Bad service experiences potentially leading to long-standing grudges can be quite costly for an organization. In many cases, corporate actions and policies cause grudges as consumers grow more and more frustrated about their interactions with large, impersonal companies. The primary objectives of this study were to examine through empirical research the causes of consumer grudgeholding, the behaviors undertaken by grudgeholders in response to their outcome, the impact of grudges against businesses, and whether differences exist depending on the grudgeholder's age. The findings suggest that older consumers are more likely to discuss their concerns with store, company or organization employees, and in addition, they can be expected to tell more people outside of the firm than younger consumers. While neither younger nor older consumers appear highly inclined to purchase products or services from the firm following a bad experience, older respondents displayed a stronger aversion to the company, store or firm in question.

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Abstract:Research in Japan has shown that the promotion of collaboration in sustainable management can generate interaction among actors. However, the process of gathering and analyzing cases is still in its early stages. This study will focus on one example case, the Secretariat to Promote the Establishment of Landcare in Japan (SPELJ). SPELJ has been trying to build a network which promotes cross-referencing and collaboration among local volunteer groups working on improving their local environment. The purpose of this study is to identify the management challenges of SPELJ and to generate possible solutions by analyzing and discussing its activities through participatory observation and documentation analysis. As a conclusion, it has been found that there are challenges to ensuring communication both within and outside of SPELJ, and also that this can be solved by promoting sharing information among the members while ensuring clarity in the information in its newsletters and on its website.

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