Stop Complaining A Quantitative Study on How to Deter Illegitimate Complaining
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2022-08-29
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en
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The objective of the study at hand was to examine what influence threatening with deterrence tactics has on the level of cognitive dissonance and the intention to complain illegitimately. Two deterrence tactics have been included; a high probability of getting caught and severe punishments. This study is aimed to clarify exactly how effective each tactic is in deterring deviant consumer behavior, since contradictory findings regarding the effectiveness of both tactics can be found in prior research. On the basis of a scenario-based experiment with 130 valid responses it was then investigated whether there are significant effects. Results from the experiment show that both deterrence tactics lead to a decrease in the intention to complain illegitimately. This relationship was found to be fully mediated by cognitive dissonance. Based on these results managers are recommended to apply either of the two deterrence tactics in their complaint policies, depending on which tactic is more applicable to the industry that the firm is operating in. By doing so it is expected that illegitimate complaining behavior by greedy customers will be deterred as the level of cognitive dissonance that they experience is increased.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen