Emirati Journal of Business, Economics, & Social Studies

Browse Journals

Articles

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2025): Emirati Journal of Business, Economics and Social Studies

Electronic word of mouth quality and Customer Engagement: The mediating role of Emotional Contagion.

  • Radwa Radwan
  • Ehab Ezzat
  • Zeinab Gamal
Submitted
October 22, 2025
Published
2025-11-26

Abstract

This paper investigates how electronic word of mouth quality and customer interaction drive emotional contagion among Egyptian buyers of electronic equipment. Data were acquired from 312 Egyptians who were represented by users of electronic gadgets and clients of social networking sites. To evaluate the hypotheses, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used. The findings revealed that consumer involvement and emotional contagion were highly influenced by perceived electronic word of mouth quality. Furthermore, the findings revealed that emotional contagion positively affected consumer involvement. Finally, the association between electronic word of mouth quality and consumer involvement was mediated by emotional contagion.

References

  1. Ahmad, F., & Guzmán, F. (2021). Negative online reviews, brand equity and emotional contagion. European Journal of Marketing.
  2. Banerjee, P., & Srivastava, M. (2019). A review of emotional contagion: Research propositions. Journal of Management Research, 19(4), 250–266.
  3. Baral, R., & Sampath, P. (2019). Exploring the moderating effect of susceptibility to emotional contagion in the crossover of work–family conflict in supervisor–subordinate dyads in India. Personnel Review, 48(5), 1336–1356.
  4. Brodie, R. J., Hollebeek, L. D., Jurić, B., & Ilić, A. (2011). Customer engagement: Conceptual domain, fundamental propositions, and implications for research. Journal of Service Research, 14(3), 252–271.
  5. Brodie, R. J., Ilic, A., Juric, B., & Hollebeek, L. (2013). Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Business Research, 66(1), 105–114.
  6. Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming (2nd ed.). Routledge.
  7. Chan, T. K., Zheng, X., Cheung, C. M., Lee, M. K., & Lee, Z. W. (2014). Antecedents and consequences of customer engagement in online brand communities. Journal of Marketing Analytics, 2(2), 81–97.
  8. Chen, C. H., Nguyen, B., Klaus, P. P., & Wu, M. S. (2015). Exploring electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the consumer purchase decision-making process: The case of online holidays—evidence from United Kingdom (UK) consumers. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 32(8), 953–970.
  9. Chu, S. C., & Kim, Y. (2011). Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites. International Journal of Advertising, 30(1), 47–75.
  10. Coco, M. I., & Dale, R. (2014). Cross-recurrence quantification analysis of categorical and continuous time series: An R package. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 510.
  11. Dessart, L. (2017). Social media engagement: A model of antecedents and relational outcomes. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(5), 375–399.
  12. Dessart, L., Veloutsou, C., & Morgan-Thomas, A. (2016). Capturing consumer engagement: Duality, dimensionality and measurement. Journal of Marketing Management, 32(5–6), 399–426.
  13. Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2016). Social media engagement behaviour: A uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 24(3–4), 261–277.
  14. Du, J., Yang, M., & Liu, J. (2019). Flow effect and resonance effect: Group emotional contagion in service failure encounters. Journal of Contemporary Marketing Science, 2516–7480.
  15. Dwivedi, A. (2015). A higher-order model of consumer brand engagement and its impact on loyalty intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 24, 100–109.
  16. Erkan, I. (2015). Electronic word of mouth on Instagram: Customers’ engagements with brands in different sectors. International Journal of Management, Accounting and Economics, 2(12), 1435–1444.
  17. Fliess, S., Nadzeika, A., & Nesper, J. (2012). Understanding patterns of customer engagement: How companies can gain a surplus from a social phenomenon. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 6(2), 81–92.
  18. Fu, J. R., Ju, P. H., & Hsu, C. W. (2015). Understanding why consumers engage in electronic word-of-mouth communication: Perspectives from the theory of planned behavior and justice theory. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 14(6), 616–630.
  19. Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C., & Sarstedt, M. (2014). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
  20. Hao, F. (2020). The landscape of customer engagement in hospitality and tourism: A systematic review. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 32(5), 1837–1860.
  21. Hatfield, E., Rapson, R. L., & Narine, V. (2018). Emotional contagion in organizations: Cross-cultural perspectives. In Individual, relational, and contextual dynamics of emotions (pp. 245–258). Emerald Publishing.
  22. Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sinkovics, R. R. (2009). The use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing. In New challenges to international marketing. Emerald Group Publishing.
  23. Higgins, E. T., & Scholer, A. A. (2009). Engaging the consumer: The science and art of the value creation process. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19(2), 100–114.
  24. Hollebeek, L. (2011). Exploring customer brand engagement: Definition and themes. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 19(7), 555–573.
  25. Hollebeek, L. D. (2013). The customer engagement/value interface: An exploratory investigation. Australasian Marketing Journal, 21(1), 17–24.
  26. Hollebeek, L. D., Sprott, D. E., Andreassen, T. W., Costley, C., Klaus, P., Kuppelwieser, V., … Rather, R. A. (2019). Customer engagement in evolving technological environments: Synopsis and guiding propositions. European Journal of Marketing.
  27. Hollebeek, L. D., Glynn, M. S., & Brodie, R. J. (2014). Consumer brand engagement in social media: Conceptualization, scale development and validation. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28(2), 149–165.
  28. Hollebeek, L. D., Glynn, M. S., & Brodie, R. J. (2014). Consumer brand engagement in social media: Conceptualization, scale development and validation. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28(2), 149–165.
  29. Hollebeek, L. D., Srivastava, R. K., & Chen, T. (2019). SD logic–informed customer engagement: Integrative framework, revised fundamental propositions, and application to CRM. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), 161–185.
  30. Hornik, J., Satchi, R. S., Cesareo, L., & Pastore, A. (2015). Information dissemination via electronic word-of-mouth: Good news travels fast, bad news travels faster! Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 273–280.
  31. Hyvärinen, H., & Beck, R. (2018). Emotions trump facts: The role of emotions in social media. In Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
  32. Islam, J. U., & Rahman, Z. (2016). Linking customer engagement to trust and word-of-mouth on Facebook brand communities: An empirical study. Journal of Internet Commerce, 15(1), 40–58.
  33. Kasabov, E. (2016). Unknown, surprising, and economically significant: The realities of electronic word of mouth in Chinese social networking sites. Journal of Business Research, 69, 642–652.
  34. Kim, E., Sung, Y., & Kang, H. (2014). Brand followers’ retweeting behavior on Twitter: How brand relationships influence brand electronic word-of-mouth. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 18–25.
  35. Kline, R. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). The Guilford Press.
  36. Kock, N. (2013). Using Warp PLS in e-collaboration studies: What if I have only one group and one condition? International Journal of e-Collaboration, 9(3), 1–12.
  37. Kramer, A. D., Guillory, J. E., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(24), 8788–8790.
  38. Kucukemiroglu, S., & Kara, A. (2015). Online word-of-mouth communication on social networking sites. International Journal of Commerce and Management, 25(1), 2–20.
  39. Kucukergin, K. G., & Dedeoglu, B. B. (2020). Social aspects of tourism atmosphere and emotional contagion in destinations. In Atmospheric turn in culture and tourism. Emerald Publishing.
  40. Lim, W. M. (2015). The influence of internet advertising and electronic word of mouth on consumer perceptions and intention: Some evidence from online group buying. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 55(4), 81–89.
  41. Lin, C., Wu, Y., & Chen, J. (2013). Electronic word-of-mouth: The moderating roles of product involvement and brand image. In Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Technology Innovation and Industrial Management.
  42. Lin, C., Wu, Y., & Chen, J. (2013). Electronic word-of-mouth: The moderating roles of product involvement and brand image. In Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Technology Innovation and Industrial Management.
  43. Liou, D. K., Chih, W. H., Yuan, C. Y., & Lin, C. Y. (2016). The study of the antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior: The empirical study of Yambol online test community. Internet Research, 26(4), 845–868.
  44. Liu, H., Jayawardhena, C., Osburg, V. S., Yoganathan, V., & Cartwright, S. (2021). Social sharing of consumption emotion in electronic word of mouth (eWOM): A cross-media perspective. Journal of Business Research, 132, 208–220.
  45. Luo, N., Wang, Y., Jin, C., Ni, Y., & Zhang, M. (2019). Effects of socialization interactions on customer engagement in online travel communities. Internet Research, 29(6), 1066–2243.
  46. Luo, N., Wang, Y., Jin, C., Ni, Y., & Zhang, M. (2019). Effects of socialization interactions on customer engagement in online travel communities. European Journal of Marketing, 35(8), 1066–2243.
  47. Luo, Q., & Zhong, D. (2015). Using social network analysis to explain communication characteristics of travel-related electronic word-of-mouth on social networking sites. Tourism Management, 46, 274–282.
  48. Monfared, A. R. K., Ghaffari, M., Barootkoob, M., & Malmiri, M. M. (2021). The role of social commerce in online purchase intention: Mediating role of social interactions, trust, and electronic word of mouth. Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 13(1), 22–39.
  49. Muñoz-Expósito, M., Oviedo-García, M. Á., & Castellanos-Verdugo, M. (2017). How to measure engagement in Twitter: Advancing a metric. Internet Research, 27(5), 1122–1148.
  50. Pino, G., Peluso, A. M., Del Vecchio, P., Ndou, V., Passiante, G., & Guido, G. (2019). A methodological framework to assess social media strategies of event and destination management organizations. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 28(2), 189–216.
  51. Ran, L., Zhenpeng, L., Bilgihan, A., & Okumus, F. (2021). Marketing China to US travelers through electronic word-of-mouth and destination image: Taking Beijing as an example. Journal of Vacation Marketing.
  52. Rosado-Pinto, F., & Loureiro, S. M. C. (2020). The growing complexity of customer engagement: A systematic review. EuroMed Journal of Business, 15(2), 167–203.
  53. Sasaki, W., Nishiyama, Y., Okoshi, T., & Nakazawa, J. (2021). Investigating the occurrence of selfie-based emotional contagion over social networks. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 11(1), 1–14.
  54. Scheaffer, R. L. (1999). Sampling methods and practice. NCSSM Statistics Leadership Institute.
  55. Schoner-Schatz, L., Hofmann, V., & Stokburger-Sauer, N. E. (2021). Destination’s social media communication and emotions: An investigation of visit intentions, word-of-mouth and travelers’ facially expressed emotions. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 22, 100661.
  56. Septianto, F., & Chiew, T. M. (2018). The effects of different, discrete positive emotions on electronic word-of-mouth. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 44, 1–10.
  57. Srivastava, M., Sivaramakrishnan, S., & Saini, G. K. (2021). The relationship between electronic word-of-mouth and consumer engagement: An exploratory study. IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, 10(1), 66–81.
  58. Syrdal, H. A., & Briggs, E. (2018). Engagement with social media content: A qualitative exploration. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 26(1–2), 4–22.
  59. Thakur, R. (2019). The moderating role of customer engagement experiences in customer satisfaction–loyalty relationship. European Journal of Marketing, 53(7), 12780–1310.
  60. Thakur, R. (2019). The moderating role of customer engagement experiences in customer satisfaction–loyalty relationship. European Journal of Marketing, 53(7), 12780–1310.
  61. Ustrov, Y., Valverde, M., & Ryan, G. (2016). Insights into emotional contagion and its effects at the hotel front desk. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(10), 2285–2309.
  62. Van Doorn, J., Lemon, K. N., Mittal, V., Nass, S., Pick, D., Pirner, P., & Verhoef, P. C. (2010). Customer engagement behavior: Theoretical foundations and research directions. Journal of Service Research, 13(3), 253–266.
  63. Vivek, S. D., Beatty, S. E., & Morgan, R. M. (2012). Customer engagement: Exploring customer relationships beyond purchase. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 20(2), 122–146.
  64. Zhao, Y., Liu, Y., Lai, I. K., Zhang, H., & Zhang, Y. (2016). The impacts of attitudes and engagement on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) of mobile sensor computing applications. Sensors, 16(3), 391.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Similar Articles

1-10 of 15

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6