Online Damage Control: The Effects of Proactive Versus Reactive Webcare Interventions in Consumer-generated and Brand-generated Platforms
Guda van Noort and
Lotte M. Willemsen
Journal of Interactive Marketing, 2012, vol. 26, issue 3, 131-140
Abstract:
Web 2.0 has empowered consumers to voice complaints with reduced costs (physical and psychological), and to share these with a multitude of other consumers on the Internet. As a public phenomenon, online complaints have a negative impact on consumers' evaluations of brands that are under attack in online complaints. By means of an experiment, we study the most effective means for companies to counter complaints as expressed in negative electronic word of mouth (NWOM). The results show that negative brand evaluations engendered by NWOM can be attenuated by webcare interventions dependent on type of strategy (proactive vs. reactive) and platform used (consumer-generated vs. brand-generated blog). This effect appeared to be mediated by conversational human voice. The findings are discussed in the light of practical implications for online complaint management.
Keywords: Electronic word of mouth; Online complaint management; Consumer empowerment; Blogs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (53)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1094996811000600
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joinma:v:26:y:2012:i:3:p:131-140
DOI: 10.1016/j.intmar.2011.07.001
Access Statistics for this article
Journal of Interactive Marketing is currently edited by B. T. Ratchford
More articles in Journal of Interactive Marketing from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().