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This 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.

Data 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.

Perceived 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.

This 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.

This study proved that the complaining intention model, separated from complaining behavior, could successfully be applied to academic library services.

Opines that feedback information through complaints can solve many problems and/or improve performance and service quality – and eventually help libraries satisfy their customers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether complaint behavior intentions and expectations of service recovery based on the justice theory are different among customers from collectivistic versus individualistic cultures. A secondary purpose is to find which service recovery strategies are appropriate for different culture-based complaint behavior intentions.

A survey was conducted at universities, and the survey population consisted of college students, who are known to be frequent users of fast-food restaurants. A total of 304 usable questionnaires were collected. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify the validity of the items, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to examine the internal consistency of the factors, and an independent sample t-test was used to analyze differences in complaint behavior intentions and expectations of service recovery efforts in terms of cultural difference.

The results of this study indicated that South Koreans revealed more voice complaint behavior intentions than Americans did. However, there were no significant differences in expectations of service recovery efforts between them. Second, American customers who indicated voice and private complaint behavior intentions expected distributive, procedural and interpersonal justice in complaint-handling procedures. South Korean customers who indicated voice complaint behavior intentions expected distributive and procedural justice, and South Korean customers who indicated private complaint behavior intentions anticipated interactional justice in complaint-handling procedures.

Understanding customers’ complaint behavior intentions and expectations of service recovery based on the justice theory and cultural differences will suggest practical implications to hospitality industry managers for effective service quality management.

Understanding customers’ complaint behavior intentions and expectations of service recovery based on the justice theory and cultural differences will suggest practical implications to hospitality industry managers for effective service quality management.

This report investigates attitude towards complaining, societal benefits and probability of complaint success, with emphasis on complaint intentions and actions, in applying the theory of planned behaviour to complaint behaviour in Malaysia. On the basis of a sample of 834 respondents at the National Consumer Complaint Centre, the Tribunal for Consumer Claims Malaysia, and three shopping malls, the research findings suggest that complainers with a more positive attitude towards those three factors have a stronger tendency to make a complaint. However, consumers with positive perceptions of societal benefits and a higher probability of success are less likely to take action for seeking redress. Moreover, the influence of attitude, benefits, and probability of success on complaint actions is mediated by intention.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the main causes for complaining behaviour intentions expressed in three dimensions: private response, complaining response and complaining to third parties. The objectives are, first to study the direct influence of a set of antecedents and complaining behaviour intentions and second, to analyse the moderator effect of previous restaurant experience on subsequent relations.

A quantitative research method was used based on a self‐administered ad‐hoc questionnaire on a sample of 388 individuals who remembered an unsatisfactory experience in a restaurant.

The results show that the following variables have significant effects on intentions: attitudes towards complaining, level of information and complaining experience, level of dissatisfaction and likelihood of success with the complaint. An increased effect of attitudes towards complaining has been found in customers with no previous experience of the restaurant.

This work shows that the customer's previous experience is important in the formation of complaining behaviour intentions and therefore research is needed on new variables which may play a moderator role.

This paper aims to examine the joint effect of the focal customer’s gender and fellow customer’s gender in influencing voice complaint intentions and intention to convey negative word of mouth (NWOM).

Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two dining conditions (same-gender fellow customer vs opposite-gender fellow customer). Their intention to voice a complaint and to spread NWOM were measured after reading a scenario describing a service failure. A 2 (focal customer gender: male vs female) × 2 (fellow customer: same gender vs opposite gender) between-subjects quasi-experimental design was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that female customers’ voice complaint intentions were significantly higher when a fellow customer’s gender was female rather than male. In contrast, regardless of the fellow customer’s gender, no significant differences in voice complaint intentions were found among male customers. The results further indicate that voice complaint intentions mediate the impact of a fellow customer’s gender on intention to spread NWOM among female customers. However, both female and male participants show equally high levels of voice complaint intentions in the context of fine-dining restaurant.

This study broadens the understanding of customer complaining behavior and also provides insights to practitioners on how to manage customers who are in same- and mixed-gender situations.

This research extends the literature on agency–communal theory and complaining behaviors by examining the role of a fellow customer’s gender influencing the focal customer’s intentions to voice complaints and to spread NWOM.

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 purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the decision process behind whether customers complain, and to identify the effects of the situational factor credence quality in this decision process.

A quasi-experimental design is used in which scenarios are applied in combination with a survey to test and to compare the model and its boundary conditions with existing consumer behavior models.

The mental-accounting process (theory of trying to complain (TTC)) seems to be a stronger predictor than mere attitude models (theory of planned behavior) when trying to explain intention to complain. Second, anticipated justice from complaint handling is a strong driver of intention to complain. Third, in both models, subjective norms are a strong predictor of intention to complain.

This study contributes to both theory and practice by extending existing theory and offering the TTC, and by providing practical insight for service managers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to compare systematically two complaint approaches explaining complaint intention: the attitude model and the mental-accounting model.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention under group service failures.

Based on two main laboratory experiments, through two 10×2 scenario simulation experiments, the authors examine the role of group size in customer's complaining intention.

Results show that: (1) the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention follows an inverted “U” type trend; (2) evaluation apprehension mediates the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention; (3) relational distance can change threshold values and (4) relational distance moderates the relationship between group size and customer's complaining intention.

Managers should judge the threshold of group size through experience so as to have a preliminary understanding of customer evaluation concerns and complaint intention. In the face of service failure groups smaller than the threshold range, managers should divided the group into several small groups. For service failure groups larger than the threshold range, the opinion leaders in the group should be given more attention, so as to control the whole group.

This paper is helpful to deeply understand the key role of group size in the process of customer complaints, and also provides decision-making basis for service enterprises to deal with group customer complaints.

There has been little research about the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention. The previous studies on customer's complaining intention focus on its influences on group size, and draw a single common conclusion that the customer's intention to complain will increase with the growing number of groups increases. However, few studies are explored on the threshold of group size. Therefore, this paper will focus on the threshold effect of group size on customer's complaining intention to fill the gap.

The 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.

Study 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.

The 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.

Service 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.

The 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.

This 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.

This study aims to demonstrate that meta-perceptions play a contributing role in customers’ direct complaint intention.

In an exploratory study, we identified different types of meta-perceptions. In a scenario-based experiment, we tested the interaction effect of service failure attribution and the perceived service failure severity on meta-perceptions and direct complaint intention.

After experiencing service failure, customers amplify both positive and negative meta-perceptions. Depending on how customers attribute the service failure and perceive the magnitude of service failure, they evaluate these meta-perceptions differently which then determine their subsequent actions.

The use of hypothetical scenarios may not capture the richness of an actual service encounter. The study is limited to two service failure contexts: cable TV connection and restaurant booking.

Service managers should design marketing strategies that can elevate customers’ positive social image associated with voicing complaints.

This study offers a new explanation, in that some customers do not engage in direct complaining behavior owing to meta-perceptions that they develop during service failure.