How do brands capture value through engaging non-paying consumers?

Abstract

The customer engagement concept has received increasing attention in the Marketing literature in recent years. Within this emerging literature, customer engagement behaviours (CEBs) are heralded, in particular, to reflect consumers’ engagement with focal brands or firms. Further, based on the emergence and rise of influential consumer networks, the role of non-paying consumers is rapidly gaining traction. Although the literature has addressed customer engagement behaviours displayed by paying customers, those exhibited by non-paying consumers remain largely unexamined to-date. In this paper, we explore and develop the concept of non-paying consumer engagement behaviours (NPCEBs); i.e. “positively-valenced behavioural manifestation toward a product, brand or firm, which are not predicated on a transaction, but none-the-less create potential value for the firm”, and develop a conceptual model comprising key NPCEB antecedents and consequences. The paper concludes with an overview of key implications for future empirical research.21 page(s