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The purpose of this study sets out to examine (1) how have conflicts been conceptualized and operationalized within the context of online consumption communities? (2) what are the main conflict management, resolution strategies and frameworks that have been identified? and (3) what are the gaps in the relevant body of work in terms of theoretical and methodological dimensions, and what implications do they have for future research.

This study adopts a systematic and multidisciplinary literature review of online conflicts. Following a descriptive and thematic content analysis, it examines 79 peer-reviewed scholarly articles of the past 20 years within 6 scientific databases.

The authors propose a literature-based conceptualization of online conflicts and a multi-level conflict resolution matrix based on the different governance structures and social control mechanisms investigated in extant research.

The originality of this study lies in the integrative and interdisciplinary view of online conflict in global consumption communities.

Online knowledge integration has been an important concern of the online knowledge community as it can lead to various positive outcomes of online knowledge coproduction. This paper identifies online knowledge integration factors by considering group heterogeneity and group interaction process.

Based on the categorization-elaboration model (CEM) and interactive team cognition (ITC) theory, a research model that reflects the antecedent's factors and mediating factors of online knowledge integration was developed and empirically examined based on data collected from 2,339,836 data extracted from Wikipedia.

Group interaction process plays an essential mediator role in online knowledge integration. Group knowledge heterogeneity negatively influences online knowledge integration and group experience heterogeneity positively, and they both positively promote online knowledge integration through group interaction process with different paths.

Our research concerns the OKC context in one setting (Wikipedia). We expect that the results will generalize to other OKC platforms.

The findings of the study could assist the online knowledge community's organizers to understand the motivational mechanisms of online knowledge integration. Group interaction process could be regarded as the key role to promote group wisdom and maintain group independence.

We advance the understanding of the online knowledge integration and gain a richer understanding of the importance of group interaction independence for online knowledge integration based on the agreement of group wisdom. It suggested keeping group interaction independence is an important aspect for highly online knowledge integration among heterogeneity groups.

This study extends CEM and ITC theory to the domain of knowledge integration context and finds the mechanism between group heterogeneity and online knowledge integration by introducing the group interaction process.

Drawing on the social learning theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents and consequences of users’ excessive online social gaming. Specifically, the authors develop a model to propose that observational learning and reinforcement learning mechanisms together determine excessive online social gaming, which further foster adverse consequences.

The model is empirically validated by a longitudinal survey among users of a popular online social game: Arena of Valor. The empirical data are analyzed using component-based structural equation modeling approach.

The empirical results offer two key findings. First, excessive online social gaming is determined by observational learning factors, i.e. social frequency and social norm, and reinforcement learning factors, i.e. perceived enjoyment and perceived escapism. Second, excessive online social gaming leads to three categories of adverse consequences: technology-family conflict, technology-work conflict and technology-person conflict. Meanwhile, technology-family conflict and technology-work conflict further foster technology-person conflict.

This study contributes to the literature by developing a nomological framework of excessive online social gaming and by extending the social learning theory to excessive technology use.

The issue is which third-party logistics to engage, and escalating customer complaints about service quality of third-party logistics (3PL) enhances the tendency of online retailers to switch to another 3PL. The current study seeks to investigate the factors influencing the satisfaction and switching intention of 3PL services among online sellers in Malaysia.

Applying a purposive sampling method, data were gathered via an online survey among online sellers. Initially, the system gathered 418 respondents, but only 311 were useable for further analysis. Since we operationalised the measures as composites, a combination of reflective and formative measurement in the study and the study focuses on explanatory and predictive purposes, partial least squares structural equation modelling with SmartPLS 4 was applied to test the model developed.

The results indicated that conflict handling had a positive effect on satisfaction, and satisfaction had a negative relationship with the switching intention of 3PL among the online retailers. Moreover, satisfaction and customer relationship management sequentially mediated conflict handling and switching intention, whereas CRM strengthens the negative relationship between satisfaction and switching intention.

The respondents only limit to the online sellers in Malaysia which based on purposive sampling method, thus the findings cannot be generalised to another countries.

The study offers insightful information for the managers of the 3PL in crafting a better policy to avoid switching behaviour among their customers. The conflict between customers and providers is unavoidable since consumers have unlimited demand and businesses have limited resources. The findings also benefit online sellers and 3PL service providers to create attractive marketing strategies for business sustainability.

The study developed a new model for the 3PL studies using the S-O-R model in introducing conflict handling and customer relationship management as the stimulus, customer's satisfaction as an organism and switching intention as a response. The study introduced single and sequential mediators also contributes to the S-O-R theory to predict the switching intention among the online sellers towards the 3PL providers. Another important contribution, customer relationship management, was confirmed to play a moderating role to influence the relationship between satisfaction and switching intention.

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.

The goal of this chapter was to provide an insight into rules and norms behind generation Y social media presence and inform future research through an exploration of the norms underpinning digitally mediated interaction and behavior among college-age students in Ireland.

The authors administered a questionnaire containing both closed- and open-ended questions among 131 first-year college students in Ireland, asking them to identify online behaviors and actions with a purpose of recognizing rules and norms that guided how they handled sharing, interaction, and mediated aspects of relationships in their use of mobile devices and social media platforms.

This study reveals that the driving force is the desire for and implementation of what can be called the norm of “Do No Harm Lest Others Do Harm to You.” This norm, rather than being driven by the Hippocratic Code of principled awareness is an expression of an acute consciousness of audience segregation and the need for self-protection in online interaction. The respondents were asked about the rules and norms that guided how they handled sharing, interaction, and mediated aspects of relationships in their use of mobile devices and social media platforms. Their responses demonstrated that millennials, in their everyday and intensive use of digitally mediated technologies, have begun to observe a new social contract of “Do No Harm Lest Others Do Harm to You” where internet becomes a space of entertainment and private messaging devoid of conflict and exchanges of opinion with others. Millennials seem to be closing down the scope of online interaction which in the long run can limit the function of internet as a social sphere where various issues, including political views, are exchanged and discussed.

The research is exploratory in nature and relied up on a relatively small sample size. For this reason, while the study produces new analytic frameworks, the findings could not be generalized. Additionally, there are certain features that appear to be specifically Irish such as a blurred line between perception of bullying and harmless having the “craic.”

This research makes explicit the harm mitigation and conflict avoidance strategies underpinning the use of social and digital media as it has been deployed and shaped by Irish millennials and discusses the consequences of their reluctance to engage in the public realm of the internet.

Broadly understood as repeated, intentional, and aggressive behaviors facilitated by digital technologies, cyberbullying has been identified as a significant public health concern in Australia. However, there have been critical debates about the theoretical and methodological assumptions of cyberbullying research. On the whole, this research has demonstrated an aversion to accounting for context, difference, and complexity. This insensitivity to difference is evident in the absence of nuanced accounts of Indigenous people's experiences of cyberbullying. In this chapter, we extend recent critiques of dominant approaches to cyberbullying research and argue for novel theoretical and methodological engagements with Indigenous people's experiences of cyberbullying. We review a range of literature that unpacks the many ways that social, cultural, and political life is different for Indigenous peoples. More specifically, we demonstrate there are good reasons to assume that online conflict is different for Indigenous peoples, due to diverse cultural practices and the broader political context of settler-colonialism. We argue that the standardization of scholarly approaches to cyberbullying is delimiting its ability to attend to social difference in online conflict, and we join calls for more theoretically rigorous, targeted, difference-sensitive studies into bullying.

The purpose of this article is to analyze how learning occurs in inter-organizational online communities, despite highly diverse even conflicting knowledge claims among participants.

We compared two inter-organizational communities in the domain of development aid through inductive qualitative case study.

We found that diverse communities proved more likely to yield conflicting knowledge claims in terms of expertise, value consensus and formal position. However, they were also better positioned for enabling mutual learning, than communities with a more uniform representation.

We provide theoretical insights for knowledge management by showing how the negotiation of knowledge claims facilitates mutual learning in inter-organizational online communities.

The findings are practically relevant for managers of knowledge-intensive organizations by showing how knowledge is shared in diverse online communities. The research also shows that the recognized challenges which diverse communities can yield are likely to be outweighed by their benefits: enabling mutual learning, generating useful expertise and a stronger negotiating position.

The paper conceives of a development approach that is more inclusive of non-dominant perspectives and solutions in decision-making processes, contributing to improved participation of marginalized people in decision-making processes.

We add a new dimension to knowledge management literature, showing how conflict and learning can be a mutually reinforcing process. Contrary to prior knowledge-based views, we found that a diverse community, with a higher concentration of conflicting knowledge claims, facilitated mutual learning more adeptly than a more uniform community. This is important for knowledge management theory and practice because it shows how inter-organizational communities can benefit from heterogeneity, and how conflict can enable and even strengthen mutual learning.

Channel conflicts between initial providers (IPs) and independent middlemen (IMM) can hinder the market penetration of IPs, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises with low brand awareness.

A case study is used to describe the introduction of an agent-friendly graphic user interface (AFGUI) as a compromise for the basic needs of the IP and IMM, both for the successful market entry of IPs and to encourage the IMM to accept original brand manufacturing (OBM), which can maximize the benefits of IPs after a successful product/service launch.

This case study shows that the AFGUI significantly contributes to increasing the IMM’s OBM selection. Comparing the “before AFGUI introduction” group to the group of IMMs who have been SeaHerb’s – a manufacturer of brown seaweed extract – IMM for fewer than three years shows that the latter group’s OBM selection can positively affect the order amount.

The AFGUI can integrate traditional offline distribution channel systems into online distribution systems. Regarding the AFGUI’s functional effectiveness for preventing fake sellers and fake products, further research on its adoption by online platform providers (e.g. Amazon and eBay) is recommended.