Webcare innovation involving bystanders in cross-cultural contexts

Dissatisfied customers worldwide increasingly turn to social media to voice public online complaints after service failures. While research on innovation concerning webcare has gained momentum in the past few years, studies on cultural influences especially involving consumers from emerging markets remain scarce. This pioneering study shows that complainants’ recovery expectations and brand reactions are not only influenced by different types of prior webcare promises but also by bystanders’ online comments. The results from a cross-cultural online experiment with participants from India and the USA suggest that complainants align their reactions quite differently to bystander comments. Following a non-accommodative promise, individualists show more positive brand intentions after positive comments than negative comments. Interestingly, collectivistic complainants show the opposite reaction. Thus, this research contributes to the service innovation stream concerning emerging markets by investigating through the novel lens of culture by utilizing under-researched consumers.