Contesting the Legitimacy of Negative Online Customer Engagement

The relatively recent conceptualisation of OCE means that it is an emergent and malleable online practice (Erikson 2010; Gummerus et al 2012). Emergent practices are unclear and lack clear boundaries (Bjorkeng et al 2009). Establishing the legitimacy of OCE practice is important. An emergent practice becomes legitimate when it is connected to wider social and normative structures that are “brought into and become formative” of best practice (Phillips & Plesner 2013:8). In this paper we draw on Institutional Theory (DiMaggio & Powell 1983) and Practice Theory (Schatzki et al 2003) to examine how emergent OCE practices are either accepted as legitimate or contested as illegitimate.