Ever since the creation of Web 2.0, there has been a seismic shift in how businesses advertise and promote their brands. Social media has birthed a new platform for people and organizations to interact with each other to pass information and opinions or accounts of experiences with products or services. As more consumers gravitate towards social media, firms are leveraging this sensation to engage and forge relationships with individuals which in most cases positively influence consumers’ purchase decisions. However, when some customers are dissatisfied with services or products, they engage in social media negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) which could impact a brand’s reputation, the consumer’s purchase intention and ultimately the firm’s bottom line. In the first study, 118 undergraduate students were surveyed, and empirical evidence was found to support mediating effects of brand reputation on the relationship between social media and purchase intention and moderating effects of brand engagement on the relationship between social media NWOM and brand reputation. In the second study, scenarios were presented to undergraduate students to investigate the impact of social media NWOM on small/local businesses vs. large chain businesses, the difficulty of recovery for small/local businesses, the NWOM correlation of switching behavior after product/service failure, and responses from a firm after a product/service failure. The third study replicated the findings from study two using a more diverse sample instead of students. The study expanded and explored why trust and recovery levels differ in large chain versus small/local businesses. Results indicated that small businesses suffered more from the failure in service/product but made a larger surge in trust than large chain businesses. Keywords: Negative-word-of-mouth, social media, brand engagement, business failure recovery, brand trust, switching behavior / Business Administration/Marketing

Canais de marketing proliferaram nos últimos anos. Por meio da integração de canais virtuais, as vendas de varejistas tradicionais se expandiram. Num ambiente multicanal, os consumidores podem se movimentar facilmente entre diferentes canais. O free-riding acontece quando os consumidores realizam pesquisa on-line ou em sites de comparação de preços e acabam realizando a compra em outro varejista não pesquisado. O cruzamento entre canais pode levar a perdas para o varejista e se torna questão-chave do varejo multicanal na retenção do consumidor. Lançando luz sobre esta questão foi utilizado um modelo teórico originário da geografia humana, o paradigma Push-Pull-Mooring para explicar o comportamento de alternância do consumidor. Este estudo propõe um modelo teórico para explicar o comportamento de alternância do consumidor e o impacto na intenção de free-riding. O modelo final apresentou antecedentes para autoeficácia (push): a experiência prévia com internet e a satisfação em free-riding; para retenção na firma (mooring): o alto custo de mudança e a busca de variedade e, para atratividade do varejo tradicional (pull): qualidade percebida, risco percebido e satisfação com loja física. Foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa e quantitativa do tipo survey, aplicada em consumidores com experiência de compra na internet, e modelagem pela análise de equações estruturais. Os resultados empíricos revelam efeito mediador para a variável atratividade do varejo por meio do alto risco percebido na interação com lojas virtuais. Há efeitos moderadores dados pela idade, gênero, renda, busca de informação e hábito de compra. Há fortes evidências de motivação para retenção na firma. / Marketing channels have proliferated in recent years. Through integration of on-line channel, sales of traditional retailers have expanded. In a multichannel environment, consumers can move easily between different channels. Free-riding occur when consumers perform on-line search or consult price comparison sites and end up performing purchase at a retailer not searched before. The crossover between channels can lead to losses for the retailer and becomes one the main issues of multichannel retailing in the area of consumer retention. To shed some light on this issue, a theoretical model from the literature on human geography was used, the Push-Pull-Mooring paradigm to explain the switching behavior of consumers. This study proposes a theoretical model to explain the switching behavior and its impact on free-riding. The final model presents antecedents to self-efficacy (push): previous experience with internet and satisfaction in free-riding; with-in firm lock-in (mooring): the switching costs and the variety seeking; and attractiveness to the competitor\'s offline retail store (pull): perceived quality, perceived risk and satisfaction with offline stores. A qualitative and quantitative survey research was applied to consumer regarding their shopping experience with the internet. The technique of structural equation modeling was performed. The empirical results reveal mediating effect of with-in firm lock-in when the consumer realizes that he/she is serviced on his/her need for variety of products and brands. The mediating effect of attractiveness of competitor\'s offline store is given by perception of satisfaction with retail stores and perceived high risk in interacting with on-line stores. Moderating effects were also found: age, gender, income, information search and buying habit. There is strong evidence of motivation for with-in firm lock-in.

Canais de marketing proliferaram nos últimos anos. Por meio da integração de canais virtuais, as vendas de varejistas tradicionais se expandiram. Num ambiente multicanal, os consumidores podem se movimentar facilmente entre diferentes canais. O free-riding acontece quando os consumidores realizam pesquisa on-line ou em sites de comparação de preços e acabam realizando a compra em outro varejista não pesquisado. O cruzamento entre canais pode levar a perdas para o varejista e se torna questão-chave do varejo multicanal na retenção do consumidor. Lançando luz sobre esta questão foi utilizado um modelo teórico originário da geografia humana, o paradigma Push-Pull-Mooring para explicar o comportamento de alternância do consumidor. Este estudo propõe um modelo teórico para explicar o comportamento de alternância do consumidor e o impacto na intenção de free-riding. O modelo final apresentou antecedentes para autoeficácia (push): a experiência prévia com internet e a satisfação em free-riding; para retenção na firma (mooring): o alto custo de mudança e a busca de variedade e, para atratividade do varejo tradicional (pull): qualidade percebida, risco percebido e satisfação com loja física. Foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa e quantitativa do tipo survey, aplicada em consumidores com experiência de compra na internet, e modelagem pela análise de equações estruturais. Os resultados empíricos revelam efeito mediador para a variável atratividade do varejo por meio do alto risco percebido na interação com lojas virtuais. Há efeitos moderadores dados pela idade, gênero, renda, busca de informação e hábito de compra. Há fortes evidências de motivação para retenção na firma. / Marketing channels have proliferated in recent years. Through integration of on-line channel, sales of traditional retailers have expanded. In a multichannel environment, consumers can move easily between different channels. Free-riding occur when consumers perform on-line search or consult price comparison sites and end up performing purchase at a retailer not searched before. The crossover between channels can lead to losses for the retailer and becomes one the main issues of multichannel retailing in the area of consumer retention. To shed some light on this issue, a theoretical model from the literature on human geography was used, the Push-Pull-Mooring paradigm to explain the switching behavior of consumers. This study proposes a theoretical model to explain the switching behavior and its impact on free-riding. The final model presents antecedents to self-efficacy (push): previous experience with internet and satisfaction in free-riding; with-in firm lock-in (mooring): the switching costs and the variety seeking; and attractiveness to the competitor\'s offline retail store (pull): perceived quality, perceived risk and satisfaction with offline stores. A qualitative and quantitative survey research was applied to consumer regarding their shopping experience with the internet. The technique of structural equation modeling was performed. The empirical results reveal mediating effect of with-in firm lock-in when the consumer realizes that he/she is serviced on his/her need for variety of products and brands. The mediating effect of attractiveness of competitor\'s offline store is given by perception of satisfaction with retail stores and perceived high risk in interacting with on-line stores. Moderating effects were also found: age, gender, income, information search and buying habit. There is strong evidence of motivation for with-in firm lock-in.

網路使用者對社群網站的依賴日漸加深，同時，使用者卻在不同社群服務供應商之間不斷轉換，綜觀過去研究，多著眼於服務供應商與使用者的關係，有鑑於此，本研究欲探討影響社群網站消長的主要因素，進而修正既有轉換行為模式，發展社群網站轉換行為模式。本研究收集667份有效問卷，以鎖定效應(包括轉換態度、主觀規範、轉換成本、過去轉換行為、多方尋找傾向)、品質、易用度、個人化、網站形象、滿意度、涉入度、使用頻率、互動頻率為自變項，轉換意圖為中介變項，轉換行為為應變項，研究結果發現鎖定效應能有效預測社群網站轉換意圖與轉換行為，轉換意圖正向影響轉換行為，進一步發現個人化、網站形象、涉入度、網站使用頻率會直接影響轉換行為，並根據社群網站的特性，將轉換成本重新分類，以供未來社群相關研究參考。 / This research was done to study the switching behaviors of social networking sites users. Data was obtained via an empirical survey of 667 social networking sites users. The findings of this study indicate that mooring effects(including attitudes toward switching, subjective norms, switching costs, and variety-seeking tendencies) appears to have a stronger influence both on user’s switching intentions and switching behaviors, and a positive relationship between switching intentions and switching behaviors. Furthermore, the personalization, website image, involvement and frequency of use have direct influence on switching behaviors. According to the characteristics of social networking sites, this study classifies the categories of switching costs for further research.