When Crowdsourcing Proposition Rejection Reinforces Brand Relationship: An Abstract

This research, carried out in two studies, investigates the impact of rejection of participants’ submissions on the brands running a crowdsourcing project. In a first study, a longitudinal survey dealing with repeated measures before and after the announcement of the non-selection (ideation stage) was conducted. The study aims to identify the consequences on customer-brand relationships of attitudinal and behavioral responses to proposal rejection, focusing on brand trust, attitude, loyalty, attachment, emotional attractiveness, proselytism, and commitment, as well as the intention to diffuse negative word of mouth.

The findings reveal that rejection does not impact brand attachment, brand trust, brand attitude, and brand loyalty. However, participation in the contest, even if the submission is rejected, reinforces positively the emotional attractiveness of the brand, proselytism, and brand commitment. Subsequently, a second quantitative study goes further by comparing these variables at two stages: ideation stage (pre-selection round) and expansion stage (development and deepening phase leading to the finale). No significant differences between ideation stage rejection and expansion stage rejection were found for brand trust and attitude toward the brand. Nevertheless, the results reveal that participants rejected at the expansion stage rate the brand higher than those rejected at the ideation stage on the following variables: brand attachment, emotional attractiveness of the brand, proselytism, brand commitment, and brand loyalty. In both studies, no intention to diffuse negative word of mouth is revealed. These findings offer interesting managerial contributions for managers who can be fearful of engaging their brands in crowdsourcing activities. Indeed, brands initiating crowdsourcing projects gather new ideas to improve new product development and, simultaneously, reinforce their relationship with participants.