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The purpose of this paper is to present an affect-based perspective to explain levels of social media engagement.

This study uses face-to-face long interviews and online observation of the Facebook profiles of respondents over an eight-month period.

Social media engagement varies depending on a user’s current and desired affective state. When individuals are in a low to moderately aroused negative affective state (such as feeling bored or upset), individuals tend to spend time passively consuming content: the lowest level of engagement. In a low to moderately aroused positive mood state (such as happiness), users both passively consume and actively participate with relevant content by liking and commenting on existing content. When users are in a highly aroused positive affective state, the propensity to create original content is greater, reflecting the highest level of engagement. When users are in a highly aroused negative affective state (such as being angry at a brand), users are motivated to vent on social media to manage the mood. Conversely, when users are in a highly aroused negative affective state related to personal trauma, the avoidance of engagement on social media is evident.

Brands can increase the likelihood of consumers creating positive consumer–brand stories offline and online by priming consumer affect.

This study explores how a desired affective state motivates varying levels of user engagement with different types of content on social media.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the detailed human resource policies and practices that favor the expansion of consumer-brand relationships.

Due to the lack of studies in this specific field, this research leans toward adopting an exploratory and interpretative methodology. The data stems from 53 in-depth interviews spanning three case studies in the hotel industry.

The main contribution of this research is the identification and description of the human resource management (HRM) policies and practices which enable the development of consumer-brand relationships. The six policies and practices which this research considers key are: recruitment, promotion, training, communication, evaluation and compensation.

This is the first research that identifies and describes the HRM policies and practices which enable the development of consumer-brand relationships.

Brands are facing key changes and challenges that need to be addressed from both the academic as well as the managerial perspectives. This paper aims to discuss some of them and revises the research agenda of the field of brand management.

Conceptual implications are drawn from the analysis and discussion of the papers of this special issue, as well as from previous literature.

In this global world in which brands are present in many different countries and operate in really diverse business sectors the classical brand management theories and many of their assumptions may need to be revised.

The paper discusses the key challenges that brands are facing and encourages academics to use the rich diversity of methodologies that they have at their disposal and that can be extremely helpful to address the future research agenda of this field.

The purpose of this paper is to build a comprehensive conceptual framework of internal branding, to demarcate this field from employer branding and to develop an updated definition of internal branding that incorporates the findings of the literature review and emerging views in branding.

This research conducts a systematic review of the internal branding and employer branding literature following previously established procedures.

The major findings of this research are that internal branding comprises five key components within a supportive corporate culture, namely, brand ideologies, brand leadership, brand-centred human resource management (HRM), internal brand communication and internal brand communities; and that internal branding is related yet distinct from employer branding in its discipline, focus, components, outcomes and the role of the brand. The paper concludes with a comprehensive definition of internal branding derived from the conceptual framework and recent trends in branding, in addition to directed suggestions for future research in the field.

This research highlights areas for future research within internal branding, including the need for further research on internal brand communities and how brands can “internally brand” brand partners.

The research highlights the company-wide and brand partner-wide effort required in internal branding, in addition to the necessity of a supportive corporate culture.

This is the first review of internal branding and employer branding that aims to differentiate between the constructs and build a conceptual framework of internal branding, by drawing from the fields of HRM, marketing, branding and general management.

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss a critical review of the role of rhetoric and narratives in management research and practice.

Conceptual implications are drawn from the analysis and discussion of the papers of this special issue, as well as from previous literature.

Managers and researchers will be unable to explore the potential of narratives and stories fully if, at the same time, they do not deeply comprehend the underpinnings of rhetoric.

The paper further discusses the role of rhetoric and narratives in management research and practice and also explores the relationships between rhetoric and narratives.

The purpose of this paper is to build a conceptual framework that enables an improved comprehension of how brand meaning is constructed.

Conceptual implications are drawn from an analysis and discussion of the literature in the fields of brand management, meanings, rhetoric, and narratives.

Brand managers are progressively losing control over the multiple sources of brand meaning. Brand meaning is co‐created during the consumer‐brand relationship and the customer‐perceived brand meaning is re‐interpreted at each touchpoint that a consumer has with a managerially determined brand interface, a brand employee, or an external stakeholder.

“Persuasive brand management” is presented as a new approach to brand management. It considers that the main activities of managers regarding brand strategy decisions involve processes of interpreting and creating meanings; as well as persuading a wide diversity of internal and external stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to further understanding of the roles that time and context play in consumers’ evolving brand image construction processes over time.

This exploratory, qualitative research is based on the analysis and interpretation of 164 online consumer narratives pertaining to the consumers’ most memorable coffee moments.

Consumers build images of a brand through both fleeting moments over time linked to special occasions and everyday moments in their lives over time. Understanding image construction processes thus must go beyond just physical (location) and psychological (social) circumstances. Activity processes (“When I am doing […]”) also are central to this understanding.

Time and context emerge as key determinants of consumers’ brand image processes and should hence be explicitly recognised in branding research. This study focuses only on brand admirers; because the study context refers to a business-to-consumer product, the focus is the product brand.

Considering the key role of memorable past moments (time and context) in consumers’ brand image construction processes, branding strategies should reflect systematic efforts to identify these moments. Such an approach can provide opportunities for companies to deepen their consumer understanding and achieve a favourable presence in consumer contexts during which brand images get constructed.

This study identifies key dimensions of time and context and thus furthers understanding of these dimensions in relation to brand images.