Interview with the authors of a current scientific study
What power do consumers have and how do brands deal with it? How is a shitstorm triggered? Can it be avoided? What are the potential consequences? There are many experiences of this. In the previous article, I reported on this in detail from my consulting practice. But really well-founded scientific studies on the subject of shitstorms (or, as it is called in English: collaborative brand attacks) are still few and far between. Through a personal contact on Facebook, I learned about a recently published joint study facebook data by The University of Michigan-Dearborn, Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, and Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg (as of October 2016; see also note at the end of this article). In an interview, the authors of the study, Björn Ivens, Nadine Kammerlander and Philipp Rauschnabel, answer my most burning questions.
Question: There have been very few scientifically based studies on the topic of communication crises in the social web. There are hardly any reliable figures on whether and to what extent a so-called shitstorm causes real damage to companies. What conclusion did you reach? Can a shitstorm endanger a brand economically?
Photo and short biography of Nadine Kammerlander
Nadine Kammerlander is a professor at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar. Her research and teaching focuses primarily on innovation and entrepreneurship in medium-sized and family-run businesses. Nadine Kammerlander has a degree in physics (TU Munich) and a doctorate in business administration (Otto-Friedrich University Bamberg).
Nadine Kammerlander: Shitstorms can have a negative impact on a company and a brand. Reputation can be damaged, customers turn away and turn to other brands. What makes matters worse is that the content of the shitstorm often remains archived on the Internet for a long time. Can this lead to a serious economic crisis? We can't say that and no one can. Because to do that, you would have to go back in time and look at and compare the company and its development without the shitstorm. That's not possible, of course. But the examples from our study show that companies would do well to understand shitstorms, avoid them if possible and react intelligently if necessary.