Consumer Satisfaction and Repatronage Intentions Following a Business Failure: The Importance of Perceived Control with an Organizational Complaint

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine consumers' perceptions of control regarding complaints to organizations. Participants were 134 people recruited to write genuine letters of complaint to organizations that had recently failed them. Consumers' perceptions of their communicative control were examined as they related to satisfaction with organizational recovery efforts and intent to do business with organizations in the future. Results indicated that providing evidence that a person made an impact on an organization through his or her complaint led to increased satisfaction with an organizational response and higher intent to do business with an organization in the future.

Keywords:

• Complaint
• Consumer
• Control
• Organization
• Satisfaction

Notes

Note. 1 = Perception of control. Degrees of freedom are indicated in parentheses.

∗p < .05. ∗∗p < .01, one-tailed.

To examine whether our measures of satisfaction and perceived control could be considered distinct constructs we conducted confirmatory factor analysis using the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation of LISREL 8.8 (Joreskog & Sorbom, 2007). Results indicated that, indeed, the two measures can be considered distinct constructs. After allowing two error covariances to correlate (satisfaction three with satisfaction four, also perceived control three with perceived control four) (Fornell, 1983), a test of the eight items loading on their respective latent variables indicated an acceptable fit of the data to our proposed model (x ² = 56.32, df = 17, p < .01; NC = 3.31; CFI = .99; SRMR = .04; RMSEA = .09). Moreover, when the eight items were examined as reflecting a single latent variable, the data did not fit our proposed model (x ² = 117.18, df = 18, p < .01; NC = 6.51; CFI = .97; SRMR = .05; RMSEA = .14). Additionally, results of a chi-square difference test suggest that the two-factor model is a significant improvement in fit over the one factor model (x ² = 60.86, df = 1, p < .01).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

San Bolkan

San Bolkan (Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin, 2007) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

Alan K. Goodboy

Alan K. Goodboy (Ph.D., West Virginia University, 2007) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

John A. Daly

John Daly (Ph.D., Purdue, 1977) is a Liddell Professor of Communication, TCB Professor of Management, Professor of Pharmacy, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and a Senior Research Fellow – IC2 Institute, at the University of Texas, Austin.