How Brand Conversations on Social Media Prompt Jealousy in Brand Relationships

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.