Corporate conflict management on social media brand fan pages

Dineva, Denitsa Petrova; Breitsohl, Jan; Garrod, Brian

Abstract

A recent development in the literature on social-media brand fan pages is the investigation of hostile consumer-to-consumer interactions. Existing research has thus far concentrated on the reasons why consumers engage in such online conflicts. In comparison, this study focuses on how online conflicts can be best managed. Based on direct observations of six brand fan pages on Facebook, we offer a first conceptualisation of corporate conflict management strategies. Our results reveal five main conflict-management strategies: non-engaging, censoring, bolstering, informing and pacifying. By drawing on existing suggestions from the marketing literature, we provide managerial implications and suggest avenues for future research.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 23, 2017
• Online Publication Date: May 30, 2017
• Publication Date: Jun 13, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 15, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 15, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Marketing Management
• Print ISSN: 0267-257X
• Electronic ISSN: 1472-1376
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 9-10
• Pages: 679-698
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257x.2017.1329225
• Keywords: conflict resolution, brand community, corporate governance, social media, consumer aggression
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1506004
• Contract Date: Aug 15, 2019