Title redacted: the impact of negative online review censorship

Abstract

Purpose Consumers are increasingly using review sites to exchange product information, whereas companies attempt to maintain control of brand-related communications. One method marketers may take to retain control is to remove negative opinions about the brand. This paper aims to examine the impact on consumer’s brand perceptions when negative reviews are censored. Design/methodology/approach Two experimental studies were conducted to assess whether censorship of a negative online review, in the form of removal by the company, weakens brand relationship quality (BRQ) dimensions. Findings The results show that censoring negative online reviews has a damaging effect on BRQ. Additionally, the findings indicate that a brand may not be able to increase BRQ when a negative review has been posted, however strategic measures can be taken to diminish the potentially harmful impact. Originality/value As many brands still do not adequately understand how to handle negative online reviews, this research offers valuable implications in furthering the examination of negative electronic word-of-mouth and ways to diminish its harmful effects. Additionally, while substantial research focuses on the positive consequences of brand relationships, this research answers calls to examine the negative impacts to BRQ.

How online reviews with different influencing factors affect the diffusion of new products

“…Once negative reviews appear, companies should treat them scientifically. For example, instead of eliminating negative reviews, one approach a company might adopt is to minimize the impact of negative reviews on new product sales (Stevens et al, 2022). Moreover, responsiveness may be critical in compensating for damage caused by negative emotional tendencies (Huang et al, 2015).…”

Four decades of negative word‐of‐mouth and negative electronic word‐of‐mouth: A morphological analysis

“…When companies censor negative reviews, it reduces customers' brand relationship quality overall; specifically, the feeling of love and connection with the brand decreases drastically. A better way of dealing with NCRs is to let other customers, rather than the company, defend the brand (Stevens et al, 2022).…”

Thirty years of product and brand management research: a retrospective review of the Journal of Product and Brand Management using bibliometric analysis

“…Furthermore, other articles have highlighted how brand owners have (or may) use a range of various communication methods to nurture client connections, enhance customer happiness and actively retain a customer base (Areni, 2021;Jacobson, 2020;Villegas and Marin, 2021). Subsequently, this cluster emphasizes the need for more research on understudied topics in the current digital era, such as fake news (Vafeiadis et al, 2019), digital marketing (Wang and Chen, 2021), electronic word of mouth (eWOM; Stevens et al, 2021), user-based content (Areni, 2021), internal branding (Saleem and Hawkins, 2021) 12 to 14, respectively. Analyzing the data in these tables reveals that the four aforementioned clusters appeared in some version or another in each decade.…”