Information credibility and organizational feedback; a solution to plethora of consumer advocacy, brand avoidance and community usefulness

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of consumer advocacy on community usefulness and brand avoidance. Moreover, the study scrutinizes the mediating role and impact of organizational feedback/response and moderating role of information credibility. Design/methodology/approach The explanatory and cross-sectional research design was used in the study. Primary data were collected from broadband internet users and 249 responses gathered across the country. The study sample comprises of individuals sharing unfavorable service experiences on social media. Findings The key findings of the study highlight that consumer advocacy is a type of complaining method, which is used to help other society members; hence, there is a strong relationship among consumer’s advocacy and society’s usefulness. Brand avoidance is the outcome of stronger reactions by consumer advocates and through efficient organizational feedback, the impact of advocacy can be mitigated. Moreover, the study found that effective organizational explanations can be a useful remedy to brand avoidance. Furthermore, the research revealed that information credibility does not moderate the relationship between consumer advocacy and brand avoidance. Practical implications The study findings will help practitioners in determining effective strategies to restrict and control brand avoidance. Originality/value The social side of consumer argumentative behavior is still an under-research area, which is addressed in the paper. This is the unique study, which explores the mediating impact of organizational feedback on consumer advocacy, brand avoidance and usefulness for society in the implicit perspective.

Dual judgment processing in feedback: opening Pandora’s box

Purpose In this commentary, the authors follow DeNisi and Sockbeson’s suggestions to reintegrate the organizational feedback and feedback-seeking literatures. They build on and extend their theorizing by suggesting a framework of simultaneous dual judgment processing in both feedback-seeking and organizational feedback interventions.. Design/methodology/approach In the model, evaluation salience plays a role in how performance information is stored (i.e. as online judgments or loose memories), and rater motivation will determine to what extent the rater will deliberately use the stored information to give feedback. Findings The authors clarify some of the implications of the model for the accuracy of the feedback given, as well as how the cognitive methods that are used can be one of the explaining mechanisms in the link between feedback and performance. Originality/value This dual judgment processing approach accounts for the true complexity of the process of organizational feedback that has been largely ignored in past research.