Negative Engagement

Abstract

Negative engagement has steeply increased on the scholarly agenda along with the introduction of real time and social media, though negative experiences and emotions are as such not new phenomena. This chapter takes a future perspective and focuses on negative stakeholder engagement online in the context of organizations and brands, which increasingly face visible forms of negative stakeholder emotions or even fierce "shit storms". It begins by defining what negative stakeholder engagement refers to in the context of organizations and brands. The chapter introduces the development of negative engagement via related concepts. After introducing the concepts, the process and the outcomes of negative engagement are identified. In addition, the chapter proposes a categorization of negative engagement based on two dimensions: stakeholder activity and connectivity. It discusses the implications of negative engagement.