Examples of the types of analyses each program can undertake and the visual output available are also presented.

This research found that, while both programs had strengths and weaknesses when working with big, text-based, online data, they complemented each other. Each contributed a different visual and evidence-based perspective; providing a more comprehensive and insightful view of the characteristics unique to OBA.

Qualitative market researchers are offered insights into the advantages and disadvantages of using two different software packages for research projects involving big social media data. The “visual-first” analysis, obtained from both programs can help researchers make sense of such data, particularly in exploratory research.

The paper provides practical recommendations for analysts considering which programs to use when exploring big, text-based, online data.

This paper answered a call to action for further research and demonstration of analytical programs of big, online data from social media C2C communication and makes strong suggestions about the need to examine such data in a number of ways.

A growing stream of consumer research has examined the family dynamics and consumption practices that come from the changing life stages. This study aims to better understand the narratives surrounding power struggles emanating from continued parental food provision upon the stages of adulthood. The study illustrates the contestations within the family as well as the strategies that recipients use to alleviate these tensions within the context of adult Greek daughters and sons.

The study used in-depth narrative interviews with 17 Greek consumers together with photo elicitation to examine consumers’ power struggles in experiencing continued food provision within the family.

The study demonstrates that continued food provision affects the stages of adulthood. The adult children go through a journey of negotiation and struggles of power arising within parental food provision practices. The study demonstrates four power-based struggles and four negotiation strategies to cope with and alleviate the contestations.

Such exploration allowed insights to emerge in relation to the narratives of sons and daughters themselves. However, there are two other relational partners – the food providers and the partners of the food recipients – whose perspectives were not captured but would further aid understanding if captured in future research.

The authors show that consumption practices at home can be a source of friction; thus, food related practices outside the family home can be encouraged to mitigate tensions. The findings could inform advertising campaigns and marketing strategies regarding the loving yet challenging family relationship.

The authors encourage mothers to be reflective on the tendency towards continued provision, as the food provision contributes to the daughter and son’s sense of protracted adulthood stages. Insights from the study are applicable to family tensions in other contexts such as the boomerang generation.

This study focuses on a stage of family life and from a perspective of the recipient, both areas which have been previously under explored. The theoretical perspectives of power are used to contribute to areas of food and family consumption by showing how the provision of food marks meanings of love, but also reveals sources of power and contention. The study also contributes by exploring the role of food consumption in the protraction of adulthood.