It is a fact that the present online technologies have empowered consumers not only to share their positive service experiences they have had with a firm on the Internet, but also to express their negative views online via multiple platforms by using varied online communication features (OCFs) (e.g. status updates, comments, chats, reviews, and feedback forms). With that, this study employed the concept of online features affordances, such as response expectation, identifiability (of complainants), and content visibility, based on a novel conceptualization through the lens of uses and gratifications (U&G) theory from a varied perspective. Hence, by modelling consumers’ motivation to complain about brand via online in conjunction with the selected OCF affordances, this study investigated their joint impact on consumers’ emotions and intentions towards the defaulting firm upon making an online complaint. The data were analysed by using correspondence analysis and structural equation modelling approaches. As a result, this study revealed that consumers’ motivation to complain and their interactions with affordances (but not the affordances themselves) exemplify a significant effect upon influencing the intention towards the (defaulting) firm after disclosing a negative service incident. In particular, content visibility and response expectation appear to display an impact on redress-seeking and egoistic complainants, respectively. These findings, hence, provide relevant insights for firms to manage their complaint channels and to address online customer feedback in a more effective manner for mutual benefits. Furthermore, this study happens to be the first of its kind to weigh in OCFs as the concerned media and further proposes a design-based affordance view of OCFs in explaining their influence on both consumers and brands.

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.