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Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, one dark social-media phenomenon in particular has experienced a significant rise: consumer-to-consumer (C2C) conflicts, i.e. consumers who verbally attack each other in response to COVID-19 service failures. The aim of this paper is to uncover the sources of such conflicts and to gain an insight into the corresponding conflict moderation strategies that international brands adopt.

The methodology consists of non-participatory netnographic observations of 13 national, international, and global online brand communities (OBCs) on Facebook. The authors use purposeful sampling to collect relevant data on conflict sources and brand moderation strategies during COVID-19 service failures and a hybrid approach to thematic analysis to derive distinct themes from these data.

The paper identifies five C2C conflict sources: brand attack, brand dissatisfaction, brand skepticism, brand contention and brand defense; these are then classified as having either an individualistic (self-oriented) or collectivistic (other-oriented) orientation. The authors also uncover several moderation strategies: non-engaging, automated, bolstering, asserting (direct, indirect) and informing (factual, empathetic, apologetic), which are broadly categorized into two levels based on their passive vs active approach and authoritative vs cooperative orientation. The paper further highlights that brands adapt their moderation strategies to specific sources of C2C conflicts, thereby producing a range of OBC outcomes.

The study's empirically informed framework comprising sources of undesirable conflicts and brand moderation strategies offers a practical tool that can aid marketing managers in nurturing civil C2C engagement and interactive behaviors in their OBCs. By adopting our framework, brand and marketing practitioners can tailor their communication strategies toward different sources of C2C conflict and minimize their adverse consequences, thus, fostering an overall constructive OBC engagement.

The authors offer a novel framework to international marketing research, consisting of C2C conflict sources and corresponding moderation strategies that take place in response to service failures during the COVID-19 pandemic. These insights, in turn, inform international marketers about new ways of transforming the dark side of OBCs into a source of competitive advantage based on real-world brand practice.

Research into the dark side of online brand-managed communities (OBCs) and, specifically, consumer-to-consumer (C2C) conflicts within this context are scarce. This paper aims to explore the different forms of C2C conflicts in OBCs, measure their direct impact on observing consumers and brands and investigate their appropriate moderation by exclusively focusing on two actors: brands versus consumers.

This research adopts a sequential exploratory approach. First, the authors capture different forms of C2C conflict via netnographic observations of five brand-managed communities. Second, the identified forms of C2C conflict are used in an online experiment to examine their impact on OBCs’ social and commercial outcomes. Third, further two online experiments were used to assess how brand versus consumer conflict moderators impact perceived credibility and conflict de-escalation.

The authors uncover three prominent forms of C2C conflict based on whether conflict occurs between supporters, non-supporters or outsiders of the OBC. The authors further show that these affect consumers’ engagement behaviours and emotional responses, while brands suffer from diminished credibility and could be targets of unfavourable electronic word-of-mouth. Finally, for managing C2C conflict, the findings confirm that brands are perceived as more suitable, while under certain conditions consumers can also be viewed as appropriate moderators.

This research used a range of participant self-selected brands and is limited to brand-managed (as opposed to consumer-managed) communities on Facebook. While beyond the scope of this paper, the dynamics for consumer-managed communities may differ.

This article offers guidance to marketing practitioners on the different nuances of undesirable consumer interactions in brand-managed communities on social media, their impact on customer engagement and brand perceptions and when/whether brands or consumers may be suited to moderating these.

This paper makes novel contributions to the literature on consumer (mis)behaviours and OBC management. The findings are among the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to examine the direct social and commercial consequences of C2C conflicts and to provide comparative insights into the appropriateness of two different moderators in OBCs.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) electronic commerce (e-commerce) is shaping contemporary retailing. Despite the fact that a large amount of C2C e-commerce is conducted in social media-based platforms (e.g. Facebook), it has remained an unexplored area of research, though social media as a commercial platform can result in differing customer value and, thus, has potential for consumer experiences that lie beyond the reach of traditional C2C e-commerce actors. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to identify and explore distinct consumer profiles of C2C e-commerce in social media.

Confirmatory factor analysis and cluster analysis are employed to analyze the data from a quantitative survey focusing on C2C e-commerce.

Four distinct consumer profiles are introduced and discussed: enthusiasts, bargain hunters, salvagers and apathetics. These profiles capture what kind of value consumers perceive in exchanging used goods with other consumers in Facebook.

The data were collected from one country. Cultural differences in how C2C e-commerce and the role of Facebook are perceived might influence the generalizability of the results. The data set was cross-sectional and based on self-reported data.

First, the study indicates that the social media can offer a unique platform for C2C e-commerce that may result in unique and differentiated consumption experiences. Second, firms should carefully analyze how their existing segments match the consumer profiles presented in this study (enthusiasts, bargain hunters, salvagers, apathetics) to assess future value creation potential and challenges. Third, traditional retailers should evaluate the possibility of acting as a platform for C2C commerce or other types of C2C interaction in order to offer their customers benefits that are characteristic for C2C e-commerce.

This study is among the first attempts to profile C2C e-commerce consumers in social media setting. Interestingly, the profiles differ not in terms of traditional consumer demographics, but on the basis of what kind of value they perceive. Altogether, they grant interesting empirical access to explore the potential and implications of social media-based C2C e-commerce.

Technology has advanced and led the revolution of the online e-commerce industry through various online platforms. These online platforms were integrated to enhance customer's shopping experience, promoting different business models including consumer-to-consumer (C2C) secondary e-commerce market. This new online business model has been gaining interest in both academia and industry due to potential opportunities and challenges to serve customers effectively. This study aims to draw upon the means-end theory to test a conceptual model to understand the role of engagement between different types of trust and satisfaction toward shopping on C2C e-commerce.

A quantitative survey method was developed to test the antecedents and mediator of C2C customer satisfaction. A panel service was used to collect the dataset (n = 294) to test the proposed extended means-end chain theory (MEC) model.

The authors found that the role of trust toward the platform provider and the third-party seller differs based on the perceived value (functional and emotional) and impact of trust on satisfaction. This study provides a rich conceptualization of an instrument for a C2C experience that can serve as a starting point for future research to investigate the antecedents and impacts of the C2C context.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed hypotheses further in a different context (e.g. country).

The paper includes implications for a guide to designing an effective online C2C retailing strategy.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how engagement serves different role depending on the trust consumers have toward the intermediary vs the seller, which has a subsequent effect on consumer's satisfaction.

Over the last decade, a “new” sharing economy has emerged. So far, the supply chain literature has focused on platforms delivering crowd-logistics services that connect businesses and consumers (B2C). The literature has paid little attention to platforms that facilitate products exchanges between consumers. This article aims to develop a first supply chain conceptualization for consumer-to-consumer (C2C) product exchanges stimulated by the sharing economy. How to conceptualize C2C product exchanges from an Supply Chain (SC) perspective? Do such C2C product exchanges form what might be called “sharing supply chains”? What are the characteristics of these sharing supply chains?

The authors rely on a single case study of Vestiaire Collective (VC), a C2C platform that links consumers buying and selling second-hand luxury goods. This case was not selected because it is a typical C2C product platform, but because it is an “extreme” case (Yin, 2014) meeting Siggelkow's “talking pig” criterion (2007).

The authors demonstrate that VC intermediates a “sharing supply chain”, whose features differ from forward and reverse supply chains. The authors stress that strong physical intermediation is crucial in this extreme case. The authors then contrast this extreme case with other forms of sharing supply chains to identify the variables leading to these alternative configurations. Finally, the authors develop theoretical propositions regarding the physical intermediation role that these platforms may play.

The authors' article extends the scope of the supply chain concept by identifying sharing supply chains alongside other types of chains. The article also points to the strategic role of SC dimensions in the sharing economy. The authors hope that this article will lead to further research on sharing supply chains.

This paper aims to investigate the consumer motivation to buy products on consumer-to-consumer (C2C) communities on social networking sites (SNSs). These transactions involve no intermediation or payment of fees by any party. The phenomenon is in contrast with the traditional C2C transactions, on websites such as eBay, where the company website facilitates the transaction between consumers, charges a fee to sellers and provides limited information about buyers and sellers.

Drawing from media richness theory and social capital theory, this paper thus proposes and empirically tests a theoretical model developed using data collected from people making transactions on these communities that synthesize the motivations behind consumers’ intention to buy.

The results indicate that the media richness of the Facebook platform increases the social capital and sense of virtual community among users, which further impacts the purchase intentions of users. Social capital alone does not lead to purchase intention and indirectly impacts purchase intentions through the trust dimension.

This study contributes to theorizing the role of the platform, social capital and sense of virtual community in buying behavior on SNSs and provides valuable new insights into these constructs for the brand managers on social media sites.

Existing research on social commerce does not hold true for C2C communities on SNSs. This paper provides a new perspective into these communities through the lens of media richness and social capital constructs as antecedents of purchase intentions on these communities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that reference prices and associated information sources (websites that consumers use to explore and their friends who have similar perspectives on value) have on deal evaluation and intention to disseminate electronic word of mouth (eWOM).

A stratified survey is conducted to empirically test the relations between reference prices, associated information sources (the top five Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) websites and top five Facebook friends with similar perspectives and values on consumption), deal evaluation, and eWOM intention. The study uses a Facebook API to help participants pick five Facebook friends to act as their favorite sources for advice on shopping.

The results suggest that consumers’ deal evaluations (as shaped by the recency effects of previous exposure to prices and the influence of Facebook friends and C2C websites) have carry-over effects on their eWOM intentions. The influence of Facebook friends and C2C websites on deal evaluation is as powerful as that of reference price, especially concerning the mean and the lowest prices.

The findings encourage marketers to invest their resources in targeting online groups, and suggest that C2C website marketers should set their offer prices between the mean and the lowest prices.

This study extends prior research on the motives for eWOM dissemination and elaborates an approach to initiate eWOM intention through deal evaluation.

This study aims to investigate whether the antecedents of co-creation influence braggart word-of-mouth (WoM) in a participative leisure context, theorising the concept of co-created food well-being and highlighting implications for interactive experience co-design.

A sequential mixed-method approach was used to test a theoretical model; 25 in-depth interviews with cooking class participants were conducted, followed by a post-experience survey (n = 575).

Qualitative results suggest braggart WoM is rooted in active consumer participation in co-designing leisure experiences. The structural model confirms that participation in value co-creating activities (i.e. co-design, customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction), alongside perceived support from service providers, increases consumer perceptions of co-creation and stimulates braggart WoM. Degree of co-creation and support from peers mediate some relationships.

Limited by cross-sectional data from one experiential consumption format, the results nevertheless demonstrate the role of active participation in co-design and C2C interactions during value co-creation. This implies that co-created and co-designed leisure experiences can intensify post-consumption behaviours and potentially enhance food well-being.

The results highlight that integrating customer participation into service design, while also developing opportunities for peer support on-site, can stimulate braggart WoM.

Extends burgeoning literature on co-creation and co-design in leisure services. By encouraging active customer participation while providing support and facilitating C2C interactions, service providers can enhance value co-creation, influencing customer experiences and food well-being. Accordingly, the concept of co-created food well-being is introduced.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how types of virtual brand community (VBC) benefits influence VBC loyalty through specific types of interaction.

The study targeted 250 brand community users to conduct an empirical analysis using SPSS 19.0.

Consumers’ perceived benefits (functional, experiential, and symbolic) were found to be the leading variables in inducing consumer loyalty. Brand community managers should not focus only on the benefits offered by the brand community, but also on how these benefits can be associated with human-to-computer and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) interaction.

The virtual community (VC) has an important role as a marketing tool. As the VC within the virtual space has gradually been increasing, its importance has grown as well, therefore making research studies on heightening members’ brand community site loyalty important.

This study broadens and contextualizes our understanding of what type of VBC interaction can be further activated in the process of enhancing the members’ VBC loyalty, which is affected by consumers’ perceived benefits.

This paper seeks to investigate the effects of different influential factors on consumer perceptions of uncertainty for online shopping.

In this research, consumer perceptions of uncertainty have been divided into perceived commodity uncertainty and perceived seller's behavior uncertainty, and the influential factors concerned are experienced commodity attributes, online communication, buyer's comments, and the warrants of the consumer to consumer (C2C) operator. Based on the theoretical framework, this paper takes a structural evaluation model to analyze the research hypotheses.

Taking TAOBAO.com as an example, the empirical research results indicate that perceived commodity uncertainty can be reduced by all the influential factors directly, and the perceived seller's behavior uncertainty can be reduced by online communication. In addition, the results also show that the perceived seller's behavior uncertainty can significantly affect the buyers' will, and perceived commodity uncertainty can indirectly affect the buyers will through the perceived seller's behavior uncertainty.

Based on the empirical results, the paper argues that in order to effectively reduce the seller's behavior uncertainty and eliminate information asymmetry, the main issues C2C are faced with currently is to establish a more comprehensive protection mechanism and to develop more equitable trade rules.

Compared with previous research on risk and uncertainty, this paper provides experimental analysis of the consumer perceptions of uncertainty for online buyers. It reveals the effects of different influential factors on the perceived uncertainty of consumers, which would help to explain the online consumer's behavior. Furthermore, the results from this research can enrich the understanding of the theory of risk.