Negative reviews: Formation, spread, and halt of opportunistic behavior.

Studies have shown that companies conduct compensation strategies in times of service failure to enhance recovery satisfaction and purchase intention. The role of compensation strategy in individuals’ propensity to leave fake negative reviews, however, has not been well studied. Accordingly, the present conceptual study addresses this gap. First, we present how customers’ deviant behavior is the result of companies’ service recovery strategies (i.e., compensation strategy) themselves. Next, we present how deviant behavior spreads out in a network and then comes to a halt. The paper concludes with a presentation of the conceptual model of the manifestation of individuals’ online deviant behavior. The research is important from both theoretical and managerial perspectives. From a theoretical outlook, this study adds to the literature on the dark side of guest services by investigating deviant behavior of customers and their strong ties. The research provides practitioners with a new perspective on how their service recovery strategy of compensation can lead to individuals displaying online deviant behavior and how they should address the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]