在线消费者投诉对产品销量的影响机制：召回的中介作用

Abstract

The automotive industry is characterized by high information asymmetry, and online consumer complaints serve as an important information source for both potential consumers' purchase decisions and manufacturers' detection of quality defects. This paper observes that a large number of online consumer complaints can trigger manufacturer defect investigations and lead to vehicle recall events, and both online consumer complaints and vehicle recall events are factors affecting vehicle sales. Based on dual-process theory and signaling theory, this paper proposes that the three are interconnected, with vehicle recall events playing a mediating role in this influence path. This study collects China's vehicle recall announcement data, vehicle sales data, and online consumer complaint data from 2010 to 2019, and explores the relationships among complaints, recalls, and sales. The findings reveal: (1) A higher volume of online consumer complaints is actually beneficial to product sales and positively promotes the issuance of recall announcements; (2) Complaints with more concentrated content topics reduce the credibility of the text, negatively affecting both sales and recalls; (3) A greater presence of negative emotional words in complaint texts is more likely to reduce sales but less likely to trigger recalls; (4) Vehicle recalls play a mediating role in the influence path of online consumer complaints on sales.