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This study aims to investigate whether frugality increases customer complaints via the mediating role of the zone of tolerance (ZOT) of quality for Shanzhai products. Additionally, the study seeks to explore how customer empathy as a boundary condition affects the relationship between the ZOT of quality and customer complaints.

Based on the purchasing data of 241 low-income customers from business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce and social platforms in China, hierarchical analysis was conducted in the study. Moreover, “PROCESS SPSS Macro” was used to test the mediation effect of the ZOT of quality and the moderated mediation effect with customer empathy as a moderator.

The results indicate a positive impact of frugality on customer complaints, which is mediated by the ZOT of quality. Moreover, with an increase in customer empathy, the negative effect of the ZOT of quality on customer complaints increases, and the positive influence of frugality on customer complaints, through the mediation of the ZOT of quality, also becomes stronger.

Drawing upon the principle of cognitive consistency, this study not only extends the stream of research on frugality by exploring how frugality influences customer complaints via the mediation of the ZOT of quality but also sheds new light on the research on customer empathy by exploring its moderating role in the relationship between the ZOT of quality and customer complaints.

All hypothesized relationships were significant. Specifically, H1 was supported as disconfirmation and surprising consumption were significantly correlated. Moreover, arousal (H2) and outrage (H4a) were functions of surprising consumption and negative affect (H3) and outrage (H4b) were functions of arousal. H4c was also supported as negative affect had a significant direct effect on consumer outrage. In addition, disconfirmation had negative direct effects on both negative affect (H5) and dissatisfaction (H6a) and dissatisfaction was a function of negative affect. Finally, both outrage (H7a) and dissatisfaction (H7b) had significant negative effects on behavioral intentions.

Respondents were recruited to participate in the data collection in a “college town” in the Southeastern United States. Respondents were provided a paper and pencil data collection instrument that include complete survey instructions and the balance of the research design. To adequately test all hypotheses, the researchers developed a unique scenario that described an extreme service failure that takes place during a hotel check-in. Each respondent was asked to read the scenario and then reflect upon it as they responded to items that assessed their feelings toward the hotel check-in experience.

The results provide additional evidence in support of the existence of the satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum, as well as specifically identifying the affective nature of levels of satisfaction that fall surprisingly well-below the zone of tolerance. The authors feel that the present study is a necessary step to provide a more comprehensive view of the satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum. Likewise, the authors posit initial evidence of the antecedents and consequences of consumer outrage. This research supports the prior assumptions of Westbrook (1987) about the vast detrimental effects of negative affective responses to service or product failures.

Future research needs to discover just how extremely deficient service has to be to elicit outrage. Is outrage a personal phenomenon with every consumer experiencing it to different degrees? As such, is outrage triggered at different points on the satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum? The zone of tolerance seems to suggest this, but it would be interesting to discover if at some collective level of dissatisfaction consumers generally begin to show signs of outrage. Likewise, it would be interesting to understand how the level and pattern of outrage results in customers exiting the relationship but also results in loyal customers becoming enemies (e.g. Gregiore et al., 2009; Gregiore and Fisher, 2008).

The motivation for the current study is both pragmatic and theoretical. As alluded to above, it is evident that the level of service customers’ emotional responses to their service experiences are increasing in frequency and intensity. These negative emotions affect the efficacy of service workers and impede the financial performance of service providers. The popular mantra of “anti-woke” consumers, “Go Woke, Go Broke,” is indicative of the importance of negative emotion. Sometimes referred to as “brand activism” (Moorman, 2020; Sarkar and Kotlet, 2019), recent public stances on social and political issues have led to a boycott of Gillette razors, the burning of Nike shoes, and the canceling of Costco Memberships in what has been called “virtue signaling” (Vredenburg et al., 2020). While none of these actions are desirable, the importance of investigating the impact of strong negative emotions (i.e. outrage) is further demonstrated in reports that 65% of consumers expect companies to authentically support such issues (Barton et al., 2018; Edelman, 2018; Larcker and Tayan, 2018; Moorman, 2020).

This article evaluates how consumer expectations evolve over time and if three antecedents (negative experiences, alternative attractiveness and level of visitation) explain possible changes in expectations.

A conceptual model is structured with six hypotheses that are tested through articulated studies. First, a study with a longitudinal approach is developed and applied to a sample of students. Data collection is carried out over three periods and a latent growth model (LGM) is applied. Further ahead, another essay is developed to reexamine the moderating role of corporate image and level of visitation on the effect of negative experiences on expectations. For this, the role-playing approach is applied.

Study 1 reveals that patterns of expectations change from one service meeting to another, and these mutations are influenced by negative experiences and alternative attractiveness. Three pieces of evidence are highlighted. First, negative experiences produce contradictory and simultaneous movements in consumer expectations. Negative experiences reduce desired expectations and, at the same time, increase adequate expectations. These effects change in magnitude because of the corporate image. This confirms the moderating role of the corporate image in the relationship between negative experiences and expectations. This does not happen with the level of visitation, in which the moderating function is not sustained. The findings about moderating effects are confirmed by Study 2. Second, as customers have alternative companies, the minimum level of expectation rises. Alternative attractiveness positively impacts only adequate expectations. Third, the results do not support the relationship between the level of visitation and expectations. This reveals that more frequent customers do not necessarily have higher expectations.

This paper is the first to provide empirical results about the moderating effects of corporate image and level of visitation on the relationship between negative experiences and expectations.

Effective customer journey design (ECJD) is considered a key variable in customer experience management and an essential source of brand meaning and pro-brand behavior. Although previous research has confirmed its importance for driving brand attitudes and loyalty, the role of consumer-brand identification as a social identity-based influence in this relationship has not yet been discussed. Drawing on construal level and social identity theories, this paper aims to investigate whether effective journeys and the resulting overall journey experience are equally powerful in driving brand loyalty among customers with different levels of consumer-brand identification.

The present article develops and tests a research model using data from the European and US service sectors (N = 1,454) to investigate how and when ECJD affects service brand loyalty.

Across two cultural contexts, four service industries and 33 service brands, the results reveal that ECJD is a crucial driver of service brand loyalty for customers with low consumer-brand identification. Moreover, the findings show that different aspects of journey effectiveness positively impact the valence of customers’ experience related to those journeys – a process that is ultimately decisive for their brand loyalty.

This study is unique because it generates theoretical and practical knowledge by combining the literature streams of customer journey design, customer experience and branding. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that consumer-brand identification is a critical boundary condition to be considered in the relationship between ECJD and brand loyalty in services.

Skilled workers are crucial for an organization’s success, and managing, retaining and attracting them is vital in long-term. This study aims to explore talent management practices in the Finnish restaurant industry and to align workers' expectations with the real-world experiences of their work to reduce turnover and enhance job satisfaction.

The study adopts a mixed methods approach, including a survey and interviews with workers and managers to gain insights into their expectations and experiences of work. The study considers themes for designing and implementing effective talent management procedures.

This study highlights the importance of employees' experiences of their work conditions, leveraging positive emotions and fair utilization of temporary agency work (TAW). Understanding the different work preferences of generational cohorts and addressing the challenges associated with owner disengagement and TAW can also contribute to attracting and retaining talent in the restaurant industry.

Skilled workers have often been portrayed as targets that need to be managed, with insufficient consideration given to their preferences, needs and expectations. With the findings of this study, companies can establish mutual understanding with their employees and attract diverse talent.

This research aims to focus on the impact of the metaverse on services marketing. After reviewing the past, current and anticipated future of the metaverse, the authors offer multiple research opportunities in accordance with theories germane to the services literature.

The current research uses a conceptual approach focused on key service theories and their relevance in the metaverse.

The metaverse presents a new paradigm of the customer experience, thus providing an opportunity for service researchers to advance this developing field. Further, the potential shortcomings of existing theory are explored, both within and external to services, to discover important areas for service scholars to examine. This results in research opportunities and questions for scholars to pursue as the metaverse continues to develop and shape consumer experiences.

Technological advancements have enabled the service sector to grow and thrive in the metaverse. It is evident that despite the metaverse’s growth, there remains a tremendous amount left to examine. Existing theories need to be reexamined and modified, or alternative theories reviewed to inform service research on the metaverse. Thus, the present research seeks to provide insight into opportunities for theory development by service researchers and identifies important areas of future scholarly work on the metaverse.

The purpose of this research is the exploration of online complainants' revenge based on their consumer-brand relationship strength and received webcare. The authors introduce inter-failures (i.e. the perceived number of earlier independent service failures that a customer has experienced with the same brand involved in the current service failure) as the central frame condition.

To test our hypotheses, both a scenario-based online experiment (n = 316) and an online survey (n = 492) were conducted.

With an increasing number of inter-failures, online complainants with a high-relationship strength move from the “love is blind” effect (no inter-failures) to the “love becomes hate” effect (multiple inter-failures), when they ultimately become more revengeful than their low-relationship strength counterparts. In addition, the authors show that in the case of no or few inter-failures, accommodative webcare has a lasting positive effect over no/defensive webcare for both low- and high-relationship complainants. More importantly, however, when consumers have experienced multiple inter-failures, accommodative webcare becomes ineffective (for low-relationship complainants) or boomerangs by cultivating revenge towards the brand (among high-relationship complainants), but not strategic avoidance.

The findings have pronounced implications for the literature on customer–brand relationships following service failures and the literature, which predominantly emphasizes the unconditionally positive effects of accommodative webcare.

This study is the first that simultaneously considers the prior customer–brand relationship, inter-failures and webcare to explain online complainants' revenge.

This study aims to examine the perceptions and evaluations of Muslim COVID-19 survivors and health workers regarding the halal, business and ethical attributes of hospitals during their interactions related to COVID-19 treatment.

Descriptive qualitative research with semi-structured online interviews was used to gather insights from COVID-19 survivors and health workers who treated COVID-19 patients. The findings were then compared with existing literature on hospital services and Sharia attributes.

The study found that patients and health-care workers in hospitals are concerned about whether the hospital follows Sharia law, the quality of health-care and hospital services and the ethical conduct of hospital staff. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when patients are more anxious about religious conduct and the afterlife.

Hospitals need to address halal attributes in all aspects of their services for Muslim patients and business attributes such as standard health-care quality, service quality and ethical attributes. Participants indicated that when these needs are met, they are more likely to revisit the hospital and recommend it to others.

This study contributes to understanding the expectations of Muslim patients regarding hospital services that meet Islamic ethical and business requirements. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study broadens the understanding of how to better serve Muslim customers.

The purpose of this study is to examine the trends and developments of subscription business models (SBMs) over the past two decades.

The study extracted 469 documents (articles and reviews) from the Scopus database during 2000–2022 and analysed 132 documents (articles and reviews). A bibliometric methodology of scientific mapping was employed, including a cluster analysis based on the bibliographic coupling of documents. Content analysis was also conducted to reveal emerging trends in SBMs.

The study revealed six emerging themes in SBMs related to consumer behaviour, digital advertising, online news media, journal publications, circular economy and sustainability strategies.

The results of this study provide new and unique insights into the development and trends of SBMs over the past two decades and offer guidance for future researchers to investigate further the phenomenon of SBMs in emerging areas.

Prior research examining cultural effects on customer service expectations has primarily used more generic Western cultural theory on an aggregate scale or with only a single variable to draw conclusions on a customer’s underlying reasoning for buying a service. This study aims to focus on culturally distinct clusters within non-Western nations, specifically exploring within-cluster differences in service expectations within the Confucian Asia cluster.

This study developed a measurement model of Chinese cultural values and service expectations, consisting of a three and five-factor structure, respectively. Data from a sample of 351 diners were analysed using SmartPLS software. The data was compared with similar studies within the Confucian Asia cluster to understand the culture effect on service expectations and within-cluster variations.

The findings underscore the varying importance of cultural values in shaping customer service expectations, emphasizing their relative, rather than equal, significance. The study provides insights into potential within-group differences in customer service expectations within the same cultural cluster – without losing sight of the fundamental cultural heterogeneity of the Confucian culture.

Managers should leverage the distinct cultural values of their operating country to gain insights into diverse customer groups, predict their behaviours and meet their needs and expectations.

This study offers valuable insights to both service management scholars and practitioners by focusing on culturally distinct clusters of non-Western nations and exploring their effects on variation in service expectations within these clusters.