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

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Al Balawi, Ramah; Hu, Yuheng; Qiu, Liangfei
• 署名单位: City University of New York (CUNY) System; Baruch College (CUNY); University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Chicago; University of Illinois Chicago Hospital; State University System of Florida; University of Florida
• 刊物名称: INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7047
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.2022.1159
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 442-462
• 关键词: word-of-mouth; product-harm crises; empirical-analysis; perceived justice; IMPACT; online; satisfaction; time; reputation; responses

摘要

In this study, we investigate the effect of a brand crisis on the customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) efforts of brands on socialmedia. 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.