The effects of response strategies and severity of failure on consumer attribution with regard to negative word-of-mouth

Chang, Hsin Hsin; Tsai, Yen‐Hsi Richard; Wong, Kit Hong; Wang, Jian Wei; Cho, Fang Ju

doi:10.1016/j.dss.2015.01.007

Cited by 120 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…attitudes guiding complainants' brand avoidance behaviors) than others because of their better matching to complainants' desires. Extant literature supports this assumption (Chang et al, 2015). An explanation can be found in "equity theory" (Adams, 1963), which implies that people try to reduce distress by restoring either their physical or psychological equity when they experience unfairness.…”

Section: Complainant-type As a Moderator Of Webcare Effectivenessmentioning

confidence: 98%

Webcare’s effect on constructive and vindictive complainants

Weitzl¹

2019

JPBM

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Purpose-This paper aims to demonstrate that online complainants' reactions to a company's service recovery attempts (webcare) can significantly vary across two different types of dissatisfied customers ("vindictives" vs "constructives"), who have dramatically diverging complaint goal orientations. Design/methodology/approach-Online multi-country survey among 812 adult consumers who recently had a dissatisfying brand experience and turned to a marketer-generated social media site to voice an online complaint for achieving their ultimate complaining goals. Scenario-based online experiment for cross-validating the survey findings. Findings-Results suggest that "vindictive complainants"driven dominantly by brand-adverse motivesare immune to any form of webcare, while "constructive complainants"interested in restoring the customer-brand relationshipreact more sensitively. For the latter, "no-responses" often trigger detrimental brand-related reactions (e.g. unfavorable brand image), whereas "defensive responses" are likely to stimulate postwebcare negative word-of-mouth. Research limitations/implications-This research identifies the gains and harms of (un-)desired webcare. By doing so, it not only sheds light on the circumstances when marketers have to fear negative effects (e.g. negative word-of-mouth) but also provides insights into the conditions when such effects are unlikely. While the findings of the cross-sectional survey are validated with an online experiment, findings should be interpreted with care as other complaining contexts should be further investigated. Practical implications-Marketers have to expect a serious "backfiring effect" from an unexpected source, namely, consumers who were initially benevolent toward the involved brand but who received an inappropriate response. Originality/value-This research is one of the first research studies that enables marketers to identify situations when webcare is likely to backfire on the brand after a service failure.

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Section: Complainant-type As a Moderator Of Webcare Effectivenessmentioning

confidence: 98%

Webcare’s effect on constructive and vindictive complainants

Weitzl¹

2019

JPBM

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“…Mudambi [12] discovered that neutral online review could provide more objective information thus be more useful. Overall, few studies examined the influence of interaction between consumers and companies on negative review [30].…”

Section: Negative Online Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Negative Online Review on Consumer's Purchase Intention: A Dual-Process Perspective

Xiao¹

2016

IJUNESST

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“…Chang H H and other studies show that different coping strategies and severity of different service failures have different effects on attribution sources. Attribution sources generate negative word of mouth [by] influencing organizational reputation [7]. Based on the theory of reasoned action.…”

Section: The Mechanism Of Negative Word Of Mouthmentioning

confidence: 99%