How We Complain: The Effect Of Personality On Consumer Complaint Channels

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2018

Publication Title

Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research

Publisher

SAGE Publications Inc.

Volume

42

Issue

1

First page number:

74

Last page number:

101

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of personality types on consumer complaint channels. Respondents completed a survey that depicted four service failure scenarios, each with 11 possible courses of action. The three personality factors measured against the complaint behavior were locus of control, the California Psychological Inventory measure of sociability and Cattell’s 16 personality factors of relaxed versus tense. Factor analysis revealed three complaint channel dimensions: active, passive, and delayed. Sociability produced more active and less passive complaint behavior. Locus of control interacted with relaxed versus tense on the use of passive and delayed complaints. The findings have implications for recognizing and resolving customer complaints for different personality types. © 2014, © 2014 International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education.

Keywords

Cattell; consumer complaints; locus of control; personality; service failure; sociability

Language

English

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