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Social media complaints can be an alternative to market discipline

Nothing inspires consumer frustration quite like an airline flight delay. Researchers from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management have used those meltdown moments — and the complaints they produce via Twitter — to study how consumer “voice” may influence business behaviour. Economists believe markets act to discipline companies for poor performance as consumers will withdraw their business if they are not happy. Complaining, as opposed to switching, has been suggested as an alternative mechanism. The public nature of social media now makes it possible to track consumer complaints, the market circumstances in which they’re made and how companies