Understanding the effects of firms' unresponsiveness on social media toward customer feedback on customers' engagement: the impact of ethnicity

Purpose This article explores how firms' unresponsiveness to Black customer feedback influences Black (vs. White) customers' perceived firm-based discrimination and brand engagement. Design/methodology/approach Two experimental studies (Study 1(N1) = 254) and Study 1(N2) = 484) are conducted to test the modeled relationships. The data are analyzed using ANOVA, PROCESS Model 4 and PROCESS Model 7. Findings The findings suggest that though perceived discrimination remains modest in all conditions, Black (vs. White) respondents report higher perceived discrimination when the firm fails to respond to a Black customer's negative or neutral (but not positive) brand-related feedback on social media. The results also indicate that Black (vs. White) customers exhibit lower engagement through perceived discrimination in the case of the firm's unresponsiveness to a Black customer's negative and neutral (but not positive) brand-related feedback regardless of the manager's race. Originality/value Prior research on intercultural service encounters and ethnic differences in consumer engagement on social media are combined to examine the relationship between customer race and perceived discrimination based on the firm's unresponsiveness to customers' social media posts. Research limitations/implications Manipulations were created based on a fictitious e-tailer. Thus, it is recommend that future researchers examine the extent to which the findings hold for existing (r)etailers. In addition, future studies using secondary data could provide additional evidence for the findings. Practical implications Managerial attention is accentuated among customer feedback responsiveness, engagement and perceived firm discrimination. Managers are encouraged to adopt communication strategies that complement the firm's strategy and social media presence.