Consumer–Brand Relationship Research: Emerging Knowledge Clusters and Future Research Directions

Abstract

Although much is known about general consumer–brand relationship (CBR) research and CBRs in the tourism and hospitality context, recent literature reviews have pointed out numerous angles of CBR research. However, this research has yet to focus on the tourism and hospitality context. Also, these recent literature reviews have offered several bibliometric insights. However, theoretical, contextual and methodological considerations are still underexplored. Therefore, this chapter aims to explore CBR research in general and the CBR in tourism and hospitality to introduce a theories, contexts, and methods (TCM) framework to establish an agenda for future research. We conducted a literature search for CBR research that appears in the Web of Science (WOS) database. After screening, we selected 416 journal articles for bibliometric and content analysis to identify the emerging intellectual structures and to build a TCM framework to guide future research directions. The findings are discussed in detail, including those on publication trends, top contributing journals, intellectual structures, and the TCM framework. Bibliographic coupling presents four knowledge clusters: (1) commitment, (2) satisfaction, (3) loyalty, and (4) trust. Finally, this chapter offers bibliometric-driven content analyses as methodological contributions and the CBR in tourism and hospitality as a context-specific direction for future research. This chapter provides practitioners with a summary of the extent of CBR research, specifically focusing on tourism and hospitality, to tailor their brand management strategies.