| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 資訊管理研究所 === 103 === During the political election period in Taiwan in Nov. 2014, this study observed significant effects caused by online firestorms: some candidates used appropriate responses to mitigate their effects or minimize the harm, some turned negative into positive support of their brand, but some candidates were unable to manage the crisis and lost their brand value. To date, few studies have noted the importance of negative WOM (NWOM) management in political election campaigns. Nor have studies noted the effects of online firestorms on brand value. This study undertakes research to seek answers to the following research questions: What is the uniqueness of online firestorms in a political election? And, how do candidates respond the online firestorm to retain brand value?
This study initially reviewed the literature on negative WOM and online firestorm, and consolidated these studies to formulate the forming process of an online firestorm. Then the study classified online political election firestorm cases into three categories including fault, defect, and counterforce slander, and analyzed the best responses in each situation. Next, the study applied Google Trend to measure the online firestorm and referred image restoration theory to form an understanding of the response of a brand manager. The study results show that for fault situation, the most useful strategies seem to be mortification, minimization the offensive feeling, and ignoring to respond to most offensive accusations. For defect situation, the most used strategies are insisting the main opinion and using attack strategy to evade the most offensive accusations. Last, for counterforce slander situation, most candidates used full denial, blame shifting and accuser attack strategies to prove their innocence.
Finally, the study further distinguished the difference between conventional business online firestorm and political elections online firestorm from several angles which include: online firestorm targets, causes, consumer reactions, initiatives, effects and dissemination.
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