| Abstract: |
to those they have towards other individuals (Fournier and Alvarez 2012). One
increasingly important avenue that practitioners employ in order to bring
brands closer to consumers is social media and a wide range of online
platforms (Voorveld 2019). A specific form of such interaction, brand
conversation, is a particularly relevant construct consisting of a series of
online messages exchanged between one or more consumers and a brand
[representative]. The exchanges that brands and consumers have on social media
are conceptually akin to social interactions, but happen to occur within new
media types. Thus, research on social interaction is relevant to understanding
the processes that may be at work. In order to answers these questions, our
research employs face-work theory (Goffman 1955), attachment theory (Park et
al. 2010), and the interpersonal theory of love applied to consumer situations
(Whang, Sahoury, and Zhang 2004). We propose that, similar to the case of
personal relationships that involve affect, when a partner bestows flattery or
compliments onto someone outside of the relationship there is the potential to
threaten the other partner and produce jealousy, with potential deleterious
effects on the relationship. |