In the eye of the (fire)storm: better safe or sorry? Crisis communication strategies for managing virality of online negative brand-related content

Abstract

Companies face a considerable number of online complaints on social media, with some escalating into major virality (online firestorms). Given the risks associated with reputation and sales, companies implement crisis response communication strategies to refrain audiences from forwarding content to others. Despite the positive effects of such strategies, the mechanism that underpins the effects are not yet analyzed in the literature. The current study proposes that in situations of potential online firestorms, brand attitude influences conative responses, including intentions to forward negative content to others. An apology is the response strategy most often implemented, despite others being mentioned in the literature. The current study evaluates how corrective actions compare with an apology in dealing with complaints, with the type of responses being proposed as a moderator of the effects of brand attitude. Results show that brand attitudes following exposure to a crisis response strategy have significant effects on refraining intentions to forward negative e-WOM. An apology is the preferred option as a response strategy in general. However, when specific triggers of complaint are analyzed, corrective actions and apology perform similarly. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.