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Exploring consumer conflict management in service encounters

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science volume 38, pages 617–633 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Consumer researchers have yet to examine how consumers frame and deal with conflict. Understanding how consumers manage conflict is essential for service providers seeking to effectively recover instances of service failure, and avoid the costs associated with increasing instances of consumer anger. Using a modified grounded theory approach, we develop a model of consumer conflict management drawing on 39 informant accounts of service failures. The emergent model proposes that consumers’ conflict style is related to whether conflict is framed in task or personal terms. Task-framed conflicts resulted in more productive conflict styles than those framed in personal terms. Self vs. other orientation moderated the relationship between conflict frame and conflict style. These findings help us better understand the nature of consumer conflict and identify the importance of carefully targeting service recovery efforts to reduce instances of anger.

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Figure 1

Notes

  1. To facilitate articulation of unconscious meanings and motivations, simple projective techniques were employed; informants were shown pictures from magazines including depictions of people, nature scenes, and products. Pictures included that of an eye, people having coffee, two women kickboxing, and approximately thirty others. Probes were based on informants’ own accounts and concepts from the literature (e.g., disconfirmation, forgiveness, and switching).

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank David Bednall, Liliana Bove, Francis Farrelly, Yany Grégoire, Sandra Luxton, the four anonymous reviewers and the editor David Stewart for feedback on an earlier draft. Steven Kates would like to acknowledge the generous funding from the Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Finance & Marketing, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Vic, 3001, Australia

    Michael B. Beverland & Emily Chung

  2. Department of Marketing, Simon Fraser University, FBA, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5A 1S6

    Steven M. Kates

  3. Hull University Business School, Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK

    Adam Lindgreen

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  1. Michael B. Beverland
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  2. Steven M. Kates
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  3. Adam Lindgreen
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  4. Emily Chung
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Correspondence to Michael B. Beverland.

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Beverland, M.B., Kates, S.M., Lindgreen, A. et al. Exploring consumer conflict management in service encounters. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 38, 617–633 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-009-0162-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-009-0162-0

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