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The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of emotions that consumers experience following service failures and to assess the effects of each of these emotions on important behavioral outcomes.

This paper extends the work of Wetzer et al. (2007) and draws upon the existing literature to test a series of research hypotheses tying emotions to four important behavioral outcomes primarily using stepwise regression.

When a service failure occurs, customers experience any of a variety of negative emotions. The effect on behavioral outcomes depends on the specific emotion experienced by the consumer. The current research, which benefits by using retrospective experience sampling, finds that frustration is the predominant emotion experienced by customers following service failure, but that anger, regret and frustration affect behavioral outcomes. Uncertainty also plays a role.

Future research should investigate the antecedents of propensity for emotions and predisposition toward industries, as well as the consequences of word-of-mouth (WOM) praise and WOM activity. Additionally, emotions could be examined by service stage. Several other moderators could be investigated, including severity, complaining behavior, repeat occurrence, service importance, remedies and forgiveness, product vs process failures, tenure, gender and age.

The current research emphasizes the importance of understanding which emotion is being experienced by a customer following service failure to identify the behavioral outcomes that will be most impacted. The specific managerial implications depend upon the specific emotional response experienced by the customer and are discussed separately for anger, regret and frustration. Service personnel must be trained to recognize and address specific customer emotions rather than to provide a canned or generalized response.

To date, there has been little, if any, systematic research into the effects of multiple discrete negative emotions on multiple desirable behavioral outcomes. The current study examines six discrete emotions. Predominant emotions are differentiated from emotional intensity. The behavioral outcomes of reconciliation and reduced share-of-wallet are added to the traditional outcomes of repatronage intentions and negative WOM. While existing research tends to rely on a scenario approach, this study uses the retrospective experience sampling method. The authors distinguish between mixed emotions and multiple emotions. The relative effects of disappointment and regret are examined for each of the four outcomes. Finally, importance-performance map analysis was applied to the findings to prioritize managerial attention. Numerous managerial and research implications are identified.

Although service researchers have long suggested that customer mistreatment adversely impacts service employees' outcomes, statistical integration of current empirical findings has been lacking. This meta-analysis aims to review and statistically synthesize the state of research on the relationship between customer mistreatment and service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.

The authors included 221 effect sizes of 135 independent samples from 119 primary studies (N = 47,964). The authors used a meta-analytic approach to quantitatively review the relationship between customer mistreatment and service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Meta-analysis structural equation modeling was used to explore the mediation mechanism of service employees' affective outcomes on the relationships between customer mistreatment and employees' attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Meta-regression was applied to explore the impact of contextual-level moderators (i.e. service provider type and service delivery mode) on these relationships. Furthermore, we compared the effects of customer mistreatment with the effects of other organizational-related factors on some commonly measured employee outcomes.

The results show that customer mistreatment has a significant negative impact on service employees' affective outcomes (i.e. negative emotions), attitudinal outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement and turnover intention) and behavioral outcomes (i.e. job performance, surface acting and emotional labor). Additionally, service employees' negative emotions mediate the association between customer mistreatment and employees' job satisfaction, turnover intention, surface acting and emotional labor. Furthermore, the relationships between customer mistreatment and service employees' negative emotions and job performance are influenced by a contextual-level moderator (i.e. service delivery mode).

The authors contribute to the literature by providing robust meta-analytic estimates of the effects of customer mistreatment on a variety of service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, as well as the different magnitudes of the effect sizes between customer mistreatment and other job-related and personality-related factors by quantifying the true variability of the effect sizes. The authors draw on current theories underpinning customer mistreatment to test a theoretical model of the mediation mechanism of service employees' affective outcomes (i.e. service employees' negative emotions) on the relationships between customer mistreatment and employees' attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The authors explore the effects of two contextual-level factors (i.e. service provider types and service delivery mode) related to the service delivery context that may account for the variability of effect sizes across empirical studies.

Negotiators are offered limited advice on how to overcome adverse events. Drawing on resilience and coping literatures, this study aims to test the impact of three cognitive processing strategies on negotiators’ subjective and economic value following adversity.

Participants completed two negotiations with the same partner. The difficulty of the first negotiation was manipulated and tested how cognitive processing of this experience influenced subjective and economic outcomes in the second negotiation.

Subjective and economic outcomes were predicted by negotiators’ affect, their cognitive processing strategy and negotiation difficulty. In difficult negotiations, as positive affect increased, proactive processing decreased self-satisfaction. As negative affect increased, affective processing increased satisfaction with relationship and process.

Cognitive processing of adversity is most effective when emotions are not running high and better able to protect relationship- and process-oriented satisfaction than outcome-oriented satisfaction. The findings apply to one specific type of adversity and to circumstances that do not generate strong emotions.

This research tests which of three cognitive processing strategies is best able to prevent the aftermath of a difficult negotiation from spilling over into subsequent negotiations. Two forms of proactive processing are more effective than immersive processing in mitigating the consequences.

This study aims to investigate how individuals’ regulatory focus affects perceived value and consumption emotions and how differently perceived value and emotions influence the future behavioral intentions of ethnic restaurant customers.

The proposed model was empirically tested with the online survey sent to frequent American travelers who have had dining experiences at Asian restaurants. A total of 435 valid responses were obtained and analyzed by means of structural equation modeling analysis.

The results indicated that promotion-focused individuals are more likely to perceive both hedonic and utilitarian values, and as a result experience positive emotions while dining at Asian restaurants. On the other hand, prevention focus was not significantly related to either hedonic or utilitarian values in itself, and it has a significant effect on negative emotions. The results also demonstrated that perceived hedonic and utilitarian values directly and/or indirectly influence behavioral intentions through consumption emotions.

This study contributes to existing knowledge on regulatory focus theory by identifying significant theoretical relationships among cognitive and affective consumption responses and regulatory focus. Specifically, the main contributions include suggesting novel perspectives that promotion focus is associated with consumers’ value perception, whereas prevention focus is not, and making a first attempt to discover a relationship between regulatory foci and two general types of consumption emotions (positive and negative emotions) and identifying theoretically important associations that promotion focus (vs prevention focus) is more strongly related to positive emotions (vs negative emotions).

This study aims to investigate interrelationships among perceived service fairness, emotions and behavioral intentions in a restaurant context.

Data were collected from two casual dining restaurants in the USA. The data were analyzed following Anderson and Gerbing's two‐step approach, utilizing both a measurement model and a subsequent structural model.

This study shows different roles for each fairness perception in relation to emotions and behavioral intentions based on the Mehrabian‐Russell model. Setting reasonable prices and providing efficient services in a timely manner were found to be the key to negate negative emotion. At the same time, the findings suggest that providing high‐quality tangible outcomes and intangible services are critical to evoke positive emotions and eventually to generate future favorable behaviors.

The data were collected from only casual dining restaurants. Therefore, generalizing the results to other segments of the restaurant industry may not work.

The results of this study can help restaurant managers to develop more effective and efficient strategies for ensuring fairness, thus resulting in higher levels of customer retention and profits.

Compared with previous fairness studies, which have focused exclusively on the role of justice after service failure and recovery, this study considers all service delivery contexts (with or without service failure) in order to provide a richer portrait of service fairness. Also, this study contributes to the services marketing and consumer behavior literature by shedding light on the issue of “fairness” as an axiom for evaluating services in restaurants.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the asymmetric effect of negative and positive attribute‐level performance (i.e. effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, flow experience, and satisfaction) of online social networking (OSN) on behavioral intention.

An investigation of behavioral intention in OSN was conducted, with a total of 482 effective questionnaires collected. The psychometric properties of the measures were investigated and a dummy‐variable regression model was applied to estimate the regression coefficients.

The results confirm that the importance of asymmetrical effect is not equivalent for different attributes. Negative performance on performance expectancy, effort expectancy, flow experience, and satisfaction had a larger effect on behavioral intention than positive performance. In contrast, positive performance on social influence and facilitating conditions had a larger effect on behavioral intention than negative performance.

This paper adds to the extant literature by offering an empirical investigation of the asymmetric effect of OSN attribute‐level performance on behavioral intention. Furthermore, by focusing on the positive‐negative asymmetry effect, the proposed model also significantly increases the value of OSN through an understanding of behavioral intention and its antecedents.

Information and communications technology (ICT) offers enormous opportunities for individuals, businesses and society. The application of ICT is equally important to economic and non-economic activities. Researchers have increasingly focused on the adoption and use of ICT by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the economic development of a country is largely dependent on them. Following the success of ICT utilisation in SMEs in developed countries, many developing countries are looking to utilise the potential of the technology to develop SMEs. Past studies have shown that the contribution of ICT to the performance of SMEs is not clear and certain. Thus, it is crucial to determine the effectiveness of ICT in generating firm performance since this has implications for SMEs’ expenditure on the technology. This research examines the diffusion of ICT among SMEs with respect to the typical stages from innovation adoption to post-adoption, by analysing the actual usage of ICT and value creation. The mediating effects of integration and utilisation on SME performance are also studied. Grounded in the innovation diffusion literature, institutional theory and resource-based theory, this study has developed a comprehensive integrated research model focused on the research objectives. Following a positivist research paradigm, this study employs a mixed-method research approach. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed through an extensive literature review and is refined by results from an in-depth field study. During the field study, a total of 11 SME owners or decision-makers were interviewed. The recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using NVivo 10 to refine the model to develop the research hypotheses. The final research model is composed of 30 first-order and five higher-order constructs which involve both reflective and formative measures. Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is employed to test the theoretical model with a cross-sectional data set of 282 SMEs in Bangladesh. Survey data were collected using a structured questionnaire issued to SMEs selected by applying a stratified random sampling technique. The structural equation modelling utilises a two-step procedure of data analysis. Prior to estimating the structural model, the measurement model is examined for construct validity of the study variables (i.e. convergent and discriminant validity).

The estimates show cognitive evaluation as an important antecedent for expectation which is shaped primarily by the entrepreneurs’ beliefs (perception) and also influenced by the owners’ innovativeness and culture. Culture further influences expectation. The study finds that facilitating condition, environmental pressure and country readiness are important antecedents of expectation and ICT use. The results also reveal that integration and the degree of ICT utilisation significantly affect SMEs’ performance. Surprisingly, the findings do not reveal any significant impact of ICT usage on performance which apparently suggests the possibility of the ICT productivity paradox. However, the analysis finally proves the non-existence of the paradox by demonstrating the mediating role of ICT integration and degree of utilisation explain the influence of information technology (IT) usage on firm performance which is consistent with the resource-based theory. The results suggest that the use of ICT can enhance SMEs’ performance if the technology is integrated and properly utilised. SME owners or managers, interested stakeholders and policy makers may follow the study’s outcomes and focus on ICT integration and degree of utilisation with a view to attaining superior organisational performance.

This study urges concerned business enterprises and government to look at the environmental and cultural factors with a view to achieving ICT usage success in terms of enhanced firm performance. In particular, improving organisational practices and procedures by eliminating the traditional power distance inside organisations and implementing necessary rules and regulations are important actions for managing environmental and cultural uncertainties. The application of a Bengali user interface may help to ensure the productivity of ICT use by SMEs in Bangladesh. Establishing a favourable national technology infrastructure and legal environment may contribute positively to improving the overall situation. This study also suggests some changes and modifications in the country’s existing policies and strategies. The government and policy makers should undertake mass promotional programs to disseminate information about the various uses of computers and their contribution in developing better organisational performance. Organising specialised training programs for SME capacity building may succeed in attaining the motivation for SMEs to use ICT. Ensuring easy access to the technology by providing loans, grants and subsidies is important. Various stakeholders, partners and related organisations should come forward to support government policies and priorities in order to ensure the productive use of ICT among SMEs which finally will help to foster Bangladesh’s economic development.

This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) skepticism on dual types of attitudinal factors (i.e. positive attitude and reactance) and examine the impact of attitudinal factors on customers' behavioral intention.

This study applies mixed-method research to examine the link between CSR skepticism, positive attitude, reactance and behavioral intention based on attitude-behavior-context theory.

As predicted, CSR skepticism weakens a favorable attitude toward CSR, whereas it increases the level of reactance. Also, CSR skepticism negatively influences behavioral intention, while positive attitude and reactance positively influence behavioral intention.

Understanding customers' skepticism toward CSR has become increasingly important because of its negative consequences. Despite existing studies on CSR skepticism, few have focused on why and how CSR skepticism leads to negative behavioral outcomes. Thus, this research contributes to existing tourism literature by examining the role of CSR skepticism on their attitude and behavior. Findings will help researchers and practitioners understand how CSR skepticism impacts customers' behavioral intention and develops CSR strategies to enhance the behavioral intention to patronize.

Most past research on formal mentoring has investigated its antecedents, outcomes and benefits with little attention given to what goes on inside the dyadic relationship. The purpose of this paper is to explore the types of mentor and mentee behaviours that are perceived as critical factors contributing to either a positive or negative mentoring experience for the mentee and the mentor.

Concrete examples of “effective” and “ineffective” mentor and mentee behaviour were collected from the research participants using Flanagan's Critical Incident Technique (CIT). The obtained CIT data were analyzed using forms of open and axial coding. Variants of content analysis were then used for conducting a series of subsequent comparative analyses.

From a total of 187 coded critical incidents the study identified 11 positive and four negative behavioural criteria of mentoring effectiveness as perceived from the mentee perspective, and nine positive and three negative behavioural criteria of mentoring effectiveness as perceived from the mentor perspective. Comparisons against “theoretical” and “best practice” models and taxonomies of positive and negative mentoring reveal varying degrees of overlap and commonality.

There are two main limitations. First, the number of research participants was at the bottom end of the typical sample range for qualitative research, which means the collection of critical incidents did not reach the point of data saturation. Second, the study explored the “start‐up” and “ongoing” phases of the mentoring lifecycle but not the “end” phase.

The findings provide new insights into mentor and mentee behavioural effectiveness within formal mentoring relationships, and thereby add to a sparse empirical knowledge base in this substantially neglected area of mentoring research. Also, they provide a foundation against which to compare and contrast future empirical research that may be conducted on perceived effective and ineffective mentor and mentee behaviours within formal mentoring relationships.