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The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, develop and test a conceptual model to understand customers’ intention to adopt online complaining. Second, to assess two competing perspectives regarding elaboration likelihood for the moderating impact of individual differences.

A scenario‐based survey was used to assess respondents’ beliefs, attitude, and usage intentions toward online complaining. Furthermore, individual and situational characteristics were assessed. The data were analyzed using partial least squares path modeling.

Attitude toward online complaining is a function of both process and outcome beliefs. It is also influenced by individual characteristics, but remains unaffected by situational characteristics. In contrast, usage intentions are influenced by situational characteristics, but by personal differences. For the moderating impact of affect‐based personality characteristics, the often used cognitive effort perspective to elaboration likelihood is not supported. Rather the consumption value perspective applies for these variables.

The use of a single setting, as well as the use of scenarios, may negatively impact external validity. Future research is needed to further explain the contradictory perspectives regarding information processing.

The results provide insight into determinants of customer online complaining. This opens up new possibilities to increase the number of complainants in case of service failures and for firms to take corrective action.

To the authors’ best knowledge, this is a first empirical study aimed at understanding what drives online customer complaining.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how psychological empowerment affects individuals’ likelihood of publicly punishing a company with whom they had unsatisfactory experiences through online complaining behaviors.

A 3 (intrapersonal empowerment: high/low/control) by 3 (interactional empowerment: high/low/control) online experiment was designed using the priming technique. Following the priming tasks, participants were given a scenario in which a restaurant failed their expectations followed by dependent and control measures.

Results revealed a significant main effect of interactional empowerment: participants in the low interactional empowerment condition reported being less likely to engage in the revenge-motivated online public complaining behaviors than participants in the control condition. The study also found a significant interaction effect between interactional and intrapersonal empowerment.

The study findings yield practical application for crisis management and relationship management. Understanding the linkage between power and online complaining behaviors should help corporate communication professionals to better perform risk assessment, environmental scanning and crisis communication and management.

Limited empirical studies have investigated the linkage between empowerment and online complaining behaviors in the consumer context. The present study fills this gap by conceptualizing online public complaining as a revenge-motivated behavior. The study yields both theoretical and practical implications.

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.

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.

Results suggest that “vindictive complainants” – driven dominantly by brand-adverse motives – are immune to any form of webcare, while “constructive complainants” – interested in restoring the customer-brand relationship – react 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 post-webcare negative word-of-mouth.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this study is to apply the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict which factors can determine consumers' intentions to complain when they meet an online or offline service failure.

The method of obtaining quantitative data was that of the instrument of a survey questionnaire. Data were collected from 300 potential consumers to assess the influence of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on the intention to complain. Participants were assigned averagely and randomly to one of two conditions: online medium and offline medium. Two‐stage structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses.

It was found that both the TRA and the TPB predict the intention to complain well, although the predictive power of the TPB is more robust than the TRA in online media and is weaker than the TRA in offline media. In particular, perceived behavioral control is a better predictor of intention to complain than is attitude or subjective norm in the online environment.

This study assessed self‐reported behavioral intention as part of its survey and, as a result, could have introduced unintentional inaccuracies.

The findings of the study will help marketers to address the key factor which influences consumers' intention to complain and to improve firm performances to meet consumer needs.

The TRA and TPB are novel and usable in explaining the intention of online and offline consumers to complain, and these findings may be generally applicable to marketers and consumers.

Online consumer complaint behaviour that is observable to other consumers provides the firm with an opportunity to demonstrate transparency and service quality to the public eye. The purpose of this paper is to assist practitioners with a strategy to increase perceived accommodativeness in complaint management on social media and reduce the social risk associated with online consumer complaint behaviour using a social exchange theory perspective.

Six online experiments with 1,350 US Facebook users were conducted to investigate the effect of supportive and non-supportive virtually present others, and employee intervention on a consumer’s choice to complain, likelihood to make an observable complaint (on the Facebook page) and likelihood to make a non-observable complaint (via Facebook Messenger). The mediating role of perceived accommodativeness and subsequent social risk is also examined.

Supportive comments made to the complainant by virtually present others were found to influence participants’ decision to complain, heighten participants’ likelihood to complain about the Facebook page and reduce their likelihood to complain via Facebook Messenger. This effect was reversed in the presence of non-supportive virtually present others and was explained by perceived social risk. Further, a participant’s likelihood to complain about the Facebook page was increased when an employee intervention was directed at a non-supportive comment made to a complainant, by a virtually present other. This effect was explained by the perceived accommodativeness of the employee interaction.

The findings advance research on online consumer complaint behaviour by investigating how employee intervention can be used to increase the likelihood of an observable complaint. This research is limited in that it does not incorporate individual characteristics, such as introversion/extroversion and propensity to respond to peer pressure, which may affect participant responses.

This research shows that perceptions of social risk are most effectively reduced by employee intervention directed at a non-supportive comment (made to a complainant) of a virtually present other. Consumer complaint management strategies aimed at minimising perceptions of social risk and encouraging observable online complaint behaviour are proposed.

This research extends the consumer complaint behaviour taxonomy by introducing the term “observable complaining”, that is, visible complaints made on a Facebook page, and broadens understanding of the organisation’s role in managing non-supportive virtually present others to assuage perceptions of social risk in potential complainants.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of complaint behaviour and service recovery satisfaction on consumer intentions to repurchase through internet channels.

Using survey data from large consumer samples from 15 European countries, the authors classify consumers according to: whether they had negative experiences with online purchases, whether they complained, and whether they were satisfied with the complaint handling. A logistic regression analysis assesses the effects of these experiences on repurchase intentions.

Remarkable differences arise among the consumers with respect to intentions to repurchase on the internet. Consumers with negative experiences who complained expressed higher repurchase intentions than consumers with no reason to complain and also than consumers who had negative experiences but did not complain. Yet the highest repurchase intentions arose among consumers who complained and expressed satisfaction with the complaint handling, in support of the service recovery paradox in an online setting.

This project is one of the first empirical studies of the consequences of dissatisfaction and complaints related to online purchase behaviour.

This paper aims to provide an integrative view of the conceptualizations, definitions, antecedents and taxonomies of consumer complaining behavior (CCB). Additionally, the study aims to provide an updated synthesis and classification of both legitimate and illegitimate CCB antecedents, as well as an integrated CCB taxonomy.

A multi-stage systematic search is conducted and 226 research articles relevant to the scope of the study are analyzed to fulfill the study’s objectives.

Through an exhaustive aggregation, legitimate and illegitimate CCB antecedents identified in the literature are collated and a classification schema is developed. Deficiencies observed in extant CCB taxonomies are addressed and a refined taxonomy incorporating illegitimate CCB is developed.

The conclusions drawn on the basis of this paper are contingent on the effectiveness of the keyword-based systematic search process that is used to demarcate the extant literature.

This paper suggests a three-pronged approach of differential enabling, legitimacy evaluation and differential management. This holistic perspective aims at enabling firms to design complaint management policies and systems that control fake complaints while maintaining sufficient redress opportunities for genuine dissatisfaction.

The paper proposes an identical classification schema for legitimate and illegitimate CCB antecedents and is the first broad-based attempt to develop an integrated CCB taxonomy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how students from Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia differ in their propensity to complain and attitudes to complaining.

A self‐administered questionnaire was designed using established scales to assess respondent reactions to a service failure by a university. The survey was completed by a sample of university students on an Australian university campus. ANOVA was used to compare differences between groups and regression was used to explore the relationship between attitudes and their complaining behaviours.

Australian students have a less positive attitude to complaining than Malaysian and Indonesian consumers. Contrary to expectations, “switching” behaviours were not revealed as a separate dimension of complaining behaviours, however switching was identified with online complaining as part of a new complaining dimension related to taking action outside of the organisation. Malaysian and Indonesian students are more likely to complain in this way. Surprisingly, Indonesian students are less likely to remain loyal to the service provider and Australian students were less likely to “voice” internally to the service provider. Having a positive attitude to complaining was positively related to taking action outside the organisation and to voicing within the organisation, while negative attitudes to complaining were positively related to remaining loyal to the service provider for Australian and Malaysian students.

The findings are limited to consumers of complex services such as University degrees. They are also limited to Indonesian, Malaysian and Australian consumers. Other service contexts, cultures and product failure situations should be investigated in the future.

This research bridges an inherent gap in the literature by exploring the complaining behavior of students in an Asia‐Pacific context. Service organisations can use the findings to better interpret and respond to complaining behavior by students from different nationalities. In particular, it helps faculty and university administrators to manage dissatisfied students from diverse national backgrounds and assists marketers to develop marketing initiatives and communication policies for the student recruitment process.

This paper analyses how the purchase channel and customer complaint goals affect the sequential choice of post–purchase complaint channels when customers experience a service failure followed by a service recovery failure (double deviation).

An online survey involving a scenario manipulation was conducted with 577 apparel shoppers. The study employs multi-group latent class analysis to estimate latent customer segments within both online and offline groups of shoppers and compare latent classes between the two groups.

The results show that the purchase channel has a lock-in effect on the complaint channel, which is stronger for offline buyers. Moreover, there is evidence of channel synergy effects in the case of having to complain twice: shoppers who complain in store in the first attempt turn to online channels in the second complaint attempt, and vice versa. Complaint goals shape the choice of complaint channels and define different shopper segments.

The present study is the first to adopt a cross-stage approach that analyses the dependencies between the purchase channel and the complaint channel used on two subsequent occasions: the first complaint after a service failure and the second following a service recovery failure.

This paper aims to examine five distinct consumer reactions, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness, consumers’ complaining, boycotting behavior, work preferences and consumer donation behavior.

The analysis in this paper was based on data collected by a team of experts in the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry from more than 555 United Arab Emirates (UAE) individuals, aged 18 years or older. Our study postulated that there will be no statistically significant differences in any or all of the five reactions among respondents with different age, varying degree of CSR awareness, working preference, donation and boycotting behavior, and methods of complaining about companies or their products.

Gender analysis indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between male and female in terms of boycotting and complaining behaviors. Our analysis also showed that young consumers in the age group of 18-24 years react significantly different than older age group in terms of job preference. Third, the results of location analysis indicated that the UAE consumers’ contacting behavior to a company to voice an opinion about a company’s product or services are significantly different across the seven Emirates of UAE.

The findings of this study have many implications. First, there is no doubt that such findings will raise the consumers’ awareness of CSR. UAE companies will become more cognizant of their consumers’ behavior, especially when the consumers’ voice their opinion and show interest in the products or services offered by these companies. The implications of this study for the academics are that this study can be replicated in different parts of the globe to confirm or refute our findings.

The findings of this study will enable UAE companies to design and implement strategies that aim at increasing their efficiency, competitiveness and the ability to compete in global markets.

Many of the developing economies started to realize how important CSR is. A fast growing economy such as that of UAE has given such topic an unprecedented attention. The social implication of our findings is that UAE corporations will have to rethink their strategies when it comes to their social responsibility toward society in which they exist. Our findings also enlighten consumers when it comes to their dealing with socially responsible corporations.

This study is unique in that it is the first empirically based study to address the consumer behavior and their reaction toward socially responsible corporations.