Collaborative Brand Attacks in Social Media: Exploring the Antecedents, Characteristics, and Consequences of a New Form of Brand Crises

摘要

Collaborative Brand Attacks (CBA) in social media are attacks, in which a large number of internet users consciously and jointly attack an organization, resulting in large amounts of negative user-generated content that is ultimately spread in the offline and online world. Synonyms for CBAs are "Shitstorms" or "Online Firestorms". The number of such collaborative brand attacks has increased during the last years, independent from the industry, brand, or country. Even large brands like BMW, Domino's pizza, or Chrysler have become victims of CBAs.