Brand love is all around: loyalty behaviour, active and passive social media users

This study posits that the satisfaction derived from a visit to a theme park triggers positive emotions which, in turn, impact on revisit intention, word-of-mouth (WOM) and electronic WOM (eWOM), through the moderating effect of social media usage. We explore whether satisfaction elicited by the cognitive evaluation of a tourist brand (rational attribute) can, in addition, trigger a passionate feeling towards a brand and if, in the tourist context, brand love can be a mediator of the relationship between consumer satisfaction and positive emotion. We also test the moderating effect of social media usage on the influence of positive emotions on post-purchase behaviour. The hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that the influence of emotion on post-purchase behaviour is more important for active users of social media than for passive users (lurkers), as it influences their revisit intentions, WOM and eWOM. Brand love mediates the relationship between satisfaction and emotion for active social media users.