| Summary: | Social media platforms have been growing in importance for consumers and marketers, by allowing brands to build a closer relationship with their consumers. Nowadays, Facebook is used as tool to reach new consumers and engage with the current ones. Nevertheless, the facilitated interactions may also carry indirect costs since when dissatisfied with the brands’ service, consumers may publicly complain about it in social media. These negative electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) may influence other users who are exposed to negative contents and affect their brands’ perceptions. Despite the relevance of this topic, current studies have not yet sufficiently addressed it. Therefore, this investigation aims at understanding the impact that negative eWOM on brands’ Facebook pages have on the Consumer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) of those who are exposed to negative contents. While evaluating the effects on the CBBE, the following constructs are considered: Brand Attitude (BA), Perceived Brand Quality (PQ), Re-Patronage Intentions (RPI) and Negative WOM Intentions (NWOM). Additionally, to evaluate if the others’ support on Facebook had an impact on the constructs, the number of “likes” in the negative posts was considered as a moderator. Then, the online survey had a total of 335 respondents and the telecommunication industry was chosen for this study because of its high negative eWOM volume (Liu et al., 2017). The results indicate that the PQ, RPI and NWOM are significantly influenced by the negative valence of the post. However, the number of “likes”, do not moderate the effects. Limitations are discussed and future studies suggested.
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