Jaewon Lim and Jang Hyun Kim, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea

Crisis of product defect causes recalls, which not only causes financial loss but also devastates brand reputation. This study explores customers’ response to the twice recall of the Galaxy Note 7 in Korea. The authors examined the semantic networks of consumers comments from the Samsung official social media ‘Samsung Newsroom (blog and Facebook)’ in five time periods(i.e., release, first recall, recommendation to discontinue use, second recall, and compensation program). Customers in each period showed different emotional states which were positive in the first recall but negative in the second recall. Therefore, timely recall and factual communication is needed to the product-harm crisis management, but root cause investigation should be taken to avoid further recalls.

Galaxy Note7, Product harm crisis, Recall, Semantic network analysis