Service failures in times of crisis: An analysis of eWOM emotionality

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt consumer experiences as well as service operations. Despite the magnitude of this exogenous shock, little is known about the pandemic’s impact on consumers. Building on engagement theory, this study examines consumers’ emotional responses to service failures on social media. Contributing to the brand equity literature, we test whether electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) emotionality is contingent on brand strength. To do so, we analyzed 327,205 tweets directed at airline brands over the first 12 months of the pandemic in addition to data from a nonaffected period. The models show that consumers’ overall emotionality in tweets was lower during the pandemic than before it. Over the course of the pandemic, levels of joy were lower while levels of sadness and anger were more prominent in tweets directed at weaker brands. Thus, brand strength still acts as a “buffer” if service failures are caused by exogenous shocks.