Award Date

5-1-2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Hotel Administration

First Committee Member

Sarah Tanford

Second Committee Member

Rhonda Montgomery

Third Committee Member

Alison Green

Fourth Committee Member

Gilian Naylor

Number of Pages

79

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore any connections that may exist between personality types and consumer complaint channels. A sample of 490 undergraduate students at the University of Nevada Las Vegas was surveyed during class time with a paper and pencil survey. The survey consisted of four service failure scenarios each with eleven possible courses of action. Respondents were asked to rate their likelihood to participate in each action on a seven point Likert-type scale. The three personality factors measured against the complaint behavior were Locus of Control, The California Psychological Inventory measure of Sociability, and Cattel's 16 personality factor of Relaxed vs. Tense. The three factors of consumer complaint channels proposed prior to conducting the study were; direct, indirect, and delayed.

Through factor analysis it was revealed that while three factors existed, it was not the factors originally proposed. The three factors that emerged were; active, passive, and delayed. It was found that both Sociability and the interaction of Relaxed vs. Tense have significant or marginally significant effect on consumer complaint channels. Sociability had a measurable effect of several active and one passive factor in complaint scenarios. The interaction of Locus of Control and Relaxed vs. Tense had a measurable effect on two passive and two delayed factors in the complaint scenarios.

Keywords

Complaint channels; Consumer complaint behavior; Consumer complaints; Food and beverage; Food service; Personality; Personality type; Service failure

Disciplines

Food and Beverage Management | Personality and Social Contexts | Psychology

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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