How celebrity attributes damage customer–brand relationship in live streaming commerce: a dark side

Abstract

This study examines the effect of celebrity attributes on customer–brand relationships from a dark side in live streaming commerce by extending a Stimulus-Organism-Response theory. An online self-administered questionnaire was conducted to collect the data with 317 valid replies and analyse it using a multi-analytical hybrid structural equation modelling–artificial neural network approach. The results reveal that, in addition to a positive correlation from brand betrayal to brand hate, a negative reputation can drive both brand betrayal and brand hate, while advertisement inauthenticity and expertise scarcity induce brand betrayal only. In turn, brand hate can generate all the negative outcomes, while brand betrayal cannot lead to brand revenge and retaliation. The study implications enrich the extant literature on customer–brand relationships and live streaming commerce, reveal the stimuli in celebrity attributes and responses in brand outcomes and highlight the effect of brand betrayal and brand hate that bridge stimuli and responses. The practical implications suggest practitioners focus on a high congruence between celebrities and brands when adopting endorsements, building a continual consumer–brand relationship and proper remedy. The originality of this research is the higher-order construct of brand hate and integrated brand outcomes.