Complaining intentions and their relationships to complaining behavior of academic library users in South Korea

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the influences of the selected antecedents on each type of complaining intentions and its relationship to complaining behavior of 582 university library users in South Korea.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a survey, using a convenience sample of 582 dissatisfied university library users from five major universities located in Taegu Metropolitan City and Kyoung‐pook Province in South Korea. The sample was proportionate to general users in the university libraries in these areas.FindingsPerceived severity of dissatisfaction and personal norms had significant influences on the choice of negative word‐of‐mouth intention, direct and indirect voice intentions, and third‐party complaint intention. Societal benefits had significant influences on the choice of exit, negative word‐of‐mouth intention, and direct and indirect voice intentions. Difficulty of complaining and service importance had significant influences on negative word‐of‐mouth intention, and likelihood of success had significant influences on the direct and indirect voice intentions. There were significant relationships between experiences of doing the same types of complaining behavior before and the same types of complaining intentions.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was exploratory inorder to separate complaining intentions from the complaining behavior itself. Some variables, including external attribution and loyalty, which were not proved to be critical variables for complaining intentions, need to be investigated further to investigate whether or not they can be a useful variable for complaining behavior and intentions of academic library users. Some results from this study did not confirm the results of the study on the public library users that measured the complaint behavior and intentions together. Compared with the results of the study on the public library users, the values of adjusted R square in the regression of each dependent variables were much higher in this study except for the case of exit intention.Practical implicationsThis study proved that the complaining intention model, separated from complaining behavior, could successfully be applied to academic library services.Originality/valueOpines that feedback information through complaints can solve many problems and/or improve performance and service quality – and eventually help libraries satisfy their customers.