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Negative emotions in consumer brand relationship: A review and future research agenda
Author(s) -
Khatoon Sajira,
Rehman Varisha
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of consumer studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.775
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1470-6431
pISSN - 1470-6423
DOI - 10.1111/ijcs.12665
Subject(s) - brand relationship , psychology , extant taxon , consumer behaviour , brand management , word of mouth , consumer research , social psychology , advertising , business , evolutionary biology , biology
Emotions have a compelling and strong effect on individuals actions and behaviours. They are elicited in consumers during the decision‐making process through brand‐related stimuli. Negative emotions towards a brand can translate directly into actions against it, for instance, propagating negative word of mouth, avoidance and vengeance. Although scholars have conducted consumer–brand relationship (CBR) research for over 20 years, our understanding of negative emotions is still limited. Research in the consumer–brand relationship domain so far has predominantly focused on positive emotions and its constructs. However, with a recent surge in the studies on negative emotions in the consumer–brand relationship domain, a systematic review is essential to identify, evaluate and synthesize the extant literature. Using a citation‐based search, we analyse 55 articles in the literature to achieve three objectives: primarily to illustrate the evolution and growth of negative emotions in the consumer–brand relationship using the seminal article by Fournier (1998) ‘Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research’ as the base paper. Further, the study aims to identify uncharted negative emotions in consumer–brand relationship literature by integrating it with the hierarchical theory of emotions article and finally, it suggests future research in unexplored and underexplored negative emotions.