Unwahre Kritik: Effektive Reaktionsstrategien von Unternehmen auf falsche, negative Kundenrezensionen

Abstract

Online customer reviews are a key concept that has become increasingly important in the modern era of online purchasing decisions. This opportunity to publicly present digital feedback to companies also plays a significant role in the e-commerce sector and in building trust between customers and companies. However, while authentic-looking reviews serve as a guide for consumers, false negative reviews can significantly undermine trust in products. These fake reviews present companies with the responsibility of developing strategies for effectively recognizing them in advance and responding to them effectively without damaging their own image. Although the current literature contains measures on how to identify false negative online reviews, there is a lack of concrete recommendations for companies on how to deal with them. The aim is to create a comprehensive analysis that includes a theoretical analysis in which broad topics such as Electronic Word-of-Mouth, online customer reviews and fake reviews are concretized. Based on these findings, suitable strategies are then examined with which different effects on consumers can possibly be recognized. Building on this, a quantitative analysis is carried out using a questionnaire, the answers to which are used to investigate this assumption of consistency. The following three reaction strategies, how companies can react to false negative reviews, were examined in detail: “Denying”, “Doubting” and “Accuse Customer”. Furthermore, the methodology was based on a quantitative survey with 116 participants who were exposed to a specific scenario using exploratory designs. The scenario only changed in connection with the respective strategy shown as a stimulus. Influences on nine different validated constructs were measured, such as “Product Attitude”, “Product Trust”, “Purchase Intention” and “Positive WOM-Intention”. Results using ANOVA analyses showed that the “Accuse Customer” strategy, i.e. directly blaming a customer, is seen as less effective in connection with the “Product Attitude” and “Product Trust” constructs than the other two types of response. Overall, it can therefore be summarized from the studies that companies can specifically use more objective and credible response strategies in order to maintain trust and attitudes towards products and limit the damaging effect of false negative reviews.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Wolfgang Jonas Weitzl (Supervisor)