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Not your fault, but your responsibility: worsened consumer sentiment on work-from-home products

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Giovanni Cintra
Giovanni Cintra
Giovanni Cintra
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Filipe Grilo
Filipe Grilo
Filipe Grilo
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Abstract and Figures

This study analyses the evolution of people’s sentiment towards Work from Home (WFH)-related products during the pandemic, using user-generated content from social media platform X on responses for the largest US online furniture stores. We find that people interacted more about WFH products during the Covid-19 lockdowns, but sentiment towards WFH products worsened. For some online furniture stores, Covid-19 restrictions may explain the changes in sentiment, but firms’ idiosyncrasies also play a role. The methodology of this study allows companies to assess the impact of external effects on customers’ sentiments, allowing them to identify specific problems and to connect more naturally with their customers.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Marketing Analytics
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41270-024-00315-0
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Not your fault, butyour responsibility: worsened consumer sentiment
onwork‑from‑home products
GiovanniCintra1· FilipeGrilo2
Revised: 4 December 2023 / Accepted: 5 April 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2024
Abstract
This study analyses the evolution of people’s sentiment towards Work from Home (WFH)-related products during the pan-
demic, using user-generated content from social media platform X on responses for the largest US online furniture stores.
We find that people interacted more about WFH products during the Covid-19 lockdowns, but sentiment towards WFH
products worsened. For some online furniture stores, Covid-19 restrictions may explain the changes in sentiment, but firms’
idiosyncrasies also play a role. The methodology of this study allows companies to assess the impact of external effects
on customers’ sentiments, allowing them to identify specific problems and to connect more naturally with their customers.
Keywords Covid-19· Electronic word of mouth· Sentiment analysis· Work from home
Introduction
Social media has permanently changed the relationship
between customers and businesses. Consumers now use
social media to share their opinions on products and ser-
vices, generating large amounts of user-generated content
and creating valuable opportunities for Electronic Word of
Mouth (eWOM). Specifically, eWOM allows companies to
identify important changes in customer needs that may occur
due to significant disruptions, such as Covid-19. For exam-
ple, the pandemic shifted the consumer behaviour of Work-
from-Home (WFH) products, which led to a 41% increase in
online furniture sales in 2020.1 Thus, during the pandemic,
were there any changes in the eWOM related to WFH prod-
ucts? Did online stores seize the opportunity, and how did
customers react on social media?
So far, the literature on consumer marketing during
Covid-19 has evolved into two main directions. On the one
hand, several studies have analysed how Covid-19 changed
consumers’ habits, such as payment methods and hygiene
and cosmetic standards (e.g., Akana 2021; Mościcka etal.
2020). On the other hand, several studies have explored
social media consumer reviews to infer changes in percep-
tions and sentiments during Covid-19 (e.g., Chen etal. 2021;
Jung etal. 2021). These studies have focused on understand-
ing what social media users feel regarding topics of a generic
nature, such as Work From Home, Online Education, and
Digital Platforms. To the best of my knowledge, no study
has analysed disruptions in sentiment regarding any spe-
cific product or online furniture stores, exclusively to WFH-
related products.
Thus, the goal of this study is threefold. First, we assess
if Covid-19 disrupted eWOM in X (formerly Twitter) for
WFH-related products. Given the sharp increase in sales
on these products during the pandemic, testing the cor-
responding rise in tweets during the lockdowns allows us
to assess if X serves as a representative eWOM platform.
Second, we test if Covid-19 changed people’s sentiment
toward WFH-related products. To answer these goals, we
analyse user-generated content from X on responses for
the top 20 US online furniture stores from 2018 until 2022.
From this data, we apply sentiment analysis, which allows
us to evidence people’s sentiment towards these products.
Afterwards, we perform a regression analysis to understand
if the change in the number of tweets on WFH-related prod-
ucts and their sentiment could be explained by a measure of
lockdown severity, the Stringency Index. This analysis helps
* Filipe Grilo
fgrilo@pbs.up.pt
1 School ofEconomics andManagement, University ofPorto,
Porto, Portugal
2 Porto Business School, CEF.UP, CEAD, University ofPorto,
Porto, Portugal
1 https:// www. bloom berg. com/ news/ artic les/ 2021- 04- 16/ amazon- is-
worki ng- on- furni ture- assem bly- servi ce- to- catch- wayfa ir.
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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