Cultivating Customers’ Resilience to the Negative Word of Mouth: An Empirical Analysis of the Telecommunication Industry in Tanzania

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the relationship between social media brand engagement and resilience to negative word of mouth (RNWOM) when mediated by brand familiarity. Using stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theory, it is suggested that the dimensions of social media brand engagement act as a stimulus to drive responses like RNWOM directly and indirectly through brand familiarity as an organism. A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 505 customers in the telecommunications industry in Tanzania, and the data was analyzed using structural equation modelling in AMOS 21. The findings indicate that social media brand engagement dimensions are the drivers of brand familiarity; brand familiarity explains why and how customers develop RNWOM. Therefore, marketers should use social media brand engagement as a strategic tool to build brand familiarity, which can help customers improve their capabilities to resist negative information about brands.