Inward negative emotions and brand hate in users of snow-sports’ brands
| Date | 11 June 2024 |
| Pages | 745-760 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-05-2023-4541 |
| Published date | 11 June 2024 |
| Author | Álvaro Iranzo Barreira,Ines Kuster,Carla Ruiz Mafe |
Inward negative emotions and brand hate in
users of snow-sports’brands
Álvaro Iranzo Barreira, Ines Kuster and Carla Ruiz Mafe
Department of Marketing, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The aims of this study are to analyse the impact of brand-centric relationships (individual and collective) and negative emotions on
brand hate felt towards brands used in extreme sports and to assess whether brand hate is a driver of negative consumer behavioural
intentions.
Design/methodology/approach –This study takes a quantitative approach, using a sample of 300 Spain-based users of snow-sports
brands. After validating the measurement scales, the hypotheses were tested through structural equation modelling. Drawing on the
cognitive perspective of emotions and the triangular theory of hate, this study posits that individual and collective consumer-brand
relationships evoke inward negative emotions and brand hate, thus influencing brand avoidance, brand switching and negative word-of-
mouth.
Findings –The results showed that collective and individual consumer-brand relationships (negative brand experience, consumer-based brand
equity and symbolic incongruence) impact inward negative emotions towards snow-sports brands. Inward negative emotions directly influence
brand hate, which in turn affects consumers’intention to avoid brands, switch brands and engage in negative word-of-mouth.
Originality/value –This research provides novel insights into how individual and collective brand-centric relationships evoke inward negative
emotions towards extreme sports’brands, which in turn increases brand hate, and expands knowledge of how brand hate might increase the
consumer’s intentions to avoid the brand, intention to switch brands and intention to engage in negative word-of-mouth.
Keywords Brand relationship, Social influence, Extreme sports, Brand switching, Brand avoidance, Negative engagement, Brand hate,
Negative consumer-based brand equity, Negative inward emotions, Negative outward emotions
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Negative emotions have attracted a great dealof interest in the
literature over the last two decades (Kumar et al.,2023),
although much less thanpositive emotions (Curina et al.,2020;
Rahimah et al., 2023;Yadav and Chakrabarti, 2022). Negative
emotions have more important implications because
consumers remember them more (Curina et al.,2020;Kumar
et al.,2023;Rahimah et al., 2023), which often triggers anti-
brand actions that greatly harm companies (Ahmad and
Guzm
an, 2021). In this context, previous studies have
examined concepts such as brand avoidance (Lee et al.,
2009b), brand divorce (Sussan et al.,2012) and brand hate
(Hegner et al.,2017;Zarantonello etal.,2016).
This work examines brand hate, probably the most intense
negative emotion a consumer may feel towards a brand
(Zarantonelloet al.,2016); it is considered to be very dangerous
for companies (Curina et al.,2020). There are two main
perspectives on brand hate in the literature:the unidimensional
(Hegner et al.,2017) and the multidimensional (Zhang and
Laroche, 2020). In this sense, the present study analyses the
brand hate concept from an alternative, scarcely explored
perspective, supported by Kurto
glu et al. (2021), who analysed
inward and outward negative emotions (relating them to the
concept of brand hate). Inward negative emotions (stress,
frustration, fear, boredom and sadness) have been defined as a
“self-evaluation”of oneself, whereasoutward negative
emotions (brand hate) are an “evaluation of others”(Barclay
et al., 2005;Lazarus, 1991). Examining this relationship will
help companies better predict their consumers’negative
behavioural patterns to avoid a damaging consumer-brand
relationship. Although brand hate has recently attracted
interest in the literature, how brand-centric relationshipsdrive
brand hate and its impact on behavioural intentions is still
unclear (Mushtaq et al.,2024;Kumar et al., 2023;Kucuk,
2021;Zhang and Laroche,2020).
Few studies have examined negative emotions in extreme
sports (Aziz and Rahman, 2022), such as snowboarding and
skiing. Extreme sports are revolutionising the sports sector,
surpassing many traditional sports in terms of participation
(Brymer et al., 2020); they representa significant international
industry enjoyed by millions ofpeople and are a global
phenomenon with considerable social and economic impact
(Raggiotto et al., 2020). More than 22 million people in the
USA practice extreme sports yearly (Raggiotto et al.,2019).
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
33/6 (2024) 745–760
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-05-2023-4541]
Conflict of interest: There is no conflict of interests.
Received 31 May2023
Revised 27 November 2023
21 March 2024
10 May 2024
Accepted 10 May 2024
745
Emotions are fundamental for extreme sports users(Raggiotto
et al., 2020), who are sometimes influenced by their
interactions with specific equipment, for example, skis and
snowboards. When a ski/snowboard consumer’s expectations
are not met by a brand, this can activate negative emotions
towards the brand, hate being the most extreme (Zarantonello
et al.,2016;Zhangand Laroche, 2020).
This study makes five important contributions to the
literature that reflectits objectives:
1This work isexamined from the perspective of brand-
centric relationships, concept that alludes to an emotional
bond between consumers and the brand (Fetscherin et al.,
2021;Veloutsou and Ruiz-Mafe, 2020). Specifically, the
work extends the understanding of negative brand-centric
relationships, which have been scarcely studied in the
literature (Fetscherin et al., 2021;Rahimah et al., 2023),
differentiating between individual and collective
consumer-brand relationships (Veloutsou, 2009), and
how they evoke negative inward emotions;
2This research extends the understandingof new factors,
such as negative consumer-based brand equity (nCBBE)
and offline/online social influence, following
recommendations made in recent studies (Zhang and
Laroche, 2020;Dessart et al., 2020;Khan et al., 2020);
3It analyses brand hate as negative outward emotionand
explains how negative inward emotions drive brand hate
(Kumar et al., 2023;Kucuk, 2021) from a quantitative
analysis (Da Silva, 2019;Atwal, 2021);
4 Specifically, this study extends knowledge of the effects of
brand hate on three crucial negative behavioural
intentions (Roy et al., 2022;Rahimah et al., 2023) such as
brand avoidance and brand switching (categorised as
“flight”strategies) and negative word-of-mouth (a “fight”
strategy) (Bayarassou et al., 2021); and
5The results of this studyprovide a better understanding of
how to address and neutralise brand hate in consumers
(Zhang and Laroche, 2020) and can help companies
reduce their costs significantly.
2.Conceptual framework and hypotheses
2.1Brand-centric relationships and negative emotions
Fetscherin’s (2020) brand relationship wheelproposes that
consumers and brands formpositive and negative relationships
(Dessart et al., 2020). Two types of brand-centricrelationships
have been identified –individual and collective (Fetscherin
et al., 2021). Individual relationshipsare established when
consumers develop emotionalor functional bonds with brands
(Veloutsou, 2007;Veloutsouand Ruiz-Mafe, 2020;Fetscherin
et al., 2021). The type of attachment will depend on whether
the consumer is attracted to the brand because of its utilitarian
value or because of its symbolic value (Fernandesand Moreira,
2019). Collective relationships are connections that members
or affiliates of brand-focusedgroups develop as individuals with
other members of the group (Fetscherinet al., 2021;Veloutsou
and Ruiz-Mafe, 2020). Through these groups,individuals find
people with similar attitudes/thoughts and with whom they can
share their feelings about brands (Veloutsou and Moutinho,
2009).
Previous studies (Abbasi et al.,2023;Husnain et al., 2023)
have argued there is a need to delve deeper into the
determinants of brand hatred. Thus, taking the negative
perspectiveofbrand-centric relationships(Dessart et al.,2020),
this work proposes that individual [negative brand experience,
negative customer brand engagement –CBE–, nCBBE and
symbolic incongruence]and collective (offline and online social
influences) brand-centric relationships are antecedents of
inward-negativeemotions.
2.2Inward negative emotions and brand hate
Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory(Lazarus, 1991;Bagozzi
et al.,1999), emotions have been characterised as a “mental
state of readiness that arises from cognitiveappraisals of events
or thoughts”(Bagozzi et al., 1999, p. 184). Thepresent study
takes the cognitive perspective, understanding emotions as
affective responses generated by specific consumption
experiences. Lazarus (1991) argued thatnegative emotions
develop when a person experiences an unpleasant situation or
perceives that his/her objectives are not being met; it has been
shown that consumers who develop negative emotionstowards
brands will act against them (Wen-Hai et al., 2019). In snow-
sports, negative emotions are very common,as the sports entail
risks, dangers and constant challenges (Hetland et al.,2018).
Thus, if users’risk perceptions increase, their negative
emotions will increase, which can prompt them to develop
feelings of hate towardsbrands (Kucuk, 2016).
When consumers suffer product or service failures, they can
develop hate, which can lead them to take negative actions
towards brands, even to avoid them (Hegner et al., 2017;
Khatoon and Rehman, 2021;Zarantonello et al.,2016).Brand
hate is “a psychological state where consumers form intense
negative emotions and disengagements towards brands that
perform poorly and produce negative and painful experiences
for consumers”(Kucuk,2016, p. 20).
Following Wen-Hai et al. (2019),Kurto
glu et al. (2021) and
Weitzl et al. (2023), this study differentiates between negative
emotions and brand hate while examining inward andoutward
negative emotions and theirnegative effects on the consumer¨s
behaviour.
Inward negative emotionsare considered to be self-conscious
emotions, whichmay arise because (Barclay et al., 2005):
An individual¨s behaviours conflict with his/her personal
ideals;
Individuals feel that negative judgements are made about
them; and
Individuals feel a threat to their well-being.
Therefore, in this study, we regard the emotions of fear
(Dunn and Hoegg, 2014), frustratio n (Pepitone and Kleiner,
1957), boredom (Moynihan et al., 2021), stress (Lazarus and
Cohen-Charash, 2001)andsadness(Haj-Salem and Chebat,
2014) as inward negative e motions, as they are emotions that
represent a feeling of threat to the individual that may affect
or damage his/her personality or well-being. This choice was
made because: first, previous studies argued that fear, sadness
and frustration are precursors to hate (Kähr et al.,2016;
Zhang and Laroche, 2020;Kucuk and Aledin, 2022); second,
fear, frustration, boredom and stress are common emotions
in extreme sports’users (Brymer and Schweitzer, 2013;
Inward negative emotions and brand hate
Álvaro Iranzo Barreira, Ines Kuster and Carla Ruiz Mafe
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 33 · Number 6 · 2024 · 745–760
746
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