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This study fills a gap in the consumer emotions literature regarding customer frustration in a customer service setting. Most research on customer emotions has examined anger, happiness or affect in general, largely ignoring the particularities of frustration. Consistent with appraisal theory, we use five experiments to explore the different appraisal dimensions that define frustration and its relation to customer loyalty and satisfaction. Contrary to common belief, we show that frustration is not simply the result of goal‐blocking, but rather of a more complex combination of appraisals which differentiate it from anger and lead to distinct effects on satisfaction and loyalty. We also examine how the effects of frustration on loyalty and satisfaction are mitigated by service recovery in a further experiment and an event reconstructive method. Our results test appraisal theory, inform theory on customer emotions and have important implications for our understanding of customer satisfaction and loyalty following frustrating customer service encounters.

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Purpose This paper aims to present the triggers of negative customer emotions during a call center encounter and the impact of emotions on satisfaction and loyalty. It suggests ways of mitigating the negative effects of such emotions. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses exploratory research consisting of 33 focus groups with 121 narratives of a call center encounter. Findings Callers predominantly report frustration as the emotion arising from negative experiences in a call center encounter. Goal urgency, reduced customer control and uncertainty underlie this emotional experience. Triggers include assessments of “dehumanized”, “incompetent” or “hostile” call center employees as well as the more well-known multiple transfers and waiting time. Customer may remain loyal after a frustrating encounter if they believe that alternative services will be no better. Research limitations/implications Disembodied service encounters generate conditions of reduced control and certainty which foster negative emotions. The outcomes of negative emotions are not always negative if the call center context is managed appropriately. Focus groups took place in a European business school, so generalizability of the results to other regions may be limited. Practical implications Negative emotions can have a strong effect on loyalty, a key issue in service organizations. This paper provides insights into how to manage customer emotions effectively. Originality/value Customer satisfaction and loyalty in terms of emotions are generally overlooked in the call center industry because of the focus on performance metrics. This study shows that emotions must be taken into account to ensure customer retention and the competitive edge.

We conducted three studies to examine how the recipients of negative workplace gossip judge the gossip sender’s morality and how they respond behaviorally. Study 1 provided experimental evidence that gossip recipients perceive senders as low in morality, with female recipients rating the sender’s morality more negatively than male recipients. In a follow-up experiment (Study 2), we further found that perceived low morality translates into behavioral responses in the form of career-related sanctions by the recipient on the gossip sender. A critical incident study (Study 3) enhanced the external validity and extended the moderated mediation model by showing that gossip recipients also penalize senders with social exclusion. We discuss the implications for practice and research on negative workplace gossip, gender differences in attributions of morality, and gossip recipients’ behavioral responses.

Our paper contributes to emerging management research on the effects of societal inequality. It aims to study the relationship between societal-level inequality and perceived unequal HR practices within organizations based on relationships which we term “relation-based inequality” (RBI). We further examine the moderating effect of country corruption on the RBI-employee commitment link. Thus, whereas previous research has looked at single countries, there is still much to know about societal effects of inequality and corruption on employee perceptions and attitudes at work across countries. By surveying 691employees from five countries and using country-level indicators we take a first step in this direction, and establish that inequality (income, health and education) is linked to higher levels of relation-based HR practices. We also show that the effect of RBI is different for continuance, affective and normative commitment, and contingent on country corruption levels.