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Research on the influence mechanism of emotional intelligence and psychological empowerment on customers’ repurchase intention under the situation of online shopping service recovery

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Abstract

Based on the online shopping service recovery scenario, this study discusses the impact of online store employees’ emotional intelligence and psychological empowerment on customers’ repurchase intention. This study obtains the research data through the method of scenario experiment. SPSS25.0 and AMOS25.0 were used to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire data of situational experiment. The direct influence relationship and regulatory effect were analyzed by multi-level regression analysis, and the Bootstrap method was used to test the mediating effect. Through empirical analysis, this study obtains the following results: The emotional intelligence and psychological empowerment of online store employees have a positive impact on the service recovery quality, the service recovery quality has a positive impact on customers’ repurchase intention, and the emotional intelligence and psychological empowerment of online store employees have an indirect impact on customers’ repurchase intention through the mediating effect t of service recovery quality, Online store reputation plays a positive moderating effect in the relationship between service recovery quality and customers’ repurchase intention. This study expands the applicable scenarios of emotional intelligence and psychological empowerment, will provide strategic reference for online stores to carry out effective service recovery, and promote the healthy development of online shopping industry.

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Funding

1. Guangxi Natural Science Foundation(Grant No. 2021GXNSFAA220066).

2. National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71962005).

3. National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71862009).

4. Innovation Project of Guangxi Graduate Education (YCSW2021195).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, Guangxi, China

    Jiahua Wei, Sai Zhu, Zhiping Hou, Hualong Dong & Jun Li

Authors
  1. Jiahua Wei
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Correspondence to Jiahua Wei.

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Appendix

Appendix

Description of 8 Experimental Scenarios in Scenario Experiment

  • Scenario 1 (high emotional intelligence × high psychological empowerment × high online store reputation): The customer bought an iphone12plus mobile phone and related accessories in an online store. After signing for the express, the customer opened the box and inspected the goods with the express staff, and found that there was only one charger in it. This is the reason for the service failure of the online store. The customer was very angry and complained to the online store immediately. The online store has carried out service recovery. The employees have a high level of emotional intelligence, have proper emotional control and expression, can well manage their emotions, listen patiently to customers’ complaints, and try to stimulate customers’ positive emotions. Employees also have a high level of psychological empowerment, can be self-motivated, have clear service recovery objectives, are very motivated and have strong initiative. In addition, the online store enjoys high popularity and reputation, good online comments and good reputation. Customers often recommend it to friends.

  • Scenario 2 (low emotional intelligence × high psychological empowerment × high online store reputation): The customer bought an iphone12plus mobile phone and related accessories in an online store. After signing for the express, the customer opened the box and inspected the goods with the express staff, and found that there was only one charger in it. This is the reason for the service failure of the online store. The customer was very angry and complained to the online store immediately. The online store has carried out service recovery, and the employees’ emotional intelligence level is relatively low. They cannot carry out emotional control and emotional management well, and even quarrel with customers, which intensifies the contradiction between employees and customers. The psychological empowerment level of employees is still relatively high. Employees have clear service recovery objectives, strong motivation and enterprising spirit of service recovery. It can be seen that employees’ strong initiative and poor emotional control coexist at the same time. Employees are a contradiction, that is, employees want to do a good job in service recovery, but they can’t control their emotions and intensify the contradiction with customers. In terms of online store reputation, online stores enjoy high popularity and reputation, good online comments and good reputation. Customers often recommend to friends.

  • Scenario 3 (low emotional intelligence × low psychological empowerment × high online store reputation): The customer bought an iphone12plus mobile phone and related accessories in an online store. After signing for the express, the customer opened the box and inspected the goods with the express staff, and found that there was only one charger in it. This is the reason for the service failure of the online store. The customer was very angry and complained to the online store immediately. The online store has carried out service recovery, and the employees’ emotional intelligence level is relatively low. They cannot carry out emotional control and emotional management well, and even quarrel with customers, which intensifies the contradiction with customers. The psychological empowerment level of employees is also relatively low. Employees do not have clear service recovery objectives, lack the motivation for service recovery, lack initiative and slow down. On the whole, employees ignore the demands of customers and have poor ability of emotional control and emotional management, resulting in more dissatisfaction with customers. However, the online store is an online store with high reputation. It has good online comments and good reputation. Customers often recommend it to friends. Therefore, there is a strong contrast between employee performance in service recovery and online store reputation.

  • Scenario 4 (low emotional intelligence × high psychological empowerment × low online store reputation): The customer bought an iphone12plus mobile phone and related accessories in an online store. After signing for the express, the customer unpacked and inspected the goods with the express staff and found that there was only one charger inside. This is the reason for the service failure of the online store. The customer was very angry and complained to the online store immediately. The online store then carried out service recovery. The employees’ emotional intelligence level was relatively low, they could not carry out emotional control and emotional management well, and even quarreled with customers, intensifying the contradiction with customers. However, the psychological empowerment level of employees is relatively high. Employees have clear service recovery objectives, have the motivation to recovery and have strong initiative. On the whole, employees have the motivation to recovery and poor emotional control. Employees are a contradiction, that is, employees want to do a good job in service recovery, but they can’t control their emotions and intensify the contradiction with customers. In terms of online store reputation, online reviews of online stores are relatively poor, with frequent customer complaints and even negative media reports, resulting in bad reputation.

  • Scenario 5 (high emotional intelligence × low psychological empowerment × high online store reputation): The customer bought an iphone12plus mobile phone and related accessories in an online store. After signing for the express, the customer opened the box and inspected the goods with the express staff, and found that there was only one charger in it. This is the reason for the service failure of the online store. The customer was very angry and complained to the online store immediately. The online store has carried out service recovery. The employees have a high level of emotional intelligence, have proper emotional control and expression, can well manage their emotions, listen patiently to customers’ complaints, and stimulate customers’ positive emotions. However, the level of psychological empowerment of employees is relatively low. They have no clear service recovery objectives, lack the motivation for service recovery, lack initiative and slow down. In general, although employees lack service recovery power, they have good emotion control and emotion management, which is not easy to intensify contradictions. In terms of online store reputation, the online store has high reputation, good online comments and good reputation. Customers often recommend to friends.

  • Scenario 6 (high emotional intelligence× low psychological empowerment × low online store reputation): The customer bought an iphone12plus mobile phone and related accessories in an online store. After signing for the express, the customer unpacked and inspected the goods with the express staff and found that there was only one charger inside. This is the reason for the service failure of the online store. The customer was very angry and complained to the online store immediately. The online store has carried out service recovery. The employees have a high level of emotional intelligence, have proper emotional control and expression, can well manage their emotions, listen patiently to customers’ complaints, and guide customers’ positive emotions. The psychological empowerment level of service recovery employees is relatively low. They have no clear service recovery objectives, lack the motivation of service recovery, lack initiative and slow down. Therefore, from the perspective of employees’ characteristics, although they have no clear remedial objectives and lack initiative, they have better emotional control and management, and are not easy to intensify contradictions. In terms of online store reputation, the online comments of online stores are relatively poor. There are often customer complaints and even negative media reports, which have a bad reputation.

  • Scenario 7 (high emotional intelligence× high psychological empowerment × low online store reputation): The customer bought an iphone12plus mobile phone and related accessories in an online store. After signing for the express, the customer unpacked and inspected the goods with the express staff and found that there was only one charger inside. This is the reason for the service failure of the online store. The customer was very angry and complained to the online store immediately. The online store has carried out service recovery. The employees have a high level of emotional intelligence, have proper emotional control and expression, can well manage their emotions, listen patiently to customers’ complaints, and guide customers’ positive emotions. Employees also have a high level of psychological empowerment, can be self-motivated, have clear service recovery objectives, strong initiative and motivation for service recovery. However, the online comments of the online store are relatively poor. There are often customer complaints and even negative media reports. The reputation of the online store is not good, and the overall reputation of the online store is relatively poor.

  • Scenario 8 (low emotional intelligence × low psychological empowerment × low online store reputation): The customer bought an iphone12plus mobile phone and related accessories in an online store. After signing for the express, the customer unpacked and inspected the goods with the express staff and found that there was only one charger inside. This is the reason for the service failure of the online store. The customer was very angry and complained to the online store immediately. The online store has carried out service recovery, and the employees’ emotional intelligence level is relatively low. They cannot carry out emotional control and emotional management well, and even quarrel with customers, which intensifies the contradiction with customers. In terms of psychological empowerment, the level of psychological empowerment of employees is also relatively low. Employees do not have clear service recovery objectives, lack the motivation for service recovery, lack initiative and slow down. In general, employees ignore the demands of customers and have poor emotional control and emotional management ability, which increases customer dissatisfaction and strengthens the conflict between employees and online stores. At the same time, the online store has poor reputation, poor online comments and bad reputation. There are often customer complaints and even negative media reports.

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Wei, J., Zhu, S., Hou, Z. et al. Research on the influence mechanism of emotional intelligence and psychological empowerment on customers’ repurchase intention under the situation of online shopping service recovery. Curr Psychol 42, 17595–17611 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02841-5

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