Complaint Intentions Research Articles

Development of new empirical insights in consumer–retailer relationships within online and offline retail environments: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research on scientific advancements in consumer–retailer relationships within online and offline retail environments include nine high quality research studies originally presented at the twelfth Society for Marketing Advances Retail Strategy and Patronage Behavior Symposium in 2009. The articles cover a variety of interesting and important consumer–retailer relationship topics and issues organized within three board categories: (1) empirical insights of WOM, pricing, and value impact on retail purchase intentions, (2) retail store-mall environment and atmospherics influence on retail relationships, and (3) consumers' emotional impact on complaint intentions and attitudes and behavior changes in an economic recession environment. This introduction offers an overview of each article and highlights some of the empirical insights and contributions to the growing body of knowledge in the retailing literature.

Modelling the service antecedents of favourable and unfavourable behaviour intentions in life insurance services in India

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the key conceptual and empirical inter‐relationships between service encounter variables of perceived agent service quality, overall customer satisfaction and perceived value and their relationships with behavioural outcomes of repurchase, recommendation and complaint intentions in the life insurance services in India.Design/methodology/approachA total of 258 valid responses were generated from existing customers of life insurance services on the selected variables. The relationships were tested by structural equation modeling using AMOS version 4.0. The initial hypothesized model was rejected and a model was modified till acceptable fit was achieved.FindingsThe results provide empirical support for the comprehensive nature of direct and indirect effects of service quality, value perceptions and overall satisfaction on future behavioural intentions (BI). The study identifies the key agent service quality attributes of product knowledge, empathy, reliability and trust as important antecedents of favourable behavioural outcomes. Agent service quality, satisfaction and value perceptions have significant affect on recommendation intentions.Originality/valueThis is the first study using multivariate and composite model of inter relationship of service encounter constructs and their affect on both favourable and unfavourable BI.

Consumer Religiosity: Consequences for Consumer Activism in the United States

In recent times, organizations have experienced consumer backlash as a result of decisions to support controversial causes. To date, little research has attempted to explain consumers’ negative response as a function of religion. This study addresses that gap in the literature and examines consumer religious commitment and Christian consumers’ conservative beliefs in the United States as motivating factors for consumer activist behavior and boycott participation. Findings from a national sample of 531 consumers suggest that consumers evaluate seller’s actions and form ethical judgments. These judgments are a major explanatory variable in consumers’ voice complaints, third-party complaint intentions, and boycott intentions.

Determinants of customers' complaint intention

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model to comprehensively understand the determinants of customers' intention to complain to firms and their effects on complaint intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe research adopted a systematic sampling method and carried out surveys in department stores, large supermarkets, and convenience stores in China. The structural equation model was employed to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that perceived value, perceived likelihood of successful complaint and the attitude toward complaining, all have significant effects on the complaint intention. Also, consumer discontent, prior experience of complaining and controllability are analyzed as the antecedents.Practical implicationsThe results indicate that firms should encourage customers to complain by raising the complaining value and the likelihood of successful complaint, and by intensifying their attitude toward complaining.Originality/valueThe research findings extend the existing theoretical models and shed light on the complicated structural relationship among various factors that affect customers' tendency to complain directly with a more holistic viewpoint to better understand customers' complaint‐making behavior.

Consequences of Postpurchase Dissonance: The Mediating Role of an External Information Search

The consequences of postpurchase dissonance (PPD) based on the use of postpurchase regret theory were integrated in a two-stage study. A total of 125 valid questionnaires was collected from consumers who made purchases in computers, communications, and consumer electronics (3C) stores. The results show that PPD negatively influences postpurchase satisfaction (PPS) and repurchase intention (RPI), and positively influences complaint intention (CI). In addition, PPS positively influences RPI and negatively influences CI. Furthermore, after experiencing PPD consumers conduct an external information search (EIS) that partially mediates the relationship between PPD and PPS.

Consumer reaction to service failure and recovery: the moderating role of attitude toward complaining

PurposeThe paper seeks to investigate, in a context of service failure and recovery, how consumer satisfaction is affected by problem severity and company responsiveness, how satisfaction influences repatronage intentions, word‐of‐mouth, and complaint intentions, and how consumer attitude toward complaining (ATC) moderates these relationships.Design/methodology/approachAn integrated model is proposed, following recent developments in the service recovery literature. This model is tested using data from a survey with 204 complaining customers.FindingsService recovery affected satisfaction more strongly for consumers with high ATC, indicating a moderating role of ATC. This moderator was also supported in the link between satisfaction and complaining intentions. Also, failure severity and perceived justice influenced satisfaction, which affected repurchase intentions, word‐of‐mouth, and complaining intentions.Practical implicationsService managers should consider the differences between customers with low versus high ATC when providing recovery for a service failure. For instance, the importance of responsiveness in service recovery is even greater for those customers with high ATC, and those customers with low ATC have their complaint decision more dependent on their satisfaction level. Also, it is important to improve the customers' perceived fairness in the complaint resolution process.Originality/valueThis paper investigates the key antecedents and consequences of satisfaction in a context of service failure and recovery by integrating previous research in a comprehensive model. ATC is proposed and tested as a moderator when complainers and non‐complainers are compared in the level of the strength of the relationships. Previous research has not found a moderation effect in this level.

Consumer response to norm-breaking pricing events in e-commerce

e-commerce allows for many innovations in pricing: some have been embraced by consumers, others rejected. Using an online experiment, we explore the role of norms in predicting consumer responses to differential pricing arrived at either by violating an established pricing norm (dynamic posted pricing; setting prices based on individual consumer demand) or not (two retailers pricing differently). Our findings support the critical role of norms, such that belief in the norm is a strong predictor of negative responses (i.e., fairness, trust, purchase, search and complaint intentions) and priming people to consider norms generally increases the negative response. We also find that prior trust in the firm acts as a partial buffer against the negative response to norm breaking but at a diminishing rate as prior trust increases.

An exploratory investigation of the consumer religious commitment and its influence on store loyalty and consumer complaint intentions

PurposePast consumer behavior researchers contend that there is a significant relationship between a consumer's religious affiliation and a number of consumption related variables. Based on Worthington et al.'s multi‐dimensional approach this paper aims to examine the concept of consumer religious commitment in the marketing domain.Design/methodology/approachUsing cross‐sectional data of 425 respondents this research examines the outcomes of the direct influence of consumer religious commitment on two outcomes, namely, store loyalty and complaint intentions.FindingsResults of the study indicate that consumer religious commitment significantly influences store loyalty and complaint intentions.Originality/valueThe paper offers prescriptive insights for managers, who may see potential value of consumer religiosity as a market segmentation tool.

ANTECEDENCE DAN CONSEQUENCES DARI SATISFACTION WITH RECOVERY TERHADAP FUTURE COMPLAINT INTENTIONS

The background of this research is managers need to analyze that customer service failure can arise customer complaint. It must be managed by service recovery to get customer satisfaction. Future complaint intentions has relationship with customer satisfaction. Every company need to investigate which is the compatible perceived justice to applied. The objective of this research is to investigate service recovery effects toward customer satisfaction, especially perceived justice ( interactional, procedural, distributive ) and how justice effects customer satisfaction and future complaint intentions. The design of this research applies to customer Bank BCA in Semarang which is has variants occupation and the questionnaires were spreaded away to 100 respondents by using purposive sampling. The result of this research are interactional justice and procedural justice has more influence on future complaint intentions. Despite, distributive justice and satisfaction with recovery decrease future complaint intentions.Keywords: Antacedence, satisfaction with recovery, future complaint intentions

Generalizing Survey Results from Student Samples: Implications from Service Recovery Research

The use of college students as research subjects in consumer research may or may not be appropriate. This paper discusses the external validity of research findings using student subjects as surrogates for consumers in experimental, particularly scenario‐based, studies. The authors describe a study that investigated differences between a student sample and a customer sample in response to service experience. Results were mixed. No significant mean differences were found in complaint intention, preference to complain to an employee or a manager, overall satisfaction, and revisit intention toward service providers. However, significant discrepancies were observed in testing the role of initial overall satisfaction in evaluating recovery satisfaction and in the relative importance of dimensions of justice. For both student and nonstudent groups, regardless of whether their recovery satisfaction was positive or negative, initial overall satisfaction was a stronger predictor for post‐recovery overall satisfaction than was recovery satisfaction.

Building an integrated model of future complaint intentions: The case of Taoyuan International Airport

There are increasing numbers of complaints by passengers regarding the quality of air services. This paper looks at the ways in which complaints are dealt with and the degree to which unsatisfactory experiences are reported and the ways in which they are handled. A survey conducted at Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan, provides the empirical basis for the work.

As conseqüências comportamentais da insatisfação dos clientes

O propósito deste estudo é investigar os antecedentes das intenções comportamentais de clientes insatisfeitos. Inicialmente, revisam-se os fundamentos teóricos. A seguir, apresentam-se a metodologia empregada e as três etapas de pesquisa realizadas. Na primeira, qualitativa, foram realizadas 16 entrevistas em profundidade, que deram origem ao instrumento de coleta de dados. Na segunda, a eficácia da manipulação da variável a ser controlada na pesquisa experimental - nível de insatisfação - foi qualitativamente validada com 22 entrevistados. Finalmente, um questionário estruturado foi aplicado a 480 estudantes de graduação. Os resultados mostram que o impacto do nível de insatisfação nas intenções de comunicação boca-a-boca negativa e troca de empresa é alto. Em relação à intenção de reclamação, o impacto da autoconfiança do consumidor é superior à influência das demais variáveis. A atitude em face da reclamação exerceu papel de moderadora entre o nível de insatisfação e a intenção de reclamação. Esses resultados fornecem implicações acadêmicas e gerenciais para minimizar a troca de fornecedor e a comunicação negativa e aumentar os índices de reclamação e, portanto, as oportunidades de remediar problemas.

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

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.

Customer Self-Efficacy and Response to Service

The customers’ role is significant in the delivery and consumption of many types of services. This study examines customers’ beliefs about their ability to participate in a service (service use self-efficacy) and its effect on response to service. A theoretical model is proposed that explains how self-efficacy affects customers’ perceptions of service value and complaint intentions (“voice”). These factors, in turn, predict exit intentions and positive word of mouth. The model is tested on a sample of 444 members of a group insurance plan. The results of a structural equation model confirm the hypothesized relationships. The findings suggest that service managers should take steps to increase customer service use self-efficacy, such as providing training with feedback, vicarious experiences (e.g., print or video portrayals of successful service experiences), verbal persuasion (e.g., “You can do this”-type coaching), and a low-stress environment. It is also important to develop varied opportunities for customer comments.

The Use Of Computer Mediated Communication In Consumer Complaining: A Study In Higher Education

The electronic channel for consumer complaining has increased dramatically in recent years and continued growth is expected in the future. The objective of this research was to explore how computer-mediated communication is being used as a channel for complaining in higher education. A study was conducted of the complaint intentions of 222 students at one college in the eastern half of the United States. Four complaining dimensions were studied: Voice, Negative Word-of-Mouth, Third Party, and Exit. The results indicated that the most common behavioral intentions are: Complain to other students face-to-face, complain to the professor in office, and never take another class from the professor. The research findings also indicate the number of students who are likely to use computer-mediated communication to complain. In addition, the results show strong correlations between computer-mediated complaining and other complaining responses.

A Service Perspective on the Drivers of Complaint Intentions

This study assesses the effects of service evaluations in a failed service experience on complaining intentions in a future encounter. A model is developed and tested that investigates the relationships between service quality, satisfaction, social justice, and future complaint intentions. A sample of 525 dissatisfied customers across numerous service industries is used to test the model. Results support the model and suggest that otherwise fair service in a failed service experience increases complaint intentions in future failed encounters. Specifically, the authors find that firms that are perceived to treat customers fairly during a service failure and that have employees perceived to be responsive are rewarded with higher future complaint intentions. They also find that service quality and satisfaction have significant, negative effects on future complaint intentions. Moderation analysis indicates that the findings do not depend on a customer’s attitude toward complaining. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Rethinking Service Recovery Strategies

Researchers and practitioners have invested heavily in identifying effective complaint management strategies. However, most of the strategies identified to date occur only after a service failure occurs. This article proposes that antecedent states such as an ongoing rapport with service employees can also provide service recovery benefits. Four independent studies test this approach and indicate that an existing rapport between the customer and service provider results in increased postfailure customer satisfaction, increased repatronage intentions, and decreased negative word of mouth. Yet results for complaint intentions suggest that rapport does not increase the propensity for customers to complain about poor service. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for research and practice.

Customer complaint behaviour towards hotel restaurant services

The area of customer complaint behaviour has received considerable attention from hotel managers as dissatisfied customers engage in a variety of complaint actions that could ruin the reputation of a hotel. This study examined Chinese customer complaint behaviour towards Hong Kong hotel restaurant services. The main objectives were to identify complaint patterns and the relationships between customers’ demographic backgrounds such as age, gender and education levels; and their complaint behaviours. Based on a survey of 220 hotel restaurant diners, complainers and non‐complainers were identified. The research findings suggested that at most customers are likely to engage in private complaint behaviours such as word‐of‐mouth communication and ceasing to patronize the restaurant. It highlights that the complaint intentions of Chinese diners were quite low and they were passive about communicating dissatisfaction to restaurateurs. Restaurateurs can make use of these findings to improve their existing customer feedback systems and complaint handling strategies.

The effect of attitude and perception on consumer complaint intentions

The importance of managing dissatisfied consumers has increased because of severe competition from the introduction of new types of stores, such as online shopping. Focuses on consumers who complain directly to the offending firms because their dissatisfaction provides a firm with the opportunity to improve its customer service. In contrast to studies that examine determinants of complaint behavior to resolve customer dissatisfaction, examines how attitudinal and perceptual variables, influenced by generalized personal factors, affect complaint intention. Performs a path analysis to examine the links among generalized personal antecedents, attitudinal and perceptual mediators, and customer’s complaint intentions. The empirical results confirm that attitudinal and perceptual mediators positively influence complaint intention. Furthermore, three generalized personal antecedents affect attitudinal and perceptual mediators. The empirical results indicate that attitude toward complaining plays a central role in mediating between three generalized personal antecedents and complaint intention. Finally, provides managerial implications that suggest ways firms can manage customers’ complaints to enhance customer satisfaction.

The Relationship Between Applicant Reactions, the Likelihood of Complaints, and Organization Attractiveness

This study examined the effect of applicants' reactions to selection measures on complaint intentions and perceptions of organizational attractiveness. Despite recent challenges to selection tests for invasion of privacy, limited research has examined the link between specific reactions and potential legal challenges. As predicted, perceived invasiveness was significantly related to perceived likelihood of complaints for three selection measures. Further, perceived job relatedness was negatively related to likelihood of complaints for a test battery and a math test, but not for an integrity test. On the other hand, neither job relatedness nor invasiveness was significantly related to organizational attractiveness for any of the tests. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.