Engaging bystanders in response to online trolling customer misbehavior through service organization response strategies

Managing customer misbehavior is crucial. Yet research regarding the management and response towards one specific customer misbehavior type, online trolling, has not been thoroughly considered. Three studies, including a field study, online experiments and critical incident technique (n = 777) explored whether, and why, customers (bystanders) may come to the aid of a service organization being trolled. This research examines the impact of troll type (hypocriticize and aggress) and service response strategy (deny, diminish, and apology), on the appraisal process of bystanders and their subsequent engagement behaviors. Results show that bystanders are more likely to support a service organization that is a victim of a hypocriticize troll in an offline setting through repurchase intentions. The results also show that when the service organization is a victim of an aggress troll, they should employ a deny crisis communication strategy to gain online support from bystanders. When the service organization, however, is a victim of a hypocriticize troll, an apology crisis communication strategy should be used. Results further reveal that attribution and negative moral emotions act as key serial mediators. The nature of attribution and negative moral emotions are also shown to be weaker for service organizations with higher level of reputation. • Examines bystander support for service firms targeted by online trolling. • Tests troll type and crisis response strategy across four empirical studies. • Finds denial strategy most effective for aggress trolls, apology for hypocriticize. • Reveals attribution and moral emotions mediate bystander engagement. • Shows organizational reputation buffers negative effects of trolling.