| Abstract [eng] |
Web 2.0 and new media channels not only provided new opportunities for companies to expand, but also allowed simple consumer communication (WOM) to become electronic word of mouth (eWOM). It is observed that in the scientific literature this communication is described as both positive and negative customer reviews. It is usually the negative reviews that gets the most attention from consumers and negatively affects their purchase, loyalty, etc. In this case, companies are forced to look for ways to reduce such negative effects. One of them is to provide a response. And although there are a number of studies related to the importance of response, all these studies focus on the general impact of corporate responses, but do not distinguish the applicability of the obtained results to a specific type of business (for example, for an e-commerce business that is completely dependent on its online image). There is also a lack of research that looks at corporate responses from two perspectives. For example, to be able to indicate whether there is a difference in the effect of corporate responses on consumers' attitude and intentions when they themselves write negative reviews and receive a response from companies versus when they see responses from companies written to other customers. Therefore, this master's thesis raises the following question: what is the impact of corporate responses in an e-commerce context on consumers when they write their own negative feedback and receive a response from a company and when they see a response from a company to others. The subject of this thesis: corporate responses to negative online reviews in virtual environments and its impact on consumers. And the purpose of this thesis: to theoretically and empirically identify the effect of corporate responses to negative online reviews on consumers' attitude and intentions. The master's final project consists of four parts. In the first part, the analysis of scientific research revealed that the impact of corporate responses to negative online reviews on consumers' attitude and intentions – obvious, and the topic itself is relevant. In the second part, a conceptual model was developed that includes the effect of corporate responses to negative electronic word of mouth on consumer' attitude and intentions. Based on this model, the third part consists of an empirical study using communication content analysis and semi - structured interviews. The fourth part of this thesis analyzed the results of the empirical research. The results showed that passive (no response) and defensive response strategies applied by e-commerce companies contribute to a more negative impact on consumer' attitude and intentions, while an active (accommodative) strategy contributes more to a positive impact. It also turns out that the effect of any of these response strategies becomes much more significant when consumers write negative reviews themselves and receive a response from the company. The results of this final master's thesis made it possible to provide recommendations for ecommerce companies that are constantly faced with negative eWOM. |
