Understanding the Antecedents and Outcomes of Brand Evangelism in the Digital Environment

The purpose of this study was to obtain a comprehensive understanding of brand evangelism that is lacking in extant research. Prior brand evangelism research established the importance of brand evangelism in the digital environment but has an incohesive view of the construct, including various definitions and contexts in which it was studied. This study integrated a unified definition of brand evangelism that focused on three distinct areas of brand evangelism research: passion, word-of-mouth and the intention to recruit. The study also developed and tested a model that includes antecedent, outcome, and moderating variables that provide a holistic understanding of the brand-related and psychological influences in a brand evangelism framework. In order to obtain a full understanding of brand evangelism it is necessary to examine brand evangelism’s impact on consumer behavior in the online environment. Brand evangelism’s influence on building loyalty and consumer recruitment can directly affect the brand’s sales, which makes it a crucial topic of consideration for both researchers and practitioners. The results favor a model in which brand evangelism has a central role, mediating the relationship between the antecedent variable of brand affect and the outcome variables. Additionally, it is found that there is a significant relationship between brand evangelism and consumer recruitment. It is also found that the motivating variable the need for self-enhancement satisfaction moderates the positive relationship between brand affect and brand evangelism. Lastly, the study found that brand evangelism positively influences positive self-esteem. These results, which augment existing brand evangelism literature, are discussed in terms of their theoretical and strategic managerial implications