Culture's impact on consumer complaining responses to embarrassing service failure ☆

Prior cultural research generally agrees that Asian consumers (collectivists), who emphasize social harmony, are less likely to complain but more likely to switch and to spread negative word-of-mouth than Western consumers (individualists) in service failures. Drawing from the face concern and embarrassment literature, this paper argues that collectivists are not necessarily less likely to complain than individualists. In fact, the impact of culture on consumer complaining responses will be contingent on the degree of embarrassment involved in the service failure. Results from a cross-cultural experiment indicate that only in a non-embarrassing failure will collectivists less likely complain than individualists. In an embarrassing failure, however, collectivists will more likely complain, as well as switch and spread negative word-of-mouth. These results not only yield interesting insights into cross-cultural consumer behaviors, but also provide rich managerial implications.

[1]  Gianfranco Walsh,et al.  Review and future directions of cross-cultural consumer services research , 2008 .

[2]  Debra Ann Grace,et al.  How Embarrassing! An Exploratory Study of Critical Incidents Including Affective Reactions , 2007 .

[3]  É. Langeard,et al.  Services marketing : new insights from consumers and managers , 1981 .

[4]  Ruth N. Bolton,et al.  A Model of Customer Satisfaction with Service Encounters Involving Failure and Recovery , 1999 .

[5]  L. Y. Sin,et al.  The Contrasting Effects of Culture on Consumer Tolerance: Interpersonal Face and Impersonal Fate , 2009 .

[6]  D. Ho On the Concept of Face , 1976, American Journal of Sociology.

[7]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values , 1980 .

[8]  Lisa C. Wan,et al.  Consumer Responses to Service Failures: A Resource Preference Model of Cultural Influences , 2008 .

[9]  K. Zhou,et al.  Face consciousness and risk aversion: Do they affect consumer decision‐making? , 2003 .

[10]  Elisa K. Chan,et al.  When will customers care about service failures that happened to strangers? The role of personal similarity and regulatory focus and its implication on service evaluation , 2011 .

[11]  Penelope Brown,et al.  Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage , 1989 .

[12]  A. Hirschman,et al.  Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States , 1970 .

[13]  Harry C. Triandis,et al.  Individualism-Collectivism , 1986 .

[14]  Nancy Wong,et al.  The role of culture in the perception of service recovery , 2004 .

[15]  Ruth N. Bolton,et al.  The effect of customers' emotional responses to service failures on their recovery effort evaluations and satisfaction judgments , 2002 .

[16]  Xiaohui Pan,et al.  Face and facework in conflict: a cross-cultural comparison of China, Germany, Japan, and the United States , 2001 .

[17]  Stella Ting-Toomey,et al.  Facework competence in intercultural conflict: an updated face-negotiation theory , 1998 .

[18]  E. Goffman Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-To-Face Behavior , 1967 .

[19]  D. Keltner,et al.  Embarrassment: its distinct form and appeasement functions. , 1997, Psychological bulletin.

[20]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  Exploring the role of self- and customer-provoked embarrassment in personal selling , 2003 .

[21]  Jennifer J. Argo,et al.  Embarrassment in Consumer Purchase: The Roles of Social Presence and Purchase Familiarity , 2001 .

[22]  H. Hu THE CHINESE CONCEPTS OF “FACE” , 1944 .

[23]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind , 1991 .

[24]  C. Su,et al.  How Face Influences Consumption - A Comparative Study of American and Chinese Consumers , 2007 .

[25]  B. Weiner Attributional Thoughts about Consumer Behavior , 2000 .

[26]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research , 1985 .

[27]  Haksin Chan,et al.  Dual Influences of Moderating Variables in the Dissatisfaction Process: Theory and Evidence , 2009 .

[28]  Stella Ting-Toomey,et al.  Facework in Japan and the United States , 1994 .

[29]  William B. Gudykunst Theorizing about intercultural communication , 2005 .

[30]  Paul G. Patterson,et al.  The impact of culture on consumers’ perceptions of service recovery efforts , 2004 .

[31]  Carlos G. Aleman,et al.  Identity Implications of Influence Goals: A Revised Analysis of Face-Threatening Acts and Application to Seeking Compliance with Same-Sex Friends. , 1998 .

[32]  T. Singelis,et al.  The Measurement of Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals , 1994 .

[33]  K. Hwang Face and Favor: The Chinese Power Game , 1987, American Journal of Sociology.

[34]  Raymond Liu,et al.  Recognizing cross‐cultural differences in consumer complaint behavior and intentions: an empirical examination , 2001 .

[35]  N. Wong,et al.  Personal taste and family face: Luxury consumption in Confucian and western societies , 1998 .

[36]  A. Hwang,et al.  The Relationship Between Individualism-Collectivism, Face, And Feedback And Learning Processes In Hong Kong, Singapore, And The United States , 2003 .

[37]  Jagdip Singh Consumer Complaint Intentions and Behavior: Definitional and Taxonomical Issues , 1988 .

[38]  Chi-yue Chiu,et al.  The Role of Face Situation and Attitudinal Antecedents in Chinese Consumer Complaint Behavior , 1988 .

[39]  H. Markus,et al.  Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. , 1991 .

[40]  Michael Harris Bond,et al.  The handbook of Chinese psychology. , 1996 .

[41]  D. Corkindale,et al.  Differences in “cultural values” and theireffects on responses to marketing stimuli: A cross‐cultural study between Australians and Chinese from the People’s Republic of China , 1998 .

[42]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[43]  L. Thompson,et al.  Face threat sensitivity in negotiation: Roadblock to agreement and joint gain , 2004 .