Antecedents of public reactions to supply chain glitches

Virtually all supply chains are at risk of glitches. Research suggests that supply chain glitches hurt a firm’s financial performance and evoke negative public reactions on social media. However, we know little about the drivers of public reactions to such adverse firm events. To generate new insights for academics and managers, we derive a set of hypotheses rooted in attribution theory and the triple bottom line literature. We empirically test our hypotheses by analyzing 215 supply chain glitches and 63 million associated tweets. We find stronger public reactions when people may attribute internal and local causes to a supply chain glitch. The impact of a glitch on the triple bottom line also influences the public reaction. Supply chain glitches related to more triple-bottom-line dimensions lead to more negative reactions in terms of both volume and sentiment. Anticipating that social media will play an even more vital role in the future and given that proactive measures are time-consuming, operations and supply chain managers should understand the effects of firm events on social media and adapt their risk management strategies accordingly.