KOREASCHOLAR

able to articulate their unfavorable opinions about products, brands and companies by posting complaints on a diverse set of platforms including the firms’ own Facebook brand pages. Such actions enable dissatisfied consumers to disseminate their negative sentiments among a broad audience of negative electronic word-of-mouth (NeWOM) observers (Hong & Lee, 2005). For those observers, negative consumer comments are a valuable source (Lee & Song, 2010). They usually read the NeWOM messages to identify the responsible party and to know what has caused other persons’ problems. This information, in turn, is likely to influence the potential customer’s own attitudes towards the company (e.g., Vermeulen & Seegers, 2009; Willemsen et al., 2011). Such inferences can have critical consequences for a company’s economic well-being. This study investigates how companies can counteract potential threats by means of corporate webcare (i.e., applying appropriate response strategies to counteract latent NeWOM effects). Previous studies focusing on the offline service management context have examined different types of corporate response strategies (e.g., Benoit, 1995; Coombs, 1999). Marcus and Goodman (1991), for instance, classify response strategies into either accommodative (i.e., the company accepts the failure and takes on responsibility for it) or defensive strategies (i.e., the company denies the responsibility for the negative event, attacks the accuser, or shifts the blame to others). In addition, no-action strategies are very popular among companies on the social web (Einwiller & Steilen, 2015; i.e., the company remains silent, makes only meaningless comments or takes no overt action). Furthermore, eWOM literature provides some evidence that consumers are more likely to listen to those who are not affiliated with the company (e.g., Colliander & Dahlén, 2011). On social media platforms, these brand advocates then defend a company from attacks by other consumers. The study at hand investigates the observer-related effects of multiple corporate- and consumer-response styles. More specifically, a one-factor between-subjects design (n = 728) manipulated different responses to a negative comment on a service failure publicized on a corporate Facebook fan page. Findings provide evidence that particularly accommodative online complaint handling can mitigate NeWOM effects and trigger favorable brand attitudes of NeWOM observers. Among alternative webcare strategies, empathetic communication including the acceptance of the failure and a simple public apology is an effective way to respond to negative Facebook comments. However, particularly responses including also an explanation as well as some kind of compensation can turn potential customers in actual customers of the brand. Findings further suggest that companies should perform their own webcare as defensive responses from brand advocates do not always leave a good impression. From a practical perspective, companies should consider webcare as a means not only to help current customers with their problems, but also to provide an outward-directed cue for the company’s customer-orientation.

• Wolfgang Weitzl(University of Vienna, Austria)
• Elisabeth Wolfsteiner(University of Vienna/Seeburg Castle University, Austria)
• Clemens Hutzinger(University of Innsbruck, Austria)