The bright and dark of consumers’ online brand defending behaviors: exploring their enablers, realization, and impacts

ABSTRACT It is increasingly popular for Internet users to comment or criticize the products or services they have used or experienced. However, other consumers may not agree with or may even defend against these critics or comments. These consumers’ brand defending behaviors, especially in online contexts, may lead to Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) conflicts and damages on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Still, the concept of brand defending has not been fully established. Furthermore, researchers have not adequately explored how these behaviors are triggered and how these would affect the brand and other stakeholders. By conducting a netnographic case study on an aviation-related online community, we identified the enablers and styles of consumers’ online brand defending behaviors and their impacts on the brands, alongside the theoretical and practical implications.