Abstract/Summary

Prior research has established the key impact of customers' Big Five personality traits (e.g., agreeableness/conscientiousness) on their brand engagement, suggesting that individuals exhibiting differing personality traits engage differently with brands. In parallel, extending influential customer engagement research, stakeholder engagement, which covers any stakeholder's (e.g., a customer's, supplier's, employee's, or competitor's) engagement in his/her role-related interactions, activities, and relationships, is rapidly gaining momentum. However, despite existing acumen in both areas, little remains known regarding the effect of stakeholders' antisocial or maladaptive dark triad-based personality traits, including machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, on the focal antisocial stakeholder's, and his/her interactee', role-related engagement, as therefore explored in this paper. To address these issues, we develop a conceptual model and an associated set of propositions that outline the nature of a stakeholder's machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic role-related engagement and its effect on his/her interactee's engagement. We conclude by outlining pertinent theoretical and managerial implications that arise from our analyses.