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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Engaging bystanders in response to online trolling customer misbehavior through service organization response strategies
International Journal of Information Management, Vol.85, pp.1-13
2025
Abstract
Managing customer misbehavior is crucial. Yet research regarding the management and response towards one specific customer misbehavior type, online trolling, has not been thoroughly considered. Three studies, including a field study, online experiments and critical incident technique (n = 777) explored whether, and why, customers (bystanders) may come to the aid of a service organization being trolled. This research examines the impact of troll type (hypocriticize and aggress) and service response strategy (deny, diminish, and apology), on the appraisal process of bystanders and their subsequent engagement behaviors. Results show that bystanders are more likely to support a service organization that is a victim of a hypocriticize troll in an offline setting through repurchase intentions. The results also show that when the service organization is a victim of an aggress troll, they should employ a deny crisis communication strategy to gain online support from bystanders. When the service organization, however, is a victim of a hypocriticize troll, an apology crisis communication strategy should be used. Results further reveal that attribution and negative moral emotions act as key serial mediators. The nature of attribution and negative moral emotions are also shown to be weaker for service organizations with higher level of reputation.
Details
- Title
- Engaging bystanders in response to online trolling customer misbehavior through service organization response strategies
- Authors
- Aimee Riedel (Corresponding Author) - Griffith UniversityRory Mulcahy - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Business and Creative IndustriesAmanda Beatson - Queensland University of TechnologyByron Keating - Queensland University of Technology
- Publication details
- International Journal of Information Management, Vol.85, pp.1-13
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2025.102957
- ISSN
- 1873-4707; 0268-4012
- Copyright note
- © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991148539002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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