The role of tie strength on consumer dissatisfaction responses

This study examines the impact of tie strength and service failure type on consumers’ behavioral intention (voice complaint and negative Word-of-Mouth) in a restaurant context. Overall, the results indicate that tie strength significantly reduces consumers’ intention to spread negative Word-of-Mouth, but it fails to influence their complaint intention. In addition, failure type plays an important role on consumers’ complaint behavior; consumers are more willing to voice a complaint after a core service failure than after an interactional service failure.

► We examine how tie strength and service failure type impact consumers’ responses. ► Tie strength reduces consumers’ intention to spread negative Word-of-Mouth. ► Core service failure leads to higher intention to complain than interactional failure.