The effect of nWOM firestorms on South African retail banking

Purpose This study analysed the effect of online negative word-of-mouth (nWOM) firestorms in the retail banking sector. By understanding negative sentiment and sentiment recovery across an entire retail banking sector, the research exposed a unique view of banking in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach The study made use of both a sentiment and topic analysis of over 1.7 million social media posts in South Africa. The methodology made use of both NLP and human validation techniques to measure changes in social media sentiment during online firestorms. This measurement included each of South Africa's major retail banks over a twelve month period. Findings From the analysis, key trigger characteristics for these firestorms (product failures, service failures, social failures and communication failures) were categorised. In addition, the average duration of a firestorm was calculated and factors that impact sentiment recovery were explored. Originality/value The study was located in South Africa and, unlike firm level studies, researched nWOM for the whole retail banking sector. A theoretical footprint depicting the typical anatomy of a firestorm was derived in order to aid stakeholders to be more vigilant and better equipped to provide correct intervention in such times of crisis.