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

Abstract

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.

Knowledge-based society and emerging disciplines: a correlation of academic performance

“…In the modern era, the growing popularity and use of internet have changed the way people search and share information. Thus, the reliability of the information strengthens the relationship between the interests of users and their usefulness (Abro et al , 2020). In addition, Bray and Major (2011) disclosed that the selection of well-known multidisciplinary journals improve academic research.…”

Factors stimulating value micro-businesses attribute to digital marketing technology (DMT) adoption

“…In the contemporary knowledge economy, the increasing use of digital media by consumers has emerged as one of the most pragmatic IT innovations that drives digital marketing (DM) and business growth [ 1 – 3 ]. The philosophy of digital and interactive marketing spans building competitive advantage in the contexts of meeting customers’ needs, creating customer values, and strengthening developer-customer contacts and interactional ties via digital distribution channels [ 4 – 6 ].…”

“…Further, given that modern technologies and IT innovations bridge the dichotomies of operating capabilities and gaps between different categories of businesses; most micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) leverage on digital marketing (DM) to speed up their operational development and growth [ 13 , 23 , 24 ]. This is common through the use of unattainable global resources to converse and carryout business activities with new and incumbent clients in a manner that integrates [ 3 , 25 , 26 ] and grows them in the client loyalty ladder [ 27 , 28 ]. Ideally, MSMEs supposedly need modern IT-innovations (in particular DM) to strengthen collaboration and real-time inter-and intra-firm information sharing, given their socio-economic roles and their financial difficulties [ 3 , 22 , 23 ].…”

“…This is common through the use of unattainable global resources to converse and carryout business activities with new and incumbent clients in a manner that integrates [ 3 , 25 , 26 ] and grows them in the client loyalty ladder [ 27 , 28 ]. Ideally, MSMEs supposedly need modern IT-innovations (in particular DM) to strengthen collaboration and real-time inter-and intra-firm information sharing, given their socio-economic roles and their financial difficulties [ 3 , 22 , 23 ]. Whereas majority of large organizations implement DM applications seamlessly because their business models and operations rely on the emergence of digital technologies [ 29 ], MSMEs are uncertain about the benefits and how, when, and to which extent to leverage from digital technologies [ 19 ].…”

“…In Nigeria and many other developing countries, most small businesses devote limited time to DMT [ 31 ] because of their (the businesses) short-term planning horizons and need for instant gains, either in terms of cost reduction or sales increase [ 32 ]. According to [ 3 ] limited resources coupled with the lack of skill and underlying network infrastructure, trusts, and security explain why most MSMEs traditionally respond to environment with software that have short-run or immediate benefits. Scholars posit that the ‘maturity models’ and approaches to assessing ‘digital readiness’ identify and highlight the best practices mostly in large organizations with little emphasis on small business context; thus, almost suggesting that MSMEs’ digitalization is an under-reflected phenomenon [ 33 ] even in the contemporary world of rapid surge in websites and online interactions within the value-chain [ 24 ].…”