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ENQUIRE PROJECT DETAILS BY GENERAL PUBLIC |
| Project Details |
| Funding Scheme : | General Research Fund | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Number : | 292113 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(English) : | Incidental Emotion as Antecedent of Attribution in Service Failure Context | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(Chinese) : | 偶然性情緒導致對服務失誤的不同歸因的研究 | ||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(English) : | Prof SU, Lei | ||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(Chinese) : | |||||||||||||||||
| Department : | Department of Marketing | ||||||||||||||||
| Institution : | Hong Kong Baptist University | ||||||||||||||||
| E-mail Address : | lei.su@cityu.edu.hk | ||||||||||||||||
| Tel : | 34425754 | ||||||||||||||||
| Co - Investigator(s) : |
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| Panel : | Business Studies | ||||||||||||||||
| Subject Area : | Business Studies | ||||||||||||||||
| Exercise Year : | 2013 / 14 | ||||||||||||||||
| Fund Approved : | 216,323 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Status : | Completed | ||||||||||||||||
| Completion Date : | 30-4-2017 | ||||||||||||||||
| Project Objectives : |
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| Abstract as per original application (English/Chinese): |
由看似無關的事情引起的一種情緒，可以於服務失誤的情況下影響消費者的歸因傾向嗎？二零一二年九月十日，日本政府宣佈從「私人業主」手中購買尖閣列島，引發中日之間的衝突及敵意。中國民眾的憤怒於全國可見；民眾砸壞日本汽車，到日本大使館外抗議，甚至任何對日本的提及都予以怒火。從北京市工商局的最近資料中，可看到消費者對各行業的投訴數字於二零一二年九月有顯著的上升，達到1605封投訴信件，而二零一二年八月只有 1129封投訴信件。(來源: http://www.baic.gov.cn) 同樣地，導致福島核電廠嚴重損毀的東日本大地震，可能對消費者歸因傾向的影響格局具有平行的效果。九級地震與隨之而來的海嘯，令核電廠反應堆的冷卻系統失效，導致核幅射洩漏及核電廠三十公里範圍內成立起疏散區。中國民眾對核幅射洩漏感到驚慌失措，很多人囤積基本物資以應付日後可能出現的食物短缺及安全問題。我們取得了北京市工商局在二零一一年初的投訴資料。有趣地，資料顯示於地震發生後左右投訴數字顯著下降，可比較二零一一年二月的6741宗投訴，以及二零一一年四月的5390宗投訴。(來源: http://www.baic.gov.cn) 我們推測，尖閣列島事件誘發的憤怒情緒增加了消費者歸咎日本公司的傾向。但是，福島核電廠事故引發的恐懼就可能減少了消費者歸咎公司的傾向。如果這些直觀推論為真，它們顯示出由無關的事情引起的偶然性情緒，能夠影響消費者於服務失誤當中的歸因傾向。我們認為這項潛在的發現能夠提高我們對消費者對服務失誤的反應的認識，以及拓寬我們對情緒在服務情形中角色的知識。這項建議中的研究將會探討這兩項重要議題。 根據認知評估論，我們提出兩個常見偶然性情緒（憤怒及恐懼）可產生不同的歸因傾向。具體來說，一位憤怒的旁觀者，在觀察一宗影響另外一位消費者的服務失誤時，會更可能歸咎於服務提供者（即公司）；而一位恐懼的旁觀者，在觀察一宗影響另外一位消費者的服務失誤時，會更可能歸咎於受影響的消費者（即該名遭遇服務失誤的消費者）。而且，應對策略將會作為情緒對歸因傾向影響的中介變數。雖然真實市場數據為我們的論點提供了初步支持，我們將提出五項研究以進一步測試我們的建議。 |
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| Realisation of objectives: | Most research on the effects of emotional reactions to a misfortune assumes that attributions of responsibility for the event (either to oneself, to others, or to the external circumstances) elicit different emotional reactions and that these reactions determine behavior. In contrast, there are possibility that attributions are often a consequence of people’s emotional reactions to a situation rather than a determinant of them. For example, individuals who happen to feel angry at the time they have a negative experience may attribute the cause of the experience to others and this attribution may stimulate action against the perpetrator. In contrast, individuals who experience fear might be uncertain about the cause of the event and to feel out of control, leading them to avoid the situation rather than confronting it. The effects of these emotional reactions may occur independently of the events that have risen to them. We investigated this possibility. In the situations we considered, participants were induced to feel either angry or fearful at the time they encountered a service failure. We found that persons who felt angry would attribute responsibility for the situation to the service provider and that this attribution would lead them to register a complaint against the provider. In contrast, we found that people who experienced fear at the time they encountered the situation would be uncertain of the cause of the event, decreasing their likelihood of complaining. We also found the moderating role of cognitive load for the proposed effect, which provided further support for our conceptualization and advances our understanding of incidental emotions. | ||||||||||||||||
| Summary of objectives addressed: |
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| Research Outcome | |||||||||||||||||
| Major findings and research outcome: | Consumers’ incidental emotional state at the time they encounter a service failure can affect their likelihood of complaining about the failure and their willingness to patronize the service provider again. Whereas incidental anger increases consumers’ disposition to complain about a service failure, incidental fear leads them to react less negatively to the service failure than they otherwise would. This was true both when a service failure was personally experienced, and when it was only observed. These effects are mediated by the impact of incidental emotions on cognitive appraisals of the situation, and moderated by the cognitive load among the consumers. | ||||||||||||||||
| Potential for further development of the research and the proposed course of action: |
Prior research (Keltner, Gruenfeld, & Anderson, 2003) indicated that different power levels were associated with the incidental emotions of anger and fear. That is, people with high power tend to become angry easily, whereas people with low power more easily become fearful. It is conceivable that people with high power are relatively more likely to blame the service provider in service failures that they experience or observe. Several factors (e.g., social status, company-customer relationships) can lead to different levels of consumer power. To this extent, the proposed investigations suggest service failure recovery strategies that managers might use to deal with different types of consumers. Furthermore, many studies have found that both music and color can arouse different emotions (e.g., Schulkind, Hennis, & Rubin, 1999; Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994). Based on similar logic, it is possible that environmental settings such as music and color would lead to consumer emotions arousal and this would potentially influence their perception toward a service failure. This would be an interesting direction for future research. | ||||||||||||||||
| Layman's Summary of Completion Report: | Customers’ disposition to register a formal complaint about an inferior product or poor service is often mediated by attributions of responsibility. However, the anger or fear that people happen to be experiencing for totally irrelevant reasons can also influence this disposition. Two field studies and four laboratory experiments indicate that when people feel angry at the time they encounter a service failure, they are more likely to blame the service provider for the failure and more likely to register a complaint. When they experience fear, however, they are uncertain about the cause of their misfortune and decrease their negative reactions relative to conditions in which fear is not experienced. The effects of these incidental emotions are evident both when a service failure is personally experienced and when it is only observed. These effects are eliminated, however, when individuals do not have the cognitive resources available to assess the reasons for the service failure and the conditions surrounding it. | ||||||||||||||||
| Research Output | |||||||||||||||||
| Peer-reviewed journal publication(s) arising directly from this research project : (* denotes the corresponding author) |
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| Recognized international conference(s) in which paper(s) related to this research project was/were delivered : |
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| Other impact (e.g. award of patents or prizes, collaboration with other research institutions, technology transfer, etc.): |
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| SCREEN ID: SCRRM00542 |