the dark side of cocreation: how to deal with angry community members

The Dark Side of Co-Creation

How to deal with angry community members?Johannes Gebauer

Dr. Johann Füller

Innsbruck University School of Management

Special Interest Group Virtual Stakeholder Dialogue In Interactive Marketing39th EMAC Conference, Copenhagen

June 3rd, 2010

Johannes Gebauer and Johann Füller - The dark side of co-creation

How to deal with angry community members?

I am EXTREMELY disappointed with this contest : (

Send complaints to SPAR: [email protected] or [email protected]

mbo

Research Problem

http://www.bagdesign-contest.com/userDetails/index/userId/1129


Co-creation communities as approach to integrate enthusiastic

consumers into a company’s value creation processes for example into

new product development activities and marketing

(Füller 2010, Ogawa and Piller 2006, Nambisan and Nambisan 2008)

Designs, Insights

& RecruitingNew ProductsMarketingPR & Designs

Research Problem


Interacting with consumers can be risky

Research Problem


Research Questions

• For what reasons engage members of co-creation communities in

negative word-of-mouth due to disappointing experiences in the co-

creation process?

• How should community managers and affected companies react on

antagonism from a co-creation community in order to avoid damage

for the brand’s reputation?


Literature Review

The co-creation experience

• Users engage in virtual co-creation activities as they expect the participation to be rewarding for

them. (Füller 2010, von Hippel 2005a).

• Decisional control provides the user with a feeling of competence and leads to the perception of

the co-creation activity as a compelling experience. (Mathwick and Rigdon 2004)

• Consumers who co-create new products may become interested and attached to the product

as they become more familiar with it. (Belk 1988)

• They may even build some sort of relationship with the product, even before it is available on

the market yet. (Schlosser 2003)

• Enjoyable experience in co-creation have a positive influence on the participant’s attitude

towards the brand. (Methwick and Rigdon 2004)

• The enjoyable and rewarding experience also contributes to a positive customer relationship

and enforces customer retention. (Berry and Carbone 2007, Meyer and Schwager 2007, Pine

and Gilmore 1999)

• Participants of co-creation projects believe that companies are genuine and that they can be

trusted while enjoying their participation (Bagozzi and Dholakia 2006, Dholakia, Bagozzi and

Klein Pearo 2004, Schouten, McAlexander and Koenig 2007)


Literature Review

Word of mouth (WOM) in online communities

• WOM is a form of socially sharing one’s emotions. (Wetzer et al. 2007)

• People tend to articulate these emotions more likely to peers than to strangers. (Blodgett,

Granbois & Walters, 1993)

• Users tend to share positive and negative experiences with others if the topic is important to

them and they consider it also of interest to others. (East, Hammond and Wright 2006, Smith

et al. 2007)

• Users who post negative comments such as complaints and even defamation have had

negative experiences that usually go beyond sheer product failure and cause emotions such

as anger, frustration or irritation. (Wetzer, Zeelenberg and Pieters 2007).

• Posting negative consumer information on the Internet is a planned and effortful activity.

(Ward et al. 2002)

• WOM on the Internet is relevant for the brand image as negative WOM on the Internet has a

strong influence on offline WOM. (Brown et al. 2007)


Literature Review

Conflict Management

• Effective management of crisis as well as customer complaints is important for the

wellbeing of organizations. (e.g. Pearson and Clair 1998, Ulmer 2001, Fink 1989, Tan, Pan

and Lim 2005).

• Poor solicitation, handling, and analysis of complaints inevitably lead to substantial negative

consequences for a company such as unfavorable customer post-complaint reactions

like word of mouth. (Homburg and Fürst 2007)

• Rich and positive communication relationships with stakeholders on an ongoing basis are

important for crisis preparation as pre-crisis communication has a significant impact on the

perception and effectiveness of post-crisis communication. (Ulmer 2001)

• Consistency in the communication in order to reduce uncertainty, promptness in the

reaction and a clear determination and discussion of the responsibilities from the

organization’s perspective are important strategies for successful conflict management. (Ulmer

2001, McCole 2004)

• Admitting failures is unavoidable required in case it is to the point. (Coombs and Holladay

2008)

• Corporations also have the right to speak out and to challenge inaccurate and/or misleading

media coverage when their viability is threatened. (Hearit 1996)


Method

• Exploratory approach

• Single Case Study Research (Engelhardt 1989, Yin 2008)

• Case: SPAR Bagdesign Contest (Online Design Contest; Bretschneider et al.

2007, Piller and Walcher 2006, Walcher 2007)

• Data:

– online discussion on the web platform

– system data base (user, designs, comments, evaluations)

– email correspondence (community management)

• Researchers were engaged in the case as community managers (Action

Research; Baskerville et al. 2004; Susman et al. 1978)


SPAR Bag Designcontest

• online design contest for shopping

bags

• 8th of June – 27th of July 2009

• 5.382 bag designs

• 2.506 members

• 56.873 community evaluations

• 11.970 comments

• 558.891 page views

• 338.720 minutes residence time


Functionalities in the online design contest

Design overview Design upload

Detailed Design view with userCommunity


Designs from the contest


Jury Meeting


Results

For what reasons engage members of co-creation communities in negative

word-of-mouth due to disappointing experiences in the co-creation process?

• Participant of co-creation activities can become frustrated when the expected

outcome is inhibited (Berkowitz 1978)

• Perceived loss of control leads to a feeling of powerlessness and discomfort.

(Bandura 1997)

• Anger, frustration, and irritation seem to be related to negative WOM for goals of

venting and taking revenge (Wetzer et al. 2007)

Irritation“Absolutely rediculous !!! this is no.: 1 ?!?!

Was the jury drunk??? rakete “

“ehm, I don’t get it! Lame words set in

verdana.And this bag will be printed 1 million

times? ralle “

Frustration“I am EXTREMELY disappointed with this

contest : ( mbo “

“what a joke...Im really disappointed...

Anne94“

Revenge“Send complaints to SPAR: [email protected] or

[email protected] mbo“










Results

How should community managers and affected companies react on

antagonism from a co-creation community in order to avoid damage for the

brand’s reputation?

• A sound relationship with the community and a basis for justification (e.g. Terms

& Conditions of the contest) need to be built within the scope of pre-crisis

communication in order to be able to effectively manage critical incidents.

• Communication must be immediate, consistent and transparent in order to

display awareness, retain trust and to provide a feeling of control to the

community members.

• Determination and acceptance of responsibilities is a crucial aspect in the

communication with critical community members.

• The community management is required to act fair but self confident.

“Can you believe this setup of a competition?

They blocked me as mbo from posting any

comments & even threatened me with an

email. PLEASE SEND COMPLAINTS ABOUT

THIS CONTEST TO SPAR: [email protected] or

[email protected] bob”

“Hey bob, we did not block you - you can post

as much as you want as mbo, billybob, bob,

bobby, bobbilly or whatever bobdude you feel

like. Please do not double post, that's it.

diplomod”



Conclusion

1. There is a dark side to co-creation.

Antagonism of users in co-creation projects must not be ignored and indicates a necessity to act. Rightful

management of critical situations in an online community can lead to a positive perception of the co-creation

project.

2. Co-Creation communities are relevant stakeholders of organizations.

The relationship of co-creation communities respectively its members with the company initiating the co-

creation activity is characterized by equality. The according communication differs substantially from a one-to-

many approach. E.g. Companies who engage co-creation communities have to accept different, also negative

opinions.

3. Approaches in crisis management theory need to be adopted for co-creation communities.

Helpful approaches for managing critical issues such as the regarded case have been developed. Co-creation

activities such as online idea contests require an adoption of these approaches to the process of collaborative

creation and the online format.

Outlook

• Improvement of co-creation methods based on the discussed findings

• Further investigation of negative aspects of co-creation


Thank you for your attention!

Johannes Gebauer

Dr. Johann Füller

Department of Strategic Management,Marketing and Tourism

Innsbruck University School of ManagementUniversitätsstraße 15, 6020 Innsbruck

email: [email protected]

the dark side of cocreation: how to deal with angry community members

Business

cocreation community

cocreation process

virtual cocreation activities

risky johannes gebauer

enjoyable experience

angry community members

compelling experience

community managers