Corporate conflict management on social media brand fan pages

A recent development in the literature on social media brand fan pages is the investigation of hostile consumer-to-consumer interactions. Existing research has thus far concentrated on the reasons why consumers engage in such online conflicts. In comparison, this study focuses on how online conflicts can be best managed. Based on direct observations of six brand fan pages on Facebook, we offer a first conceptualisation of corporate conflict management strategies. Our results reveal five main conflict management strategies: non-engaging, censoring, bolstering, informing and pacifying. By drawing on existing suggestions from the marketing literature, we provide managerial implications and suggest avenues for future research.