Corporate Responses to the Coronavirus Crisis and their Impact on Electronic‐Word‐of‐Mouth and Trust Recovery: Evidence from Social Media

ABSTRACT: Abstract This study examines how corporate responses to service failure, caused by the coronavirus (COVID‐19) crisis, influence electronic‐word‐of‐mouth (E‐WoM) and trust recovery around lockdown, using multiple data sources. A dataset of 398 valid COVID‐19 announcements from 50 UK food retailers posted on the social media platform Twitter, and 21,960 consumer comments associated with these announcements, are analysed using content analysis and social media analytics, respectively. In Study 1, we test the effects of corporate crisis response strategy (defensive vs. offensive) and response framing (emotional vs. rational) on consumer E‐WoM (measured as ‘consumer sentiment’). The results reveal that using a defensive corporate response strategy with emotionally framed announcements leads to

SUBMITTER: Wang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8251100 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature