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An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue.
1. Introduction
Consumer engagement is receiving increasing attention in recent marketing literature. Heralded by a key research priority (MSI, 2010), the concept has been the subject of a number of special issues in international academic journals (i.e. Journal of Service Research , 2010; Journal of Strategic Marketing , 2010; Journal of Product and Brand Management , 2014). With its roots in relationship marketing (Fournier, 1998), consumer engagement offers a further enhancement of the current theoretisations around consumer and brand relationships. Its added value lies in supporting the increasingly interactive and experiential nature of consumer relationships (Vivek Beatty and Morgan, 2012), while extending their scope beyond core purchase situations. By being engaged, consumers exhibit dispositions that go beyond traditional market-ascribed consumer behaviours, in accordance with the value co-creation logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Using this conceptual lens allows the assumptions of conventional relationship marketing and its concern with linear company-consumer, exchange-centric relationships to be relaxed and expanded to provide a richer notion of relating to a brand (Vivek et al. , 2012).
Consumer engagement is also of pragmatic relevance: having an engaged consumer base is quickly becoming one of the key objectives of many marketing professionals. The reportedly positive implications of engagement for consumer behaviour and brand performance (Brodie et al. , 2011a, 2011b) are driving the academic and practical interest in explaining and manipulating the concept (Vivek et al. , 2014).
Despite the significant interest, the nascent academic literature on consumer engagement shows a number of shortcomings. First, the concept definition warrants more attention. There seems lack of consensus on what consumer engagement is, with some authors stressing a psychological process and others maintaining behavioural focus. For example, Brodie et al. (2011a, p. 260) define consumer engagement as a "psychological state that occurs by virtue of interactive, co-creative experiences with a focal agent/object (i.e. a brand) in a focal service relationship". Taking a perspective of engagement as an overarching process, ultimately leading to loyalty, Bowden (2009, p. 65) defines it as a:
[...] psychological process that models the underlying mechanisms by which consumer loyalty forms for new consumers of a service brand, as well as the mechanisms by...