Negatively-valenced Customer Engagement Research:A Review and Prospects

Zhu Liye, Yuan Denghua, Li Chunyu, Yang Lin

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 46, Issue 07, pp. 120 - 134 (2024)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.20231210.301

Summary

Negatively-valenced customer engagement (hereafter, NVCE) refers to customers’ unfavorable thoughts, feelings, and behaviors towards a firm during their interactions with it. In recent years, with the increasing academic attention to the topic of NVCE, there has been a rapid growth of related research. However, the research surrounding NVCE is still in its infancy, lacking thorough carding and a systematic review. Therefore, this paper first systematically reviews and discusses the concept and connotations of NVCE, defines it by a second-order structural dimension, and compares its similarities and differences with related concepts to further clarify its connotation and extension. Next, the measurement of NVCE is explored, and the shortcomings in the development of its scales are pointed out. Then, focusing on the antecedents and mechanisms, consequences and moderating variables, and dynamic evolution process of NVCE, relevant literature is summarized and reviewed, and an integrated analysis framework for NVCE research is constructed according to the logical chain. Finally, in response to the limitations of existing studies, future research directions are presented from five aspects: scale development, antecedents and mechanisms, impact outcomes, dynamic evolution, and governance mechanisms.

Keywords

negatively-valenced customer engagement; interaction; dynamic evolution; service ecosystem; value co-destruction