Understanding the formation process of positive customer engagement behaviors: a quantitative and qualitative interpretation

Purpose To investigate the impact of cognition, emotion and other factors on positive customer engagement behaviors and to identify the differential formation processes and dynamic changes in these behaviors. Design/methodology/approach We used cognitive appraisals and coping theory as well as justice theory, to analyze comment data from the Xiaomi Community with natural language processing and binary logistic regression. Findings Our results indicate that cognition and emotion are unnecessary for positive customer engagement. Users expressing different cognitions and emotions exhibit varied positive engagement behaviors. The behavioral dimension was the most frequently combined, followed by the affective and cognitive dimensions. Managers should adopt material or spiritual incentives to encourage users with positive emotions and cognition to become loyal. Additionally, addressing comments with distributive justice cognition can promote positive customer engagement. Originality/value This study clarifies the complex interplay between cognition, emotion and customer engagement behaviors, providing actionable insights for brand managers to foster customer loyalty and positive customer engagement.