A research paper co-authored by Professor LIU Zilong and his PhD candidate CHU Chaoqun from the School of Management Science and Engineering, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE), together with Professor LUO Xin (Robert) at Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Professor WANG Xuequn at the University of New Mexico, and Professor SONG Tingting at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has been published online in Production and Operations Management, one of the UTD 24 journals and a leading international journal in management. The paper, entitled “Response Efficiency versus Response Customization: An Examination of Firms’ Responses to Platform-Empowered Group Complaints,” lists Professor LIU as the first author, with Professor SONG and PhD candidate CHU as co-corresponding authors. This also marks the second PhD candidate supervised by Professor LIU to have a paper published in a UTD 24 journal.
The study focuses on platform-empowered (PE) group complaints, a service recovery model unique to China’s Internet industry. As consumer rights protection continues to evolve in the digital era, when multiple consumers encounter the same service failure and their rights are harmed, digital platforms have innovatively provided them with group complaints as a new rights-protection mechanism. On the one hand, group complaints can consolidate consumer demands and enhance consumers’ bargaining power, thereby increasing pressure on firms to respond promptly. On the other hand, heterogeneity in complainants’ losses and expectations raises the information-processing burden involved in resolution. To investigate this dilemma, the study examines the trade-off between response efficiency and response customization and argues that this trade-off evolves as group complaints develop over time. Based on a large-scale dataset from Tousu, a leading complaint platform in China, the study finds that, relative to individual complaints, group complaints paradoxically increase response time and decrease empathy and explanation in firms’ responses. Further analyses indicate that these effects depend on dynamic group size and dynamic need diversity. When dynamic need diversity is low, larger groups are associated with more standardized, efficiency-oriented responses, whereas when dynamic need diversity is high, larger groups are associated with slower but more customized responses. These findings offer valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying the influence of PE group complaints by identifying the conditions under which firms emphasize response efficiency versus response customization. The study also provides operational guidance for managing group complaints more effectively. Grounded in Chinese industry practices, the study advances an innovative theoretical framework, has gained widespread recognition among domestic and international scholars, and disseminates Chinese experience through a leading international journal.
This paper represents an interim research outcome of major projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 72293562 and 72293563) and a key project funded by the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 23AGL023). As the flagship journal of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), Production and Operations Management enjoys a distinguished reputation in the international management research community. This achievement contributes to DUFE’s Double First-Class Initiative, demonstrates the university’s commitment to advancing research at the frontiers of international scholarship, and adds a new representative output to the university’s international profile.
Written by: ZHU Han
Source: School of Management Science and Engineering
