Product Quality, Reviews Drive Repurchase of Bika Ambon Ci Mehong Post-Hygiene Crisi

Ilustration by AI 

FORMOSA NEWS

 A new peer-reviewed study has revealed how local food brands can rebuild consumer interest and recover from social media reputational crises. The research, published in mid-2026, investigated the specific factors that influence whether customers will return to a brand after experiencing viral food safety concerns. Conducted by researchers Made Pradnyan Permana Usadi and I Komang Oka Permadi from Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar, the study focused on Bika Ambon Ci Mehong, an Indonesian culinary brand that faced massive public backlash following digital hygiene allegations. The findings provide a strategic blueprint for businesses trying to restore customer trust after high-profile controversies.

Social Media Exposure and Food Industry Vulnerability

The modern food market is deeply driven by digital commerce, product visual appeal, and online recommendations from content creators. While social media platforms can elevate local brands to rapid fame, they also introduce extreme reputational vulnerability. Bika Ambon Ci Mehong experienced this firsthand when a viral video review on the platform TikTok alleged a significant hygiene issue, which was compounded by subsequent public criticism regarding how the brand handled its official clarification.

This viral event triggered widespread food safety concerns among consumers. When negative narratives circulate online, consumer perceptions shift rapidly, causing immediate uncertainty regarding production hygiene, safety, and brand reliability. Understanding how to navigate these challenges is essential for local food enterprises that depend heavily on repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth survival.

Assessing Digital Consumer Behavior via the S-O-R Framework

To map out how consumers react to online brand crises, the researchers deployed a quantitative research design utilizing the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework. Under this model, external market cues act as a stimulus that changes the internal psychological state of the consumer (the organism), which subsequently dictates their final behavioral response. In this specific context, online customer reviews and perceived product quality served as external stimuli, brand trust represented the internal psychological state, and repurchase intention acted as the ultimate behavioral response.

The researchers gathered primary data over a two-month period using an online Google Forms questionnaire. The purposive sampling technique was applied to select a highly relevant sample group consisting of 112 active Instagram followers of Bika Ambon Ci Mehong. These participants were already familiar with the product and had been directly exposed to the online discussions and reviews surrounding the brand's food safety controversy. The data collected was analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling based on Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) to ensure statistical precision.

Key Data and Findings: The Triggers of Customer Retention

The empirical evaluation of the structural model yielded several crucial insights regarding how consumer confidence behaves post-crisis:

• Product Quality Strongly Rebuilds Trust: Out of all analyzed direct relationships, product quality exerted the largest direct effect on brand trust ($\beta = 0.584$, $t = 9.622$, $p < 0.001$). This indicates that maintaining tangible standards—such as freshness, distinct sensory qualities, accurate product information, and clean appearance—is the most dominant single tool a brand possesses to recover lost consumer confidence.

• Online Reviews Directing Customer Actions: Favorable online customer reviews significantly and positively impacted repurchase intention ($\beta = 0.319$, $t = 3.811$, $p < 0.001$). Authentic user experiences, source credibility, and positive review helpfulness serve as essential social proof that mitigates perceived risks for buyers.

• The Essential Mediating Role of Brand Trust: The research confirmed that brand trust acts as a partial mediator connecting both online reviews and product quality to repurchase intentions. The indirect effect paths showed that brand trust effectively translates external impressions into actual consumer retention.

Real-World Strategic Implications for the Food Industry

The practical implications of these findings highlight that when a culinary brand suffers a viral crisis, simple marketing promotions or generic text clarifications are insufficient. Instead, businesses must treat quality control and digital reputation management as interconnected crisis-recovery components.

For the wider food industry and local entrepreneurs, investing in transparent hygiene protocols, high-quality packaging, and consistent taste is a defensive operational necessity. Furthermore, companies must actively manage their social media ecosystems by addressing negative feedback transparently and encouraging satisfied buyers to post honest, post-purchase reviews. These actions directly feed into the psychological assurance consumers require before they feel safe spending money on the product again.

Academic Insight and Ethical Attribution

Reflecting on the deeper psychological mechanisms at play, the researchers from Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar emphasized that consumer behavior following a crisis cannot be fixed overnight through surface-level public relations.

"Favorable online reviews may encourage repurchase intention by providing credible and experience-based information, while perceived product quality may serve as a trust-building cue that helps consumers determine whether the product remains reliable, safe, and worth buying again," stated Made Pradnyan Permana Usadi and I Komang Oka Permadi in their published paper.

This underscores that restoring brand credibility is an absolute prerequisite to long-term commercial survival.

Author Profiles

Made Pradnyan Permana Usadi, S.E., M.M. is a faculty member and academic researcher at the Fakultas Ekonomi dan Bisnis, Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar. His specialized field of expertise includes digital consumer behavior, marketing management, and small-and-medium enterprise (SME) recovery strategies.

I Komang Oka Permadi, S.E., M.M. is a marketing scholar and lecturer at Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar. His ongoing research focuses on brand trust mechanisms, digital commerce dynamics, and local food business sustainability.

Source

Jurnal Title: Repurchase Intention after Viral Food Safety-Related Concerns: The Mediating Role of Brand Trust in Online Customer Review and Product Quality
Journal: International Journal of Asian Business and Management (IJABM)
Publication Year: 2026
DOI : https://doi.org/10.55927/ijabm.v5i3.18
URL : https://journalijabm.my.id/index.php/ijabm/index