Dissatisfaction Responses Research Articles

Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges Relating to the Variances in Students’ Response to Dissatisfaction in Business Management Educational Services

Consumers respond to their lack of satisfaction with service provision in a variety of ways. For instance, research findings indicates that consumers’ response options to service dissatisfaction is related to customer loyalty, which may impact their future repurchase intentions (Janjua, 2017). The current study investigates the impact of loyalty, and its cultural understanding, on dissatisfaction response styles of university students. In particular, it compares the variations in response options between Anglo-Saxon Australian students and international Middle Eastern students, attending Australian universities and other tertiary higher education Australian institutions, in an attempt to explore the impact of culture on dissatisfaction, and the resultant response options chosen by students, as guided by culturally defined perceptions and values (Newsome & Cooper, 2016). Findings indicate that there are significant variations in terms of the degree of ethnic loyalty and the response options that students engage in as a reaction to educational service dissatisfaction, mostly attributable to differences in cultural values. The contributions of this study are three-fold. First, the current research study further develops our understanding of cultural loyalty and its impact on students’ future repurchase intentions. Secondly, it provides an understanding of the dissatisfaction response styles of university students coming from different ethnic backgrounds. Finally, this study further contributes to our understanding of the relationship between students’ ethnic backgrounds and their respective repurchase decisions.

Dissatisfaction Responses of Tourists in the Havana World Heritage Site

This paper aims to assess the relationships between tourists’ negative evaluation of key management areas in the cultural city, their overall satisfaction and future intentions. More specifically, this paper proposes a covariance-based structural equations model (CB-SEM) to assess the influence of tourists’ dissatisfaction caused by failures in tourist and cultural services, hygiene and infrastructure on their overall satisfaction with the cultural trip and their intentions to repeat it. Using data collected from 1500 tourists visiting Old Havana on a cultural trip, this paper confirms that a negative opinion on the management of hygiene, cleanliness and crowding is dominant in explaining cultural tourists’ lower levels of satisfaction. In addition, this was found to be the only factor with a negative impact on tourists’ intentions to revisit the city in the future. The results are useful for helping managers of cultural destinations to distinguish the areas that are most relevant in their attempt to promote satisfaction and loyalty in the context of cultural tourism.

심리적 계약 위반 인지와 불만족 반응행동(EVLN) 간의 영향 관계에서 위반 정서의 매개효과 : 객실승무원을 중심으로

심리적 계약 위반 인지와 불만족 반응행동(EVLN) 간의 영향 관계에서 위반 정서의 매개효과 : 객실승무원을 중심으로

Cross-Cultural Study of Students’ Response to Education Dissatisfaction: An Australian Context

The inevitability and unpredictability of service failures can result in consumer dissatisfaction, whereby consumers respond to their lack of satisfaction with the service provision in a variety of ways. Previous research indicates that consumers’ response options to service dissatisfaction is related to various facets of customer loyalty, which, in turn, may heavily impact on future repurchase intentions (Helou and Caddy, 2007). Accordingly, this study investigates the impact of loyalty and its cultural understanding on dissatisfaction response styles of university students. In particular, it compares the variations in response options between Anglo-Saxon Australian students and international Asian Chinese students, in an attempt to explore the impact of culture on dissatisfaction, and the resultant response options chosen by students, as guided by culturally defined perceptions and values (Helou, 2005; Helou and Caddy, 2007; Newsome and Cooper, 2016). Findings indicate that there are significant variations in terms of the degrees of ethnic loyalty and the response options engaged in as a reaction to dissatisfaction, mostly attributable to differences in cultural values. The contributions of this study are three-fold. First, the current research study further develops our understanding of cultural loyalty and its impact on students’ future repurchase intentions. Secondly, it provides an understanding of the dissatisfaction response styles of university students coming from different ethnic backgrounds. Finally, the current study further contributes to our understanding of the relationship between students’ ethnic backgrounds and their respective repurchase decisions.

The impact of switching costs on customer complaint behavior and service recovery evaluation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of three different dimensions of switching costs on customer dissatisfaction response styles as well as on the evaluation of service recovery.Design/methodology/approachStudy 1 is a scenario-based experiment and Study 2 uses a critical incident technique combined with survey-based measures of switching costs, dissatisfaction responses and perceived complaint handling.FindingsThe results of these studies highlight the need to consider the different effects of switching costs. Not only do different switching costs lead to varying customer dissatisfaction responses, they also have differential moderator effects on the interrelationships between customer-perceived recovery justice and service recovery satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsService failure severity was an influential control variable. Future studies should investigate how the type, context and severity of service failure influence customers’ complaint behavior. Furthermore, participants had trouble differentiating between their relations toward their service provider in general and one particular employee. Hence, further research should explore the relationship between customers and frontline employees.Practical implicationsThe authors encourage managers to take a closer look at the switching cost dimensions of their service industry. This may lead practitioners to promote differentiated strategies for complaint stimulation and complaint handling.Originality/valueThis is the first study to simultaneously explore all three dimensions of switching costs when examining their impact on customers’ dissatisfaction response styles as well as the moderating effects in the recovery process. In doing so, this study reveals some hitherto uncovered effects.

Influence of a Body Type Training Program on Body Image Dissatisfaction

Combined aerobic and resistance training (ATRT) programs are recommended to improve fitness; however, a novel training program focused on individual body type (BT) may provide additional benefits to body satisfaction. PURPOSE: To examine body image dissatisfaction (BID) responses after ~7 weeks of BT training or ATRT. METHODS: Participants (age 19±1y; BMI 23.2±3.5) provided self-report measures of BID (Body Area Satisfaction Scale (BASS), Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ), and Body Morph Assessment version 2.0 (BMA 2.0)) at baseline and after 15 exercise sessions, 2 d/wk. Participants were randomized to BT or ATRT intervention after classification to a Body Type (Cone®, Spoon®, Hourglass®, or Ruler®) according to circumference measures. BMA 2.0 assessed perceived current body size (CBS), selected ideal body size (IBS), selected acceptable body size (ABS), and BMA-BID (CBS-IBS). Given this was an efficacy trial, intent-to-treat (ITT; n=132) and per protocol (PP; BASS, BSQ n=77; BMA n=93; completed ≥ 10 of 15 supervised sessions) data analyses were utilized. RESULTS: Overall, body image scores decreased with a trend observed for the BMA-BID (baseline: 5.5 95%CI(4.5-6.5); follow-up: 4.8 (3.9-5.8); P=0.07) after exercise training indicating improvements in BID. Results were similar among ITT and PP analyses. Increases in BID were seen in the ATRT group with significantly lower BASS scores compared to BT group at follow-up (ATRT= 2.61 vs. 2.45; P < 0.05). Participants in the ATRT group saw themselves as smaller and set a smaller acceptable goals based on significant reductions in CBS and ABS relative to BT. Sum circumferences were different after both programs (BT = -6.2cm; 95% CI -1.9, -10.7cm; ATRT = -7.5cm; -3.3, -11.7cm); however, changes in body satisfaction were not related to changes in total body circumferences (P>0.05 for all). CONCLUSION: Baseline scores for BID suggest women in this study were generally unsatisfied with their overall body image (BASS < 3.0, BSQ > 80). In general, BT and ATRT produced similar responses; exercise reduced CBS—thereby reducing the difference between CBS and IBS—improving overall body satisfaction regardless of changes in body composition. Supported by the Robert and Patricia Hines Endowment in Kinesiology.

A Measure of Consumer Complaining Behaviour in Service Industry

Consumer complaints are reflection of mistakes committed by the service provider. These help to show a mirror to the organization indicating the reality of the situation, which can be used to handle displeased customers. Service providers these days are focusing on providing easy and varied ways, through which people can represent their problems. It is imperative to keep hold of existing customers, considering the cost of acquiring new customers and competitiveness in the market. This study aims to check the reliability and validity of the construct of consumer complaining behaviour (CCB), from the perspective of the Indian service industry, especially banking, telecom and insurance. A total of eight factors, namely, redress-seeking complaint, friendly complaint, opportunism, third-party complaint, word-of-mouth complaint, switching, loyalty complaint and neglect, have been taken to develop scales in order to collect data from 180 customers by using the critical incident technique (CIT). Various tools of reliability and validity were applied on the collected data. Results revealed an adequate fit of the theoretical model proposed, by satisfying all the criteria of reliability and validity (content, convergent and discriminant). This construct can be used by marketers and researchers to understand various consumer dissatisfaction responses given in different industries. This paper is first of its kind, which has taken all the factors together and validated the construct in the Indian context.

Silent Voices: Nonbehavioral Reactions to Service Failures

Past research has focused on complainers and their behavioral responses to service failures, yet research on “silent voices” or noncomplainers is scant. To bridge that gap, this study investigates two types of nonbehavioral dissatisfaction responses, namely loyalty and neglect. The study results, based on 177 noncomplainers in restaurant, auto-repair, and medical services, indicate that a higher emotional bonding leads customers to choose loyalty over neglect. Also, return intentions were higher for loyalty than neglect in restaurant and auto-repair contexts but they were not different in the medical services context. The implications for service managers and researchers are discussed.

Customer Dissatisfaction Responses to Restaurant Service Failures: Insights Into Noncomplainers From a Relational Perspective

This research investigates the reasons for noncomplaining and compares the return intentions of complainers and noncomplainers after a service failure in the restaurant context. Particularly, this research focuses on differentiating the two types of dissatisfaction responses from noncomplainers: loyalty and neglect. A survey of 171 respondents (81 complainers and 90 noncomplainers) is analyzed. Regarding the reasons for noncomplaining, four dimensions are identified and two dimensions (compassionate trust and lack of responsiveness) provide evidence for distinguishing loyalty from neglect. The loyalty customers show higher compassionate trust for and higher perception of responsiveness from the company than neglect customers. Customers’ return intentions are examined via two types of complainers (recovery satisfied and recovery dissatisfied) and two types of noncomplainers (loyalty and neglect). The findings suggest that loyalty customers have higher return intentions than neglect customers and their return intentions are as high as those of complainers who received satisfactory service recoveries.

Complaint, patience, and neglect: responses to a dissatisfying service experience

This study examines the responses of complainers and non-complainers after a service failure in the auto repair and medical service contexts. In particular, this study focuses on differentiating the two types of dissatisfaction responses of non-complainers, patience and neglect, from complaint. The results, based on a survey of 230 respondents, indicate that attitudes toward complaining and emotional bonding differentiate neglect from complaint, and the criticality of the service failure differentiates patience from complaint. The findings suggest that patience customers have higher return intentions than neglect customers, and as high as those of complainers with satisfying service recoveries.

The role of tie strength on consumer dissatisfaction responses

This study examines the impact of tie strength and service failure type on consumers’ behavioral intention (voice complaint and negative Word-of-Mouth) in a restaurant context. Overall, the results indicate that tie strength significantly reduces consumers’ intention to spread negative Word-of-Mouth, but it fails to influence their complaint intention. In addition, failure type plays an important role on consumers’ complaint behavior; consumers are more willing to voice a complaint after a core service failure than after an interactional service failure.

Consumer Perceived Value and Consumer Loyalty in the Healthcare Sector

This study provides conceptual as well as empirical investigation of consumer perceived value (CPV) and consumer loyalty (CL) measures in the healthcare sector. It also offers an insight regarding the role of CPV in influencing CL. The data were collected from 515 hospitalised patients of 2 tertiary hospitals, namely the Government Medical College and Hospital (public) and Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital (private) sector operating in Jammu, North India, from July 2009 to October 2009. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to analyse CPV and CL. The results suggest that CPV is a function of acquisition value, transaction value, efficiency value, aesthetic value, social interaction value, and self-gratification value. Similarly, CL is related to preference loyalty (i.e., using provider again for same services, using provider again for different services), recommending provider to others, price indifference loyalty, and dissatisfaction response. The study underscores significant dimensions of consumer value and CL and validates the relationship between value and loyalty in healthcare service sector. The CPV and CL instruments include important aspects of patients’ perceptions of healthcare services. The scales are psychometrically adequate and are recommended for evaluating patients’ experiences of the quality of healthcare services. The study is limited theoretically to assessing the relationship between CPV and CL. Their relationships with other measures, such as consumer experiences, quality, satisfaction, service dominant logic, and image, need to be assessed in further works.

A construção de uma tipologia dos consumidores para resposta à insatisfação

This study aims to answer the following three questions: how dissatisfied customers answer to dissatisfaction, what types of response styles do consumers utilize and which customer profile composes each one of the styles. After the initial qualitative phase, an experimental study with undergraduate students from two universities was accomplished. The groups of variables confirmed the three dimensions of responses to the dissatisfaction: negative word-of-mouth communication; company switch; complaint addressed to the company. The groups of individuals indicated four clusters of customers with different response styles - irate, passive, disloyal and compromised. To answer the last question, discriminant analysis with demographic, attitudinal, personality and specific to the complaint episode variables was applied. The irate ones presented higher levels of self-confidence and low level of relationship with the company; the passive ones presented high level of relationship and negative attitude toward the complaining; the disloyal ones demonstrated the lowest levels of self-confidence and perceived likelihood of successful complaint, and the most negative attitude toward the complaining act; and the compromised clients presented higher income, positive attitude toward the complaining act, high self-confidence and high degree of relationship with the company. Finally, the academic and managerial implications are discussed, and the limitations of the study are presented.Key words: typology, dissatisfaction responses, consumer profiles, complaint, negative word-ofmouth, switching company.

Discrete Negative Emotions and Customer Dissatisfaction Responses in a Casual Restaurant Setting

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate customers' emotional responses following a service failure in a restaurant setting. Specifically, this study investigates how specific emotions (anger, disappointment or regret, worry) influence consumers' behavioral intentions. To gain a richer understanding of consumers' coping behaviors, the authors examine customers' locus of failure attributions. By using a 3 × 2 factorial between-subjects design, three attribution types (internal, external, and control condition) are matched with two service recovery outcomes (positive and negative). Findings suggest that customers with feelings of anger and disappointment or regret are likely to engage in various dissatisfaction responses (e.g., direct complaining, negative word-of-mouth, and switching), whereas worried customers are not. Attributing the failure to internal or external causes reduce switching and negative word-of-mouth intentions. Finally, the study results indicate that feelings of anger spill over to postrecovery satisfaction.

서양음식점에 대한 고객들의 과거행동과 재방문행동의도의 관계에 미치는 매개요인들의 영향 평가

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on the relationships between past behavior and customers' intention to engage in exit of dissatisfaction responses. Results of the study demonstrated that the past behavior significantly improved the predictability of the voice of dissatisfaction response intentions. Furthermore, the mediating analyses indicated that the influence of past behavior was mediated by mediator. In the contests of exit behavior, the effect of past behavior on intention to exit was mediated by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control.

Testing the sufficiency of the theory of planned behavior: a case of customer dissatisfaction responses in restaurants

This study tested the sufficiency of both the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the extended TPB models by adding the variable of past behavior. In addition, the present study examined the mediating role of the TPB variables on the relationships between past behavior and customers’ intentions to engage in different types of dissatisfaction responses (i.e., voice, negative word-of-mouth communication, and exit). Results of the study demonstrated the strong predictive power of the original TPB mode but the inclusion of past behavior did not significantly improve the predictability of the three dissatisfaction response intentions. Furthermore, the mediating analyses indicated that the influence of past behavior was mediated by TPB variables. In the contexts of negative word-of-mouth communication, the effect of past behavior on intention was mediated by attitude. Meanwhile, both subjective norm and perceived behavioral control mediated the relationship between past behavior and the intention to engage in voice behavior.

Consumers' complaint behaviour. Taxonomy, typology and determinants: Towards a unified ontology

Complaint behaviour is a set of consumer dissatisfaction responses. It is an explicit expression of dissatisfaction, but dissatisfaction is only one determinant of this behaviour. Complaint behaviour can be analysed as various types of response but also as a process. This paper proposes an integrated framework of the various theories of complaint behaviour leading toward a unified ontology and to interpreting it from a new perspective.

ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE IN NIGERIA: MEASUREMENTS, ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF NUISANCE

The investigation comprised field measurements of road traffic noise at over 60 sites in 8 cities in South-Eastern Nigeria and psychological survey, by questionnaires, of respondents living and working close to the sites. Instantaneous and 24 h noise measurements were made at the noisiest points, near the facades, of the houses of more than 150 respondents in the neighbourhood of each site. Several noise descriptors were either measured or calculated. Measured values ofLmax were as high as 105 dB (A) while residents were exposed to instantaneous levels of road traffic noise as high as 110 dB (A). Values of Leqand Ldnwere 84·6 and 68·0 dB (A), respectively, and sometimes higher in some of the sites. The calculated L10correlated positively with field data with a correlation coefficient of 0·8551. It was found that the measuredL10 was always higher than the calculated L10by about 4·5–8·8 dB (A) probably because of the reckless use of horn by motorists and reflection from the hills and trees. The type of house lived in, the disturbance of various activities by road traffic noise and neighbourhood noises which were most annoying to residents, were found to strongly affect the percentage of responses obtained with respective correlation coefficients of 0·9925, 0·9714 and 0·7237. The usual poor correlation, ranging from 0·3 to 0·4, between dissatisfaction response and noise exposure were obtained in this investigation. There appeared to be an income bias with respect to community response to road traffic noise, with low-income neighbourhoods reporting less annoyance and disruption of various activities by road traffic noise, and some evidence of adaptation to road traffic noise by residents of busy cities in South-Eastern Nigeria.

How do customers react to critical service encounters?: A cross-sectional perspective

In recent research on service quality it has been argued that the construct of behavioural intentions and its relationship with other constructs are issues which require conceptual and empirical elaboration. In this paper, we focus on the development and refinement of a scale for measuring behavioural intentions and the influence of critical service incidents on these behavioural intentions of service customers. Moreover, we seek to provide evidence for differences across service industries with regard to dimensions of service quality that customers evaluate during a critical incident. The results of an empirical study of a large sample of customers from six different service industries suggest that there exist significant cross-sectional differences in critical dimensions of service quality, thereby supporting the notion that there are service industry-specific determinants of quality. Furthermore, we identified three dimensions of behavioural intentions: customer loyalty; price tolerance; and dissatisfaction response. It was found that the influence of incident-based quality, expressed as positive or negative, on behavioural intentions does not vary significantly from industry to industry, except for the public transportation industry. Service quality is positively related to customer loyalty and price tolerance and negatively related to dissatisfaction responses of customers. However, this incidental service quality does have a moderating effect on the general perceived quality-behavioural intentions relationship: higher general quality results in higher price tolerance and a lower dissatisfaction response for positive incidents than for negative encounters. With regard to customer loyalty, this difference is not convincing.

On the relationship between perceived service quality, service loyalty and switching costs

In the services marketing literature it has been argued that the concept of service loyalty needs further conceptual and empirical investigation. In this paper a theoretical framework for service loyalty consisting of three dimensions: preference loyalty; price indifference loyalty; and dissatisfaction response is developed. We subsequently focus on the role of service quality and switching costs as antecedents to these types of service loyalty. The results of an empirical study of a large sample of customers from five different service industries provide support for service loyalty as a three‐dimensional construct. Moreover, we find that the influence of service quality on service loyalty varies significantly per industry and that, hence, findings from one industry cannot be generalised to other industries. Furthermore, we establish that in industries characterised by relatively low switching costs, customers will be less loyal as compared to service industries with relatively high switching costs.