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This study aims to elucidate how different relationship investment efforts by a service firm affect its customers’ perceived relationship investment; to determine how perceived relationship investment influences various dimensions of relationship strength; and to explore the moderating effects of customer innovativeness and complaint propensity on the relationship between the perceived relationship investment and relationship strength.

To minimize common method variance, data were collected from pairs of life insurance agents in China and their clients using self-report questionnaires. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that customers value financial effort most followed by social effort and structural effort. Perceived relationship investment influences the affective strength most strongly, followed by cognitive strength and conative strength. Customer innovativeness and complaint propensity both moderate the effectiveness of perceived relationship investment in influencing two of the three dimensions of relationship strength.

This study is among the first to specify how service employees can guide consumer perceptions of relationship investment by applying three types of relationship investment effort. The impact of perceived relationship investment on different dimensions of relationship strength was assessed to demonstrate how service providers can benefit from investing in building consumer relationships. The moderating impact of consumer innovativeness and of complaint propensity was quantified. The research findings have important implications for managing different relationship investment as well as recruiting and training service employees.

The article is one in a series that offers a fresh look at the paradigmatic shifts being experienced by the traditional, government supported banking establishments, especially those in the erstwhile socialist and mixed economies, in the newly embraced context of liberalization‐ privatization‐globalization. It attempts to fill a great void in debates that consistently neglected every voice except that of the triumphant customer by giving some room for the managerial viewpoint as well. This mission is undertaken in the context of customer complaints regarding failure in the delivery of banking services. The article makes a case for the delicate aspect of employees' attitudes, their satisfaction and motivation, which are posited as prerequisites for customer satisfaction, which is, again, sine qua non for the competitive sustenance of the organization. It argues that sustainable advantage is possible only through people and any normative proposal to rework the “apprehension” traditionally attached to complaints should begin with a radical shift away from perceiving service production and consumption as isolated systems to an altogether new conception of the product as symbolic of a network relationship defined among the stakeholders and co‐evolved in an environment whose parameters are potentially altered through recurrent inter‐party negotiations involved in the contract. Everything, including the formation of appropriate policies and training for the frontline personnel to cope up with the “irate” customers, should be properly informed from this perspective, it advocates.

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.

Aims to examine consumer politeness, an interaction style that may prevent a dissatisfied customer from complaining about a negative service encounter, and seeks to determine the relationship between politeness and the propensity to engage in various types of complaining behavior.

Two surveys served to develop and validate a scale for measuring politeness and tested the relationship between consumer politeness and complaining behavior. The specific items for the politeness scale were developed based on the distinction between negative and positive politeness as described by politeness theory.

The results suggest an inverse relationship between politeness and complaining behavior. The studies also find that polite and impolite consumers do not necessarily engage in the same types of complaining behavior.

In future studies, researchers may consider examining the conditions under which polite consumers do and do not voice complaints. Researchers may also consider investigating the possibility of a relationship between politeness and the opposite of complaining behavior, i.e. complimenting behavior.

Given that voice offers managers an opportunity to identify and then remedy problems, they should look for non‐threatening ways to encourage consumers to engage in this behavior. Managers may, for example, consider using positive politeness as a means for soliciting complaints.

This study introduces a sociolinguistic construct to help explain propensity to engage in complaining behavior. As such, it serves to identify and isolate one of the challenges managers face in addressing consumer complaints across a variety of service industries.

Advertising expenditure has risen globally and in Australia there has been a 2.7‐fold increase in the last ten years. It is suggested that some advertisements may be “unacceptable”, that is, unfair, misleading, deceptive, offensive, false or socially irresponsible. This research is concerned with consumer behaviour and consumer complaint behaviour specifically in the area of advertising in Australia. The findings indicate that complainants are significantly different from the population at large. This research will afford the regulatory bodies a better understanding of the complaining public as well as educating marketing communications strategists in effectively reaching their target markets.

How do online customers judge a product's attributes in cyberspace? Previous studies of online product category suggest that all goods are not equal on the Web, because products have different attributes. Furthermore, the literature assumes that the customer's ability to evaluate product quality on the Web differs according to product attributes. Based on these considerations, the purpose of this study is to determine whether a customer's dissatisfaction and propensity to complain on the Web differ depending on product category. This study examines how selected variables (i.e. monetary, and non‐monetary effort, and the degree of involvement) influenced the impact of product category on customer dissatisfaction. The analysis was performed using survey data, collected both online and offline. The findings suggest the most appropriate strategies online companies should employ for each product category in question.

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.

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.

The goal of the present conceptual paper is to integrate two streams of literature related to service failures: customer complaining behaviors (CCB) and service recovery literature. The suggested conceptual framework intends to broaden the thinking on consumers' complaint handling processes for hospitality institutions.

A model is proposed that integrates the service recovery and CCB literatures under a single framework. A careful literature review is performed to justify the conceptual framework.

The framework offers a starting point for broadening the thinking on consumers' complaint handling processes.

Systematic empirical research is needed to test the integrative model.

This paper offers insight for hospitality managers into how to effectively deal with dissatisfied customer experiences.

Companies' relationship with their customers through e-commerce platforms has increased considerably in the past few years, bringing new challenges concerning service guarantees (SG). This study aims to propose a framework of the relations between customers' expectations on SG, their negative experiences and their attitudes and behavioural intentions towards an e-commerce platform.

The research had a qualitative and descriptive approach. Testimonials from clients of an online e-commerce platform were obtained through interviews via videoconference and non-participant observation on a complaints website in Brazil. The testimonies were analysed through content analysis.

The customer expectations regarding the SG offered by the e-commerce platform are congruent with the five categories of the theory that support this research. Customer testimonials on the complaints site show that their negative experiences with the e-commerce platform generated negative emotional, cognitive and behavioural responses towards the company. A framework was proposed, including customers' expectations regarding SG, their negative experiences and their repercussions on clients' attitudes and behavioural intentions.

This article is the only that contemplates customers' expectations about SG in an e-commerce platform, relating them to attitudes and behavioural intentions. Thus, its framework demonstrates the relationships between customer expectations about SGs, their negative experiences and attitudinal and behavioural repercussions. This article brings academic and managerial contributions for companies and managers of e-commerce platforms. It contributes to clients and consumer protection associations by revealing problems they face with SG on e-commerce platforms. This research can be used by those responsible for elaborating laws and public policies to regulate and inspect the relationships between e-commerce platforms and their customers.