Online brand community response to negative brand events: the role of group eWOM

Abstract

PurposeBrand communities now play a significant role in building brand loyalty. Past researches focus on how brand community facilitates brand loyalty under normal market situations. Yet, limited research examines consumer responses to negative events within the brand community context. Drawing from social identity theory and the theory of involvement, the present study aims to reveal the role that group eWOM plays in influencing brand community members’ evaluation on negative brand decisions.Design/methodology/approachBy using an experimental study, the current research adopts far brand extension as the empirical testing ground.FindingsThis research illustrates that group eWOM's influence on brand community member's attitude toward the negative brand information is affected by member's level of brand community identification and brand involvement. When the group eWOM opposes far extension, high brand community identified members are driven by social creativity to resist negative impacts to the brand. However, when the group eWOM supports far extension, high brand involved members are strengthened by group eWOM to promote favorable brand evaluations and attenuate negative impacts to the brand.Practical implicationsFirms should leverage the ingrained associations between brand community identification, brand involvement and group eWOM in affecting brand community’s responses to insulate brand community from the impacts of negative events.Originality/valueThe present study extends prior research on customer loyalty from an individual perspective to reveal the significance of group dynamics in influencing brand community’s response to negative events.

Solving strategy for unintended criticism in online space

“…Comparing to traditional mass media, in online media dealing with firm crisis such as online news forums, consumers can fill up their available pieces of information and no more restricted information quantity and associated information evaluation. Expanding previous studies on online discussion (Chang et al, 2013;Kaiser andBodendorf, 2012, Lee et al, 2006;Prabowo et al, 2008), the present studies suggest online-specific factor, the quantity of firm crisis-relevant information, by inspecting its moderating effects on consumers' regulatory focus.…”

Do different kinds of user-generated content in online brand communities really work?

“…Previous research on OBCs has focused attention on the identification of those characteristics that lead consumers to value brand communities and participate in communal activities (Stokburger-Sauer, 2010), the effect of this participation on brand identification and involvement (Chang et al, 2013), satisfaction with brands and brand loyalty (Stokburger-Sauer, 2010), or consumer engagement . Customers' participation in OBCs also affects performance measures, such as brand purchase (Steinman et al, 2015), new products success (Gruner et al, 2014), and sales (Adjei et al, 2010).…”

Why we watch others' responses to online advertising – investigating users' motivations for viewing user-generated content in the context of online advertising

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