Building theoretical sand castles: the case of customer brand engagement

The goal of building a theory of customer brand engagement can be recognized in the sustained research efforts in this area. Three studies were conducted to highlight the significant negative implications of scale proliferation for theory building in the area of customer brand engagement. Each study employed multiple linear regression to investigate multiple distinct customer brand engagement scales. First, the discriminant validity of these scales was examined. Second, the studies examined the relationship between these customer brand engagement constructs and several constructs that previous studies had indicated as antecedents of customer brand engagement. Overall, the results have some worrisome theoretical implications. The measurement scales displayed adequate discriminant validity indicating that scholars have been using the same term (i.e., customer brand engagement) to label constructs that are, in fact, distinct. That is, the various customer brand engagement scales measure different concepts. Moreover, the relationships that these distinct constructs share with their proposed antecedents vary across constructs. In essence, the relationship between customer brand engagement and its antecedents depends on the scale used. The findings raise a red flag regarding the state of theory building within the marketing discipline. Specifically, the results should prompt future studies to investigate whether the discriminant validity issues revealed in this study for customer brand engagement research might exist within other areas of marketing as well.