Why and When Consumers Post Complaint Messages on Social Media? Conceptualizing Social Voice as a Distinct Complaining Behaviour

Abstract

Whereas extant literature treats social voice, that is, complaining via brand-managed social media pages, as a mere channel for existing consumer complaining behaviours (CCBs), like voice and negative word of mouth, this research aims to assess it as a distinct CCB. We draw from CCB theory and its associated taxonomies towards this goal. To identify the unique palette of motives and antecedents of social voice, we adopt a mixed-method research design by extracting archival social voice posts and interviewing social voicers across four sub-studies. Our analysis reveals the motives, CCB process stage, antecedents and other peculiarities associated with social voice, thereby demarcating it from other CCBs. Further, social voice is identified as a predominantly secondary-stage CCB, triggered by a blend of constructive and vindictive motivations. This work is among the few examining social voice from a consumer viewpoint and attempts to place it within the overall CCB framework as divergent from its standalone assessments. We thus pave a foundation for examining behavioural changes implied by the Internet and social media within the CCB landscape and provide managerial guidelines towards reducing primary social voice while optimizing its secondary-stage incidence.