Online controversial events: leveraging consumer engagement with users’ positive buzz

Purpose Social media have escalated the frequency and intensity of brands’ online controversial events (OCEs), which differs conceptually from negative events. Despite this, there remains a scarcity of research exploring the nature of OCEs. This paper aims to investigate the impact of positive buzz on consumer engagement during OCEs. Design/methodology/approach Using 47,468 posts from two popular Chinese social media (i.e. Weibo and Zhihu), we employ a zero-inflated negative binomial regression and content analysis to test our hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that positive buzz informativeness and sentiment positively affect consumer engagement in online brand communities, moderated by community type and time-related factors. Expert communities (vs social communities) weaken main effects, while date distance strengthens them. Originality/value This study is the first to propose the nature of brand’s OCEs and explores how positive buzz affects consumer engagement, highlighting the moderating roles of community type and date distance. This paper contributes to literature on user-generated content (UGC), OCEs and dual process theory, offering valuable insights for brands, consumers and community owners.