Impact of culture on dissatisfied customers: An empirical study

In multicultural societies, service firms have to pay more attention to the impact of culture on the ways how dissatisfaction is felt and expressed by customers. Based on a theoretical framework derived from the Cognition-Affect-Behavior (C-A-B) model (Lazarus, 1991), this research investigates the moderator effects of culture. The study takes place in the field of fast-food services, where negative critical incidents (NCI) are frequent. The sample is made of 300 customers originate from 39 countries. Results support that culture moderates significantly emotional and behavioral responses following a NCI: collectivist customers believe that the service provider is more receptive to their complaints, are less affected emotionally, complain less but use negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) more often than individualistic customers do. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed along with future research avenues.