The Emotional Engagement Paradox

The purpose of this chapter is to examine how customers’ word of mouth (WOM) behaviors differ based upon emotional engagement (EE) levels towards the brands they use in different industry categories. This research contributes to the engagement literature by providing new insight into the relationship between EE and WOM behaviors. Specifically, we examine how customers’ WOM behaviors relate to different levels of positive and negative EE. We find that high self-brand connection among consumers that are high in both positive and negative EE generates the most online WOM. We refer to this surprising relationship as the Emotional Engagement Paradox.