Why and When Consumers Post Complaint Messages on Social Media? Conceptualizing Social Voice as a Distinct Complaining Behaviour

Abstract Whereas extant literature treats social voice , that is, complaining via brand‐managed social media pages, as a mere channel for existing consumer complaining behaviours (CCBs), like voice and negative word of mouth, this research aims to assess it as a distinct CCB. We draw from CCB theory and its associated taxonomies towards this goal. To identify the unique palette of motives and antecedents of social voice, we adopt a mixed‐method research design by extracting archival social voice posts and interviewing social voicers across four sub‐studies. Our analysis reveals the motives, CCB process stage, antecedents and other peculiarities associated with social voice, thereby demarcating it from other CCBs. Further, social voice is identified as a predominantly secondary‐stage CCB, triggered by a blend of constructive and vindictive motivations. This work is among the few examining social voice from a consumer viewpoint and attempts to place it within the overall CCB framework as divergent from its standalone assessments. We thus pave a foundation for examining behavioural changes implied by the Internet and social media within the CCB landscape and provide managerial guidelines towards reducing primary social voice while optimizing its secondary‐stage incidence.