When your loss feels like my win: how negative online brand engagement and schadenfreude impact digital brand advocacy

Purpose Recent branding literature emphasises the need to understand how negative online brand engagement damages consumer-brand relationships through its effects on brand trust and digital brand advocacy. This study aims to examine whether schadenfreude moderates these effects and whether its buffering capacity differs across the two outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative PLS-SEM design was used with purposive sampling. Responses were collected from 314 participants using a questionnaire measured on a five-point Likert scale. Findings Negative online brand engagement significantly reduced brand trust and digital brand advocacy. Schadenfreude weakened this negative effect on digital brand advocacy but did not moderate the negative engagement–trust or trust–advocacy relationships. Practical implications Brand managers should treat trust protection and advocacy recovery as distinct priorities. Competitive contrast framing may sustain advocacy during negative engagement but should complement substantive trust-recovery efforts and reflect cultural norms governing competitive emotions. Originality/value This study integrates cognitive dissonance theory and the frustration-aggression hypothesis to explain how negative online brand engagement damages consumer–brand relationships. It positions schadenfreude as an outcome-specific competitive brand emotion that buffers digital brand advocacy but not brand trust, extending brand engagement research beyond its positively valenced and predominantly Western foundations.