This study intends to give a complete bibliometric analysis of brand advocacy research, showing its intellectual and social structure, trends, and prospects. The analysis, which uses data from the Scopus database, combines performance analysis and science mapping tools.
The inclusion requirements were that the sources be peer-reviewed academic publications written in English and published between 2007 and May 14, 2024. The stringent screening method reduced our dataset from an initial 214 documents to 167 highly relevant publications. The VOSviewer was used to perform co-citation, co-occurrence, and bibliographic coupling.
The data show considerable growth in brand advocacy research, particularly after 2020, with a large rise in publications in 2023. Notable authors include Nour Adham Abdelrazek, S B Abdinagoro, and Allam Abu Farah. The major cluster concentrated on “brand advocacy” and related phrases such as “brand loyalty,” “online brand advocacy,” and “brand love,” suggesting that these were key themes. The study’s conclusions for managers include the necessity for strong digital engagement strategies, the integration of CSR activities, and an emphasis on emotional and relational components of customer behaviour to increase brand advocacy.
This extensive bibliometric research serves as a strong platform for developing theoretical frameworks and practical implementations in brand advocacy.
1. Introduction
A brand incorporates practical and emotional components that create a distinctive and compelling experience for stakeholders (Oka, 2017; Woodcock et al., 2010). Branding is an important instrument in marketing strategy and developing strong brand perceptions is critical for successful businesses (Kaur, 2024; Tanwar, 2016). Organisations attract and retain clients through branding activities that promote value, image, status or lifestyle (Kemp, Childers, & Williams, 2012), and customers generate value by interacting with brands (Lindsey-mullikin, & Borin, 2017). Brand advocacy is one way in which customers create value (Harrigan, Roy, & Chen, 2020; Sanz-blas, Bigné-alcañiz, Buzova, Sanz-blas, & Bigné-alcañiz, 2019). Traditionally, brand advocacy consists of a customer actively advocating, supporting or defending a brand to other customers (Keller, 2007; Rhee & Lee, 2021). It is frequently regarded as the beneficial effect of a strong consumer-brand connection (Shimul & Phau, 2023), and facets of brand activism (Aksoy, 2023; Confetto, Covucci, Addeo, & Normando, 2023; Oka, 2017). It comprises the desire to share information about a brand and its implications, as well as to defend it against criticism spread via brand advocates (Oka, 2017). Traditionally, it refers to consumers who suggested things to their friends and relatives (Stokburger-sauer, 2011).
Highly engaged consumers become “brand ambassadors”, spreading valuable good word-of-mouth about a company or brand to others (Keller, 2007). Companies like Zappos and Starbucks have discovered that “brand advocates” enhance brand recognition in the marketplace (Ahmadi, 2024), they are most active when they have emotional ties to a brand and demonstrate it through enthusiastic participation and word-of-mouth (Wallace, 2012). At its foundation, it includes consumers (Shimul & Phau, 2023), professor (Jillapalli, 2010), salesperson (Gammoh, Mallin, & Pullins, 2021), workers enthusiastically advocating a company (Badrinarayanan & Sierra, 2018; Kaur, 2024; Tanwar, 2016), frequently through word-of-mouth (Keller, 2007; Song & Kim, 2022), social media (Martins, 2023; Ninan, Clegg, & Mahalingam, 2019), and different digital networks (Bismo et al., 2023; Confetto et al., 2023; Song & Kim, 2022). Brand advocacy has become a cornerstone in modern marketing, acting as an important technique for creating stronger customer ties and driving corporate success (Bilro et al., 2019a, b). Recent research and surveys emphasise its rising relevance and efficacy in the modern corporate scene (Kaur, 2024; Nguyen & Dan, 2023; Russell-bennett, 2024). The conception of brand advocacy has changed dramatically in recent years. As digital media continues to expand, brand advocacy now comprises a larger variety of actions, including online reviews and social media endorsements (Ballester & Ruiz-maf, 2023; Bismo et al., 2023; Dodds, Palakshappa, Bulmer, & Harper, 2024). This transition has been fueled by the rising relevance of digital interaction and the effect of social networks on consumer behaviour (Wong & Hung, 2023). According to Influitive’s 2023 State of Brand Advocacy Report, brand advocacy is no longer a marketing tactic, but rather a requirement that influences customer decisions and delivers considerable revenue growth. By leveraging the authentic voices of customers and employees, organisations can forge deeper trust, establish credibility and assert their brand authority like never before.
Despite being a popular subject of research, we observed a significant vacuum in the available literature on complete bibliometric studies on brand advocacy.
Despite the topic’s rising relevance in modern marketing and brand management, few studies have comprehensively studied the bibliometric landscape to identify trends, prominent publications, and major study areas within brand advocacy. Several studies focused on various areas of brand management, providing significant insights such as identifying major research trends and future directions (Lim, 2022; Shtovba, Shtovba, & Filatova, 2020), examining brand equity and consumer-based perspectives (De, 2021; Mittal, 2010) customer loyalty and brand management (Tartaglione, Cavacece, Russo, & Granata, 2019), emerging trends in brand personality (Lara-rodríguez, Rojas-contreras, Jair, & Oliva, 2019), virtual brand communities (Zheng, Liu, Zhong, & Zhang, 2020), brand communication (De, 2021), employer internal branding (Saini & Lievens, 2022), green branding (Khandelwal and Tripathi, 2021), global branding (Chabowski & Tomas, 2013) the evolution of brand logic (Merz, He, & Vargo, 2009).
These studies illustrate the significant effort made in brand management while also emphasising the absence of thorough bibliometric analysis focused on brand advocacy. This research intends to solve the gap by offering extensive bibliometric analysis by studying the year-wise publication, most cited documents, prominent authors, keyword analysis, cluster analysis, and co-citation analysis of brand advocacy articles, thereby improving knowledge and delivering useful insights for academic researchers and industry practitioners. By addressing this gap in the literature, we want to increase fundamental knowledge and encourage further study in the domain of brand advocacy. This study aims to respond to the following research questions.
- (1)
What are the annual publishing volumes and growth trends in brand advocacy research?
- (2)
What are the most influential authors and cited documents in brand advocacy research, and how have they influenced later studies?
- (3)
What are the key patterns revealed through keyword analysis, and how do they relate to rising trends?
- (4)
What does the bibliographic coupling of documents indicate about relationships and thematic similarities across various studies?
To achieve this objective, a large set of documents related to brand advocacy was acquired from Scopus (Donthu, Gremler, Kumar, & Pattnaik, 2020a; Suban, 2022a). In this work, we attempt to assess the intellectual structure of brand advocacy by quantitatively evaluating eighteen years of existing literature using bibliometric analysis and utilising performance and science mapping analysis (Donthu, Kumar, Mukherjee, Pandey, & Lim, 2021a). The article is structured as follows: the “Introduction” and “Literature Review” parts address the subject of brand advocacy. The third segment describes the “Methods,” and the fourth section provides a comprehensive discussion” of the outcomes. Finally, the final part discusses the study’s “conclusion”, implications and future research directions.
2. Review of literature
2.1 Brand attachment and brand advocacy
The study of brand advocacy in contemporary literature provides a rich tapestry of findings, revealing varied techniques and consequences related to promoting customer loyalty (Business, 2020; Eelen, Ozturan, & Verlegh, 2017) and advocacy (Business, 2020; Schepers, Nijssen, Schepers, & Nijssen, 2018; Shimul & Phau, 2023). Stokburger-sauer (2011) believes that identification with a brand considerably boosts loyalty and advocacy, highlighting the importance of emotional relations in tourist management. Similarly, Badrinarayanan, Laverie, Badrinarayanan, and Laverie (2011) emphasise the crucial role of retail salespeople in developing brand advocacy, implying that well-trained and motivated sales personnel may considerably impact consumer views and loyalty. Woodcock et al. (2010) extend this topic to social media, highlighting how digital platforms allow firms to increase their visibility and create deeper customer involvement. The idea of consumer-brand identification is expanded upon by Stokburger-sauer (2011), who offers a deep knowledge of how personal identification with a brand generates advocacy behaviours. Wallace (2012) added to this discussion by investigating the influence of brand attachment on customer behaviour, concluding that strong emotional links lead to increased loyalty and advocacy. Harrigan, Roy, and Chen (2021) support this by emphasising the necessity for a comprehensive grasp of consumer psychology, suggesting that emotional and cognitive involvement are crucial drivers of advocacy. Customer involvement in interactive marketing emphasises that active consumer interaction considerably boosts brand advocacy (Universit, Bilro, Maria, & Loureiro, 2023). Engaged consumers display more loyal behaviours and advocacy (Kemp et al., 2012; Swimberghe, Darrat, Beal, & Astakhova, 2018). The causes of brand loyalty in the context of product management, claiming that consistent brand message and quality are vital for preserving customer confidence and advocacy (Wong & Hung, 2023). In the context of digital transformation, Rhee and Lee (2021) investigate how the fashion industry uses digital technology to increase customer involvement and create brand loyalty. The incorporation of digital technologies not only improves operations but also produces immersive experiences that resonate with customers, therefore encouraging advocacy (Gaber, Elsamadicy, & Wright, 2019; Sakka & Faisal, 2020; Vashisht, 2021).
2.2 Consumer psychology and brand advocacy
Expanding on this conversation by investigating the function of social media in establishing continual consumer-brand interactions (Huynh et al., 2021; Song & Kim, 2022), their findings indicate that regular social media interaction is critical for maintaining customer attention and building a network of brand advocates. Regardless of their intentions, older customers may be successful online brand advocates, giving a content marketing typology framework to increase engagement techniques (Bubphapant, 2024). Celebrity endorsers greatly improve customer customisation, entertainment and advocacy intentions, and provide useful data for using celebrity endorsements in social media interaction (Kalam, Goi, & Tiong, 2023; Natarajan, Ramanan, & Raghavan, 2023). Aljarah and Lahuerta-otero (2022) investigate how firms' participation in social problems may strengthen their brand image and create consumer advocacy, arguing that a strategic alignment with social causes can considerably raise brand loyalty. Social media settings, when paired with a strong self-brand connection, greatly improve brand advocacy by increasing customers' emotional and psychological brand attachment (Bismo et al., 2023; Sekiguchi, Zhan, Chen, Yang, & Psychology, 2022), they contend that, while digital material is critical for engagement, it must be properly controlled to avoid oversaturation and consumer weariness. Song and Kim (2022) examine the link between brand experience and customer perception, emphasising the importance of pleasant brand knowledge in fostering loyalty and advocacy. Employee contact plays an important role, as demonstrated by Tanwar (2016), who discovered that an excellent connection between service providers and clients results in enhanced loyalty and advocacy. The impact of service logic on customer engagement emphasises that good service delivery greatly boosts brand advocacy by developing deeper customer connections and loyalty (Bilro et al., 2019a, b; Cuevas-molano and Matosas-lópez, 2022; Eugenio-vela, Ginesta, & Kavaratzis, 2019). Merrilees, Miller, and Yakimova (2021) Involving internal stakeholders in co-creation processes is critical for establishing successful brands because it generates a sense of ownership, cooperation and alignment with the value of the brand.
2.3 CSR, digital engagement and brand advocacy
The study by Tran, Tran, Truong, and Truong (2024) considerably broadens the idea of brand coolness by defining its dual dimensions and mechanics, delivering vital insights for distinguishing brand strategies amongst products and services. Emotional attachment plays an important role in converting brand reputation into brand advocacy, highlighting the intricate interactions between consumer views and brand loyalty (Ahmadi, 2024). Raj (2022) expands on this conversation by investigating the influence of CSR on brand advocacy, proposing that consumers are more inclined to advocate for firms that display true social responsibility. The impact of leadership styles on brand advocacy suggests that transformational leadership can inspire employees to become brand advocates, thereby enhancing overall brand performance Cordero-guti et al. (2023). Nonprofit organisations may dramatically improve online advocacy among millennial contributors by utilising social norms and psychological participation (Russell-bennett, 2024). Sustainable methods not only benefit the environment but also improve company reputation and consumer loyalty (Bubphapant, 2024; Khan, 2023). Huang et al. (2023) investigates the influence of consumer-led discourse on brand perception, proposing that engaging customers in meaningful conversations about the company may dramatically enhance advocacy. The impact of customer experience management on brand advocacy in the Asian business setting proposes that a personalised approach to customer encounters may greatly boost loyalty and advocacy (Ahmadi, 2024; Aksoy, 2023; Shimul & Phau, 2023). These studies together demonstrate the relevance of ethical behaviour, advocacy, customer involvement, service quality, authenticity, sustainability and place-related identity (Carr, Hayes, Carr, & Hayes, 2017; Huang et al., 2023; Martins, 2023; Singh, Trinchetta, Singh, & Trinchetta, 2019; Vashisht, 2020).
3. Methodology
Scientometrics examines the quantitative aspects and characteristics of science, research, technology and innovation (Biancone, Saiti, Petricean, & Chmet, 2020). Bibliometrics, a subset of scientometrics, is the quantitative analysis of manuscripts, articles and other sorts of publications (Mittal, 2010; Ruhanen, Weiler, Moyle, McLennan, & lee, 2015). Scholars employ this to identify trends in the article (Rodríguez-Soler, Uribe-Toril, & De Pablo Valenciano, 2020; Ruhanen et al., 2015; Saikia, Vallès, Fabregat, Saez, & Boer, 2020) and journal performance (Noyons, Moed, & Van Raan, 1999), collaboration patterns (Cobo, López-Herrera, Herrera-Viedma, & Herrera, 2011) and research streams in the subject area. Recent years have seen a surge in interest in business research (Donthu, Gremler, Kumar, & Pattnaik, 2021a; Suban, 2022a, b; Suban, Madhan, & Shagirbasha, 2021; Vishwakarma & Mukherjee, 2019). The approach is useful in understanding patterns and themes when the bibliographic data are extensive and difficult to analyse objectively (Farooq, 2023; Rodríguez-Soler et al., 2020). The authors classify bibliometric techniques into two categories: performance analysis and scientific mapping (Cavalcante, Coelho, & Bairrada, 2021; Farooq, 2023). The first deals with research output in any field of study, whereas the second investigates the interaction between the many parts of a research project (Lim, 2022).
To thoroughly analyse the bibliographic data, the authors used performance analysis to get insight into many metrics. This includes analysing the citation structure, tracking publications on an annual basis, and determining the most prolific organisations, authors and countries based on citation counts. Furthermore, journals were ranked based on their CiteScore, and the most cited publications were found. Science mapping, including co-citation analysis (Barrio-garcía and Miguel, 2022; Suban et al., 2021), was used to delve further into the field’s intellectual structure, co-occurrence analysis (Tartaglione et al., 2019) and bibliographic coupling (Srivastava, 2021) highlighting important links and trends in the research subject.
3.1 Methods
3.1.1 Identification of keywords
The precise selection of keywords relevant to our study was a major component of our bibliographic data collection (Kittur, Chatterjee, & Upadhyay, 2022). The major keywords for this study were “Brand advocacy” and/or “Brand advocates”. These keywords were selected because they were relevant and directly related to our study’s focus on brand advocacy; the identification procedure was careful to ensure that the search yielded complete and relevant results.
3.1.2 Initial search
The authors carried out a comprehensive search of the Scopus database on May 14, 2024, at 14:45. Scopus is a widely used search engine for academic literature searches, acknowledged for its extensive database and outstanding capacity to give detailed citation and bibliographic information (Farooq, 2023; Sigala, Kumar, Donthu, Sureka, & Joshi, 2021; Suban, 2022a), compared to Google Scholar, Scopus provides more sophisticated capabilities for acquiring essential data, making it a favoured alternative for researchers (Donthu, Kumar, & Pattnaik, 2021b; Suban, 2022a). The search was limited to publications from 2007 to and including May 14th, 2024. The period was chosen to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the subject. We performed a comprehensive search using the identified keyword, which produced 214 documents.
3.1.3 Inclusion and exclusion
The search results were improved by the systematic application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. The inclusion requirements required that the source be a journal, and document formats were restricted to articles. This criterion ensured that important scientific material that had been peer-reviewed was included. Other document categories, such as conference papers, reviews, editorials, books, notes and brief surveys were eliminated to focus on more robust and in-depth research. Additional exclusion criteria were used to filter out materials that were not directly related to our research topic. Categories such as computer science, decision sciences, engineering, mathematics, medicine, energy and environmental science were removed to ensure relevance to brand advocacy. Articles written in Turkish, Croatian, Japanese, Moldovan, Romanian, Russian, Greek, Chinese, Hungarian, Italian, Moldavian, Slovenian, Polish and German were excluded in the initial search. Publications written exclusively in English were considered for inclusion in the results and papers in the press were excluded from the study. This rigorous elimination procedure reduced the number of papers to 175. Following a closer examination, 7 duplicate items and one irrelevant document without author information were discovered and eliminated. Finally, a manual review was performed to determine the relevance of each document. This procedure guaranteed that only relevant research was considered in our analysis. After a comprehensive screening procedure, we selected 167 publications for final analysis.
3.1.4 Data analysis
The application of bibliometric analysis in business research has greatly advanced with the development of various statistical tools such as VOSviewer, Biblioshiny and Bibexcel (Barrio-garcía and Miguel, 2022; Bastidas-Manzano, Sánchez-Fernández, & Casado-Aranda, 2021; Farooq, 2023; Vishwakarma & Mukherjee, 2019). In the present study, we used VOSviewer to analyse and visualise the bibliographic information. This software proves highly effective for theme analysis, co-occurrence analysis, bibliographic coupling and cluster analysis (Baker, Kumar, & Pandey, 2021; Srivastava, 2021).
4. Results and discussion
This chapter addresses how performance analysis and science mapping analysis were used to research in the field under consideration. After reviewing relevant papers, we did a performance analysis of brand advocacy research to discover trends and patterns in the articles we examined. Next, we conducted a science mapping study, to know the social structure of co-citation of documents and journals and understand the emerging themes. These analyses provided a comprehensive understanding of the landscape of brand advocacy research.
4.1 Performance analysis
This analysis investigates the impact of different research elements in the field (Liang, De Jong, Schraven, & Wang, 2022; Wang, Togtokhbuyan, & Yadmaa, 2021). This included looking at citation structure, year-by-year productivity, significant authors, productive nations, most cited documents, journals and relevant affiliations.
4.1.1 Publication pattern-year wise
The annual publishing pattern in brand advocacy research in Figure 1 shows a definite growing trend in scholarly interest in recent years. From a modest start in 2007 with a single document (0.6%), the field’s research output has grown significantly, culminating in 2023 with 34 documents (20.4%). The increase has been notably noticeable since 2020, when the number of publications each year has continuously exceeded ten, peaking at 27 papers (16.2%) in 2024. The rise in demand can be ascribed to a growing understanding of brand advocacy’s importance in marketing strategies and consumer engagement. The statistics reveal that the sector is gaining momentum, reflecting wider trends in marketing research in which digital transformation and consumer empowerment are significant drivers. The steady increase in publications since 2018, with a notable jump from 12 documents (7.2%) in 2021 to 34 documents in 2023, suggests that brand advocacy is becoming a focus of academic research, most likely influenced by the rapid evolution of social media platforms and their impact on brand relationships. This bibliometric study emphasises the dynamic character of brand advocacy research, with recent years indicating tremendous scholarly effort and advancement (Ahmadi, 2024; Bubphapant, 2024).
4.1.2 Most prominent authors
The study of the most influential authors on the subject of brand advocacy (Figure 2) reveals a wide group of researchers who have made substantial contributions to the literature. Nour Adham Abdelrazek from Egypt tops the list, with a single highly referenced paper receiving 544 citations and a total link strength of 16, suggesting significant academic impact. S B Abdinagoro of Indonesia, with 544 citations over two papers and the greatest total link strength of 17, has a robust research network and substantial impact in the area. Similarly, Allam Abu Farah of Qatar, although having only one document with 544 citations, has significant power. Bilal Abu-Salih from Jordan, with 230 citations in two publications, and Nawal Abdalla Adam from Saudi Arabia, with 218 citations, demonstrate the global reach of influential brand advocacy research. Felice Addeo of Italy and Widyoretno Adiani of Indonesia, both with 200 and 183 citations, demonstrate the field’s various regional contributions. Raj Agnihotri from the United States, with an H-index of 28, and Mohammad Faisal Ahammad from the United Kingdom, with an H-index of 23, are recognised for their long-term and important contributions to brand advocacy research. Finally, Aqeel Ahmad of Pakistan stands out with three documents totalling 152 citations and an overall link strength of 18, indicating persistent scholarly contributions. This bibliometric study highlights these researchers' considerable and diverse contributions, demonstrating their crucial roles in furthering the area of brand advocacy through their research and academic networks.
4.1.3 Most cited documents in brand advocacy
Table 1 presents the top ten most-cited publications in brand advocacy research, out of a total of 167, emphasising their contributions to the subject. The main article, “Drivers of consumer-brand Identification” by Stokburger-sauer, Ratneshwar, and Sen (2012), has obtained 544 citations, illustrating the fundamental variables that encourage customers to associate with brands, emphasising the relevance of emotional and self-expressive advantages. Another important research by Keller (2007), with 218 citations, looks at how word-of-mouth marketing may greatly boost brand growth by encouraging consumer advocacy. Kemp et al. (2012) examine how place branding may build strong self-brand ties, leading to enhanced brand advocacy and emphasise the relevance of emotional attachment to places in boosting customer support. Xie, Bagozzi, and Grønhaug (2019) research that corporate social responsibility programmes positively affect brand advocacy through moral feelings and attitudes, and that individual differences attenuate these benefits, a study mentioned 132 times. Coelho et al. (2019) emphasises the relational advantages of brand communities, demonstrating that brand love increases customer loyalty and advocacy and that strong emotional attachments among communities generate supporting behaviours, earning 114 citations. Eelen et al. (2017) investigate how brand loyalty affects both conventional and online word-of-mouth, mediated by self-brand connection and altruistic objectives, finding that loyal consumers are more inclined to engage with positive word-of-mouth, with 111 citations. Bilro et al. (2019a, b) analyse the influence of online consumer interaction on brand advocacy in the hotel business, as mediated by customer involvement and emotional experiences, and conclude that engaging online experiences can improve advocacy (103 citations). Stokburger-sauer (2011) investigates the influence of nation brand embeddedness and personality congruence on visitor identification with the nation brand, with 102 citations. Palusuk, Koles, and Hasan (2019) provide a critical evaluation and a thorough framework for understanding brand love and its implications on customer behaviour, emphasising the emotional and relational dimensions of brand love (mentioned 101 times). Lastly, Wallace (2012) examines how Facebook connections may generate brand advocacy, emphasising the relevance of social media in current marketing techniques, and discovering that online friendships can lead to greater support and favourable word-of-mouth for businesses, with 92 citations. These publications reflect significant developments and different viewpoints in brand advocacy research.
Most cited document in brand advocacy research
| Rank | Authors | Title | Year | Journal | Citations | Citation per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stokburger-Sauer N.; Ratneshwar S.; Sen S. | Drivers of consumer-brand identification | 2012 | International Journal of Research in Marketing | 544 | 41.85 |
| 2 | Keller E. | Unleashing the power of word of mouth: Creating brand advocacy to drive growth | 2007 | Journal of Advertising Research | 218 | 12.11 |
| 3 | Kemp E.; Childers C.Y.; Williams K.H. | Place branding: Creating self-brand connections and brand advocacy | 2012 | Journal of Product and Brand Management | 152 | 11.69 |
| 4 | Xie C.; Bagozzi R.P.; Grønhaug K. | The impact of corporate social responsibility on consumer brand advocacy: The role of moral emotions, attitudes, and individual differences | 2019 | Journal of Business Research | 132 | 22 |
| 5 | Coelho A.; Bairrada C.; Peres F. | Brand communities’ relational outcomes, through brand love | 2019 | Journal of Product and Brand Management | 114 | 19 |
| 6 | Eelen J.; Özturan P.; Verlegh P.W.J. | The differential impact of brand loyalty on traditional and online word of mouth: The moderating roles of self-brand connection and the desire to help the brand | 2017 | International Journal of Research in Marketing | 111 | 13.88 |
| 7 | Bilro R.G.; Loureiro S.M.C.; Guerreiro J. | Exploring online customer engagement with hospitality products and its relationship with involvement, emotional states, experience and brand advocacy | 2019 | Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management | 103 | 17.17 |
| 8 | Stokburger-Sauer N.E. | The relevance of visitors' nation brand embeddedness and personality congruence for nation brand identification, visit intentions and advocacy | 2011 | Tourism Management | 102 | 7.29 |
| 9 | Palusuk N.; Koles B.; Hasan R. | “All you need is brand love”: a critical review and comprehensive conceptual framework for brand love | 2019 | Journal of Marketing Management | 101 | 16.83 |
| 10 | Wallace E.; Buil I.; De Chernatony L. | Facebook friendship and brand advocacy | 2012 | Journal of Brand Management | 92 | 7.08 |
Source(s): By author
4.2 Analysis of science mapping
Science mapping uses techniques such as citation analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, co-word analysis, and co-authorship analysis to examine the links between research elements (Donthu, Kumar, & Pattnaik, 2020b; Liu, 2013; Rodríguez-Soler et al., 2020; Small, 1973).
In this work, co-citation analysis for authors, co-occurrence analysis of authors' keywords and bibliographic coupling are employed. These methodologies enable a more in-depth knowledge of the linkages and patterns within the research area, hence increasing the comprehensiveness and robustness of the brand advocacy study.
4.2.1 Co-citation of authors
The co-citation network visualisation for the brand advocacy study demonstrates that, out of a total of 15,583 authors, only 1,047 had at least 5 citations. The network in Figure 3 is organised into six unique clusters, each depicted by a different colour and representing different study interests in the subject. The red cluster, led by notable authors such as Bagozzi R.P., known for his work on consumer behaviour and attitude theory, and Fornell C., recognised for his contributions to customer satisfaction and loyalty, reflects fundamental and theoretical work in brand advocacy. The blue cluster, which includes Kumar V., who has extensively explored customer lifetime value and marketing ROI, and Hollebeek L.D., who specialises in customer interaction, focuses on empirical studies and practical applications. The green cluster, which includes prominent writers like Loureiro S.M.C., who has studied sensory marketing and emotional branding, and Sarstedt M., who has made significant contributions to structural equation modelling, focuses on quantitative methodologies and measuring scales. Ahmad N. dominates the yellow cluster, which emphasises younger and fast-increasing study fields such as digital marketing and social media influences. Ahmad has made substantial contributions to understanding e-WOM and online brand communities. The purple cluster, which unites a range of writers including Hair J.F., noted for his contributions to multivariate data analysis, implies an interdisciplinary approach connecting diverse sub-domains. Finally, the cyan cluster, which includes authors such as Donthu N., who has studied advertising effectiveness and consumer online behaviour, and Rahman Z., who focuses on service branding and customer relationship management, appears to concentrate on specialist or developing subjects in brand advocacy. This network demonstrates the topical breadth and multidisciplinary nature of brand advocacy research, highlighting prominent writers and emerging themes.
4.2.2 Co-occurrence of author’s keywords
The analysis finds terms often present in the papers, typically in the keyword field, and their simultaneous existence in the same publications (Cavalcante et al., 2021; Suban et al., 2021; Waltman, van Eck, & Noyons, 2010). Prior research has typically employed co-occurrence analysis (Cheng, Edwards, Darcy, & Redfern, 2018; Laengle et al., 2017; Martínez-López, Merigó, Valenzuela-Fernández, & Nicolás, 2018). The co-occurrence network visualisation of terms connected to “brand advocacy,” created with VOSviewer, in Figure 4 gives a complete insight into the thematic links in literature. The author’s chosen keyword has a minimum incidence of 2 out of 599 keywords analysed. The primary cluster focuses on “brand advocacy,” which is strongly related to phrases like “brand loyalty,” “online brand advocacy” and “brand love,” indicating that these are key ideas. Surrounding clusters highlight various facets of brand advocacy: the green cluster emphasises “brand equity,” “self-brand connection,” and “advocacy,” underscoring the role of perceived quality and consumer behaviour; the red cluster centres on “consumer engagement” and terms like “purchase intentions” and “social networking sites,” reflecting the effect of social media and consumer; and the blue cluster, including “service recovery” and “brand advocate,”. Furthermore, the orange cluster connects “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) to brand trust and advocacy, whilst the purple cluster centred on “online brand advocacy” and “brand community engagement” emphasises the significance of digital platforms and community interactions in creating brand advocacy. This investigation reveals the complex nature of brand advocacy, illustrating its interdependence with diverse consumer, corporate and digital aspects.
4.2.3 Bibliographic coupling
Bibliographic coupling has gained favour in recent times (Srivastava, 2021). It happens when two papers mention a third one (Laengle et al., 2017). The analysis was carried out with VOSviewer to achieve a clearer understanding of the domain and the numerous emerging themes in brand advocacy. The kind of analysis chosen is “bibliographic coupling”, the unit of analysis is “documents” and the method used is “fractional counting”. Out of 167 documents, 25 citations were chosen as the threshold value, yielding 40 papers. The bibliographic coupling visualisation in Figure 5 features four unique clusters and emerging themes in Table 2, each reflecting distinctive themes and growing regions in the academic environment. The red cluster, centred around (Stokburger-sauer et al., 2012), focuses on “consumer behaviour and brand management”, with expanding fields studying brand attachment and psychological elements of consumer behaviour, as shown by Bhati and Verma (2020). The green cluster features by Vanmeter, Syrdal, Powell-mantel, Grisaffe, and Nesson (2018), explores “digital marketing and social media’s impact on customer behaviour”, with new developments in social media marketing tactics and the impact of digital platforms emphasised by Harrigan et al. (2021), Rabbanee, Roy, and Spence (2020). The blue cluster, with key studies by Bilro et al. (2019a, b), Kumar and Kaushik (2020), emphasises service marketing and customer experience management, as well as increasing research on customer journeys and technology’s role in service delivery. The yellow cluster, represented by Weitzl, and Hutzinger (2017), Palusuk et al. (2019), concerns corporate communication and reputation management, with expanding sections concentrating on the influence of CSR programmes on business reputation and customer trust. These clusters reflect both long-standing subjects and cutting-edge breakthroughs in their respective disciplines.
Bibliographic coupling and emerging themes
| Cluster Color | Key papers | Emerging themes |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Stokburger-sauer et al. (2012), Bhati and Verma (2020) | Consumer behaviour and brand management, including brand attachment and psychological elements of consumer behaviour |
| Green | Vanmeter et al. (2018), Harrigan et al. (2021), Rabbanee et al. (2020) | Digital marketing and the impact of social media on customer behaviour, with advancements in social media marketing tactics and digital platforms |
| Blue | Bilro et al. (2019a, b), Kumar & Kaushik (2020) | Service marketing and customer experience management, focusing on customer journeys and the role of technology in service delivery |
| Yellow | Weitzl & Hutzinger (2017), Palusuk et al. (2019) | Corporate communication and reputation management, emphasising CSR programs' influence on business reputation and customer trust |
The emerging themes from the bibliographic coupling analysis provide a comprehensive understanding of evolving priorities in brand advocacy research. The red cluster highlights a deepening exploration of consumer behaviour and brand management, with an increasing focus on psychological elements like brand attachment and loyalty. This reflects a shift toward understanding the emotional drivers of consumer decisions and their implications for brand strategies. The green cluster underscores the growing importance of digital marketing and social media, where new strategies are reshaping how brands engage with tech-savvy consumers. The emphasis on platform-specific tactics and the transformative role of digital tools signals a trend toward more interactive and personalised marketing approaches.
The blue cluster points to advancements in service marketing and customer experience, where the integration of technology is enhancing customer journeys. This area highlights the critical importance of seamless, personalised interactions in fostering customer satisfaction and retention, with technology serving as both a challenge and an opportunity. Meanwhile, the yellow cluster brings attention to the rising significance of corporate communication and reputation management. The influence of CSR programs in building trust and shaping brand reputation reflects a consumer-driven demand for ethical and socially responsible business practices. These themes collectively illuminate a field balancing traditional and emerging priorities. Researchers and practitioners are increasingly focusing on emotional, technological and ethical dimensions of brand advocacy, ensuring strategies remain relevant in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
5. Conclusion
This thorough bibliometric analysis of brand advocacy research identifies numerous major patterns and provides insights into the field’s evolution, intellectual structure and prospects. We acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the brand advocacy research environment by analysing the yearly publication volume, the distribution of publications across different nations and institutions, the most significant authors and documents, and the co-citation and co-occurrence networks. The year 2023 had the most publications, with 34, reflecting a growing scholarly interest in the topic. This rising trend demonstrates the growing understanding of brand advocacy’s importance in current marketing strategies and customer engagement. This worldwide distribution demonstrates the universal value of brand promotion in many markets and cultural circumstances. Leading researchers, like Nour Adham Abdelrazek, S B Abdinagoro and Allam Abu Farah, have made substantial contributions to the topic, earning high citations and building strong research networks. The citation analysis demonstrates a considerable gap in the awareness and effect of studies on brand advocacy, with only a few foundational articles receiving substantial attention. The co-citation analysis reveals further intellectual links within the discipline, highlighting major clusters of research issues and influential authors. These clusters focus on the fundamental ideas, empirical investigations and practical applications that influence brand advocacy research. The bibliometric coupling and cluster analysis highlighted four significant themes throughout brand advocacy research: “brand relationships and advocacy”, “digital engagement and social media”, “brand advocacy in various contexts”, and “word of mouth and corporate social responsibility”.
The paper highlights several developing trends and future research opportunities: Increased attention on the emotional and social components of brand-consumer connections and internal branding; the growing significance of digital platforms and social media in brand advocacy tactics, with a focus on developing strong online communities; a broader application of brand advocacy concepts across multiple sectors and situations, stressing the relevance of consumer involvement and experience; and recognising the value of word-of-mouth and CSR in brand advocacy initiatives, with a focus on emotional and moral components in customer behaviour.
5.1 Theoretical implications
The extensive bibliometric study of brand advocacy research lays a solid platform for furthering theoretical frameworks in this area. One of the most significant theoretical contributions is the identification of many study clusters, each reflecting separate but interrelated topics in brand advocacy. The clusters, which include brand relationships and advocacy, digital engagement and social media, brand advocacy in various contexts, and word of mouth and corporate social responsibility, demonstrate the diverse nature of brand advocacy. These clusters demonstrate how classic theories of consumer behaviour and brand management are being expanded to include new aspects such as digital involvement and CSR. The findings underscore the significance of psychological constructs like brand attachment and loyalty in driving advocacy. The green cluster emphasises the critical role of digital platforms in modern advocacy efforts. Researchers can investigate how specific platform characteristics (e.g. algorithmic changes or user interaction patterns) affect brand-consumer engagement dynamics. The blue cluster reveals the impact of technology on service marketing and recovery processes. Theoretical exploration can delve into how AI, machine learning, and personalisation technologies shape customer journeys and advocacy outcomes. The emphasis on brand community engagement calls for theoretical frameworks that explore the dynamics of virtual communities. The complex interplay between emotional, technological, and ethical dimensions in advocacy highlights the need for interdisciplinary research. Scholars can build integrative models that account for these interdependencies, enriching the theoretical foundation of brand advocacy.
5.2 Managerial implications
The managerial implications of the bibliometric examination of brand advocacy are significant and actionable. For brand managers and marketers, the findings of this investigation highlight the important role of digital interaction and social media in modern brand advocacy campaigns.
The importance of digital interaction in the study clusters emphasises the need for businesses to actively promote and manage their online presence. Managers should prioritise building strong online communities and developing emotional relationships with customers via social media platforms. These platforms are more than simply marketing channels; they are crucial venues for customers to connect with businesses, share their experiences, and become champions. Managers may improve customer interaction, boost good word-of-mouth, and develop long-term connections with brand champions by using digital tools and technology. Furthermore, the research emphasises the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in promoting brand advocacy. Furthermore, the study emphasises the need to comprehend the emotional and relational dimensions of customer behaviour. Brands that can tap into the emotional drivers of customer advocacy—such as brand love, loyalty, and identification—are more likely to build a devoted following.
Managers may use this information to create personalised and emotionally engaging marketing programmes that attract, retain, and engage brand champions. Managers should design strategies that foster emotional connections, such as leveraging storytelling, creating memorable brand experiences, and cultivating brand loyalty. Prioritising psychological aspects like brand attachment can significantly enhance consumer advocacy. Managers can integrate technology like AI-powered tools, predictive analytics, and streamlined feedback mechanisms to improve customer journeys and satisfaction, ultimately driving advocacy. Creating and maintaining online communities offers a platform for consumers to interact and advocate for brands. Managers should encourage participation through exclusive groups, forums, or interactive content that enhances consumer-brand relationships.
5.3 Limitations and future research
Despite the comprehensive findings of this bibliometric investigation of brand advocacy, certain limitations must be addressed. First, the study is fundamentally constrained by its data source, which is just the Scopus database. Scopus is a powerful and extensive academic search engine, although it may not include all relevant research published in non-indexed journals or other databases such as Web of Science or Google Scholar. This constraint may result in an insufficient representation of the field, perhaps missing important papers that are not indexed in Scopus. Future studies might benefit from the use of several datasets to offer a more comprehensive perspective of brand advocacy research. Another issue involves the exclusion criteria used in the data-gathering procedure. By eliminating conference papers, reviews, and other non-article materials, the study risks missing out on developing research trends and creative ideas that are frequently presented in these formats. These omissions were required to focus on peer-reviewed and important contributions, but they may have unintentionally excluded cutting-edge conversations and early-stage research that might be useful in understanding the evolution of brand advocacy. Future studies could investigate covering a larger range of document formats to capture a more diverse range of intellectual debate. Furthermore, the study’s time frame, which is confined to articles from 2007 to May 2024, may not completely capture long-term trends and developments in brand advocacy research. While this date was chosen to provide a current perspective, broadening the scope might provide more in-depth insights into the field’s historical evolution and maturation. Researchers should look at longer time periods to see how core beliefs changed and new paradigms arose over decades. While VOSviewer offers sophisticated visualisation and grouping capabilities, their interpretation might be subjective. While co-citation and co-occurrence analysis can be useful, they may not capture all of the intricate interrelationships and emergent themes in literature. Future study should use more bibliometric methods and qualitative analysis to further triangulate findings and create a more complete, nuanced picture of the area.
The future research opportunities in brand advocacy are vast and diverse. Given the dynamic nature of digital interaction and the changing environment of social media, future research should look at how upcoming technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics and augmented reality affect brand advocacy. Understanding how these technologies improve customer engagement and brand loyalty will be critical in establishing improved theoretical frameworks and practical solutions. Another intriguing topic for future research is the study of cross-cultural variations in brand advocacy. As globalisation continues to alter consumer behaviour, it is critical to understand how cultural settings influence brand advocacy dynamics. Comparative research across geographies and cultures can reveal distinct tendencies and offer insights on adjusting brand advocacy campaigns to different markets. Furthermore, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on brand advocacy warrants further investigation. Future studies should look into how diverse CSR programmes, spanning from environmental sustainability to social justice, influence customer views and advocacy behaviours. Longitudinal research into the long-term impact of CSR initiatives on brand loyalty and advocacy will be very useful. Finally, the relationship between brand advocacy and other marketing structures such as brand equity, brand experience and customer pleasure provides several options for inquiry. Researchers should investigate these links to create complete models that represent the complexities of brand-consumer interactions. Furthermore, studying the impact of internal branding and staff advocacy in creating external brand support may give a comprehensive understanding of brand management strategies. Future research could explore how various digital platforms (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, X) influence brand advocacy across different consumer segments. Studies can investigate platform-specific factors such as algorithmic changes, user interaction patterns, and how they shape brand-consumer relationships, loyalty and advocacy behaviours. Future studies could develop integrative models that account for the complex interplay between emotional, technological and ethical dimensions in brand advocacy. These models could combine perspectives from consumer psychology, marketing technology, ethics and corporate social responsibility to create comprehensive frameworks that better explain modern brand advocacy dynamics. Research could focus on how AI, machine learning and other personalisation technologies shape customer journeys and brand advocacy. Studies could investigate the impact of predictive analytics, personalised marketing and AI-powered customer service tools on advocacy outcomes, as well as how these technologies can be leveraged to enhance brand loyalty and improve service recovery processes.
