Brand Crisis and Customer Relationship Management on Social Media: Evidence from a Natural Experiment from the Airline Industry

Ramah Al Balawi (), Yuheng Hu () and Liangfei Qiu
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Ramah Al Balawi: Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York, New York, New York 10010
Yuheng Hu: College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607

Information Systems Research, 2023, vol. 34, issue 2, 442-462

Abstract: In this study, we investigate the effect of a brand crisis on the customer relationship management (CRM) efforts of brands on social media. Despite the opportunities social media offers to brands to connect and engage with customers, it is still unclear how a brand crisis can change a brand’s social CRM efforts. Social media platforms can amplify the negative consequences of a brand crisis. However, the unique and public nature of social media platforms can offer new means for brands to handle a brand crisis and publicly manage their customer relationships. Compared with traditional CRM, social media enables brands to communicate with their customers publicly, which can strengthen their relationships with customers and maintain higher levels of customer engagement. Leveraging a natural experiment setting, we investigate the impact of the United Airlines crisis on three dimensions of social CRM efforts: informativeness, timeliness, and attentiveness. Contrary to traditional CRM efforts and recommendations, we find that the brand crisis increases informativeness efforts but reduces timeliness and attentiveness efforts.

Keywords: social media; customer relationship management; brand crisis; difference in differences; natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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